He and I both started in our respective roles more than 12 years ago. In fact, he was one of the first chief executives I met in this industry. I remember meeting him on the floor of the Risk and Insurance Management Society conference: I was introduced. He shook my hand, but he had that attention-drawn-elsewhere look. There wasn't much conversation, and we went our separate ways.

Since then, he's managed a few achievements.

He brought Willis out of its doldrums as a minor, silent player among the world's major insurance brokers and reinvigorated the firm.

When Plumeri came on board, Willis was owned by the mega-equity buyout firm KKR (Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts). Shortly after, he took Willis public, and KKR sold its interest in the brokerage firm within four years.

When the company went public, its stock was priced at $13.50 a share. As of last week, it stands at more than $35 a share.

The firm found itself at the center of history when the World Trade Center was attacked on 9/11. Wills was the broker that secured coverage of the towers for Silverstein Properties, the leaseholder. But there were questions about coverage where no coverage contracts were in place. This led to prolonged litigation over whether the attack was one or two events.

A settlement was finally achieved in 2007 when seven remaining insurers reached accord with the intercession of then New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo, who mediated an agreement between the carriers and the insured.

Plumeri defended his firm, saying it had done its job. But coming out of that was probably one of the first campaigns he undertook to try to bring some reform to the industry.

He argued on several occasions that it was ludicrous for an insurer to issue coverage to an insured and not have a contract in place for an extended period of time. Over the years since, there's been improvement.

Whether Plumeri should take sole credit for improving the situation is hard to say, but he was a prominent voice—as he was on another issue: contingent commissions.

Before Spitzer, who wasNew York's attorney general in 2005, brought the hammer down on Marsh & McLennan Cos., Plumeri was critical of contingents. However, if memory serves me right, his initial criticism had more to do with the fairness of contingents and that they were a detriment to a sales culture that should remain hungry for new sales opportunities and commissions.

When Spitzer began unearthing questionable practices at Marsh, Plumeri voluntarily gave up contingent commissions. He later became a vocal critic of contingents, saying that they should be totally banned throughout the industry.

Today, while Aon, Marsh and Willis restrain themselves from taking some forms of contingents, the rest of the industry enjoys no such limitations.

Indeed, during a recent conference call with financial analysts, executives with the insurance brokerage firm Brown & Brown said that insurers that were paying enhanced commissions in lieu of contingents were switching back to contingents.

Plumeri may not have been able to change the industry, though he did manage to annoy a lot of agents with his strident criticism, but he kept the conversation going.

One outcome may be carriers will get away from paying the volume-based contingents at the heart of the 2005 Marsh probe that cost the broker $850 million—plus a considerable number of jobs and revenue. Instead, compensation will come from the quality of a book of business.

Paying for performance is right at the heart of Plumeri's philosophy, one would assume. However, even Willis had to face reality in at least one case and in February reversed course, taking contingents on its Employee Benefits business.

In the years after Marsh's fall from grace, it looked like Willis would be a dynamic sales engine that some analysts thought would outperform and overtake the other major brokers—but somewhere along the way, the firm's earnings got a little off track.

However, that does not detract from the fact that Willis is a player among insurance-brokerage firms—not an also ran—for which Plumeri can take full credit. And as much as he has been a thorn in the side of some in the industry, Plumeri has also been a voice of conscience. That served Willis well in its marketing, and having raised issues over ethics and making the industry better isn't such a bad legacy.

So Joe, we'll miss you. But I wouldn't expect Joe Plumeri to disappear. You never know, with his ownership interest in two minor league teams, maybe his next venture could be helping the Yankees win a World Series.