Five minutes with…John Chu, Pacific Specialty Insurance

CEO John Chu talks the importance of producers, passion for insurance and inspiration from Tiger Woods.

Insurance News

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A former executive at both The Hartford and Lehman Brothers Asia, John Chu was elected as President and Chief Executive Officer of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Pacific Casualty Insurance Company. An advocate of the independent agent and broker channel, Chu took some time from his busy schedule to talk with Insurance Business about his new position, the challenge of recruiting the right employees and the people who inspire him.

Q. How did you get into the insurance industry?

A. I was consulting insurance companies as part of Tillinghouse and was doing some projects with different insurers, one of which was The Hartford. They hired me as head of strategic business development, and I eventually became CFO of personal lines and senior vice president over technology and business operations.
It’s worked out pretty well.

Q. What are your priorities in your new role as president and CEO of Pacific Specialty?

A. Primarily to create value for the company—to develop the capabilities to become competitive in the marketplace.

Those capabilities would be making sure we have good pricing and underwriting technology, and making sure it’s easy to do work with our business partners, the agents and brokers. We also want to provide the best service from a claims perspective.

Q.  You’re obviously very invested in the independent agent and broker channel. Why?

A. The insurance products out there are obviously very important and somewhat complicated, and having an advisor work with you to make sure you’re making the right decision is important. As a product manager, we want to make sure their processes work as crisply as possible so they know their companies and clients are getting the right service level and product.

Q. What do you feel is the biggest challenge facing the insurance industry today?

A. To me, the biggest challenge in the industry is people. They’re constantly evolving and demanding new ideas and technology—all of that is predicated on having the right people make the right decisions.

The winner of any battle is the one who procures and develops their talent the best.

Q. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received in your career?

A. The one I’ve found the most pertinent is to make sure you enjoy what you’re doing. You’re constantly learning and trying to improve because as you find a situation like that, it creates passion, and passion is the biggest dictator of success.

Q. If you could go to dinner with three people, living or dead, who would they be and why?

A. Benjamin Franklin—He was an inventor, a curious man and something of a Renaissance guy.

Steve Jobs—That’s another person I wouldn’t mind having dinner with. I’d love to just understand how his mind thinks, how he runs a company, creates ideas and turns concepts into actual, real-life things. I don’t think anyone did it better than that.

Tiger Woods—To me, he’s one of the more interesting people of this era, given social media and real-time news and how he handles it. Being able to have dinner with him and get to know him in person, rather than through my computer monitor or smart phone, would be an interesting thing.

I am also fascinated by the quest he’s on to be the world’s best golfer. He’s under insane pressure and I’d love to understand how he deals with it.

Q. If you weren’t in insurance, where would you be?

A. I would probably be in some sort of finance and investment position. I like the financial side of the business world, and I’m always looking at ideas and trying to understand how to invest in companies.

Want to be profiled for IBA's "Five minutes with..." feature? Email Caitlin Bronson at [email protected]!

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