With a major boost from Scottsdale Insurance Company, an excess and surplus lines insurance association expects to fully fund a $1 million endowment to Georgia State University, the group’s executive director disclosed early this month.
Bernie Heinze, executive director of the King of Prussia, Pa.-based American Association of Managing General Agents, said Scottsdale’s “leadership gift”—the biggest gift pledged to date—means that AAMGA University’s endowment of an E&S chair at Georgia State is now 80 percent funded.
Mr. Heinze declined to reveal the exact dollar figure of Scottsdale’s funding commitment at the request of the insurer.
Michael Miller, Scottsdale’s president, told NU that his company’s decision to contribute to funding the E&S chair was more than a response to the idea of advancing educational programs focused on surplus lines through a nationally recognized university, although that was an original impetus.
Beyond that, he suggested there may be a broader opportunity to change the public perception of the insurance industry.
“Part of my belief is that the insurance industry, at times, is not as informing to the public as it ought to be,” Mr. Miller said.
“While we do great things, it doesn’t come across that way,” he said, referring to the insurance industry generally.
“It’s a little bit tangentially connected, but the fact that we would have a significant university in the United States that would have a chair funded by the E&S [insurance] industry could provide an opportunity in my mind to continue to educate the public about the things that occur in the insurance industry,” he said.
Mr. Miller said Scottsdale’s significant contribution toward the GSU chair was driven more directly by two key factors—the chair’s focus on E&S and Scottsdale’s commitment to education.
Georgia State will become a leader in “research and leadership development specifically tied to the E&S industry,” he said, noting that the chair will help guide and advance educational initiatives focused on the development of E&S professionals that AAMGA has in place through its AAMGA University programs.
“At Scottsdale Insurance, we’re very focused on continuing to educate our people,” Mr. Miller said. “We think it’s very important as a company to have people who are interested in their personal development,” he said, adding that it’s equally important for the company “to find more and more ways…for them to further their education.”