Gallagher joins People’s Trust

Former Florida Insurance Commissioner Tom Gallagher has joined Deerfield Beach-based People’s Trust Insurance Co. as chief operating officer, the company announced Friday.

Gallagher, 72, served as insurance commissioner in separate stints, from 1989 to 1995 and from 2001 to 2002, then served as state chief financial officer from 2003 to 2007. A Republican, Gallagher also served 13 years in the state House and ran four times unsuccessfully for governor.

For the past five years he has been a consultant for Colodny Fass P.A., a law firm based in Sunrise that specializes in insurance regulation and compliance.

In his new role, Gallagher will oversee all People’s Trust executives, according to a news release.

“Tom is exactly the right man for the job, and all of us at People’s Trust Insurance are delighted to have him on our team,” said George Schaeffer, the company’s Chief Executive Officer.

Jay Neal, president and CEO of the Fort Lauderdale-based nonprofit Florida Association for Insurance Reform, said, “Tom’s obviously a highly qualified, competent person for that role. I think it’s good for the market. He lived through the last 20 years of history that’s been so transformative. I think that’s probably a good move for them.”

Founded in 2008 by Mike Gold, who died in 2014, People’s Trust had 60,453 personal residential policies in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties in the third quarter of 2016 — fifthmost of all property insurers excluding State Farm, which doesn’t allow public release of its market-share data. Statewide, People’s Trust had 150,077 personal residential policies — ninthmost excluding State Farm.