Connecticut Interim Commissioner Named New Illinois Insurance Director
June 1, 2015 by Thomas Harman, associate editor, BestWeek: Tom.Harman@ambest.com
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Anne Melissa Dowling, an insurance industry veteran who had been serving as Connecticut’s acting insurance commissioner, has been appointed as the new director of the Illinois Department of Insurance.
Dowling will succeed Andrew Boron, who had been appointed in 2012 to serve as Illinois’ permanent director by then-Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat who was defeated by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in the November 2014 election (Best’s News Service, Jan. 27, 2012). James Stephens has been serving as the DOI’s acting director since March 15.
Dowling’s last day in the Connecticut Insurance Department was March 23, three days after new Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade was nominated to the full-time post by Gov. Dannel Malloy.
The Connecticut Insurance Department has jurisdictions over the nation’s largest life insurance industry and the second-largest amount of overall insurance premiums written nationwide. Dowling has also served as a board member of Connecticut’s state-based public health insurance exchange, Access Health CT, where she was the chairwoman of the Advisory Committee on Essential Health Plan Benefit and Qualifications.
Previously, Dowling was a senior vice president at MassMutual, where she built the institutional insurance business to more than $12 billion in annual revenue and created a Women’s Markets Initiative. Also, she served as Connecticut Mutual’s chief investment officer and held positions in investments and treasury functions at Aetna and Travelers, according to a statement from Rauner’s office.
Boron returned to state government after working as vice president and counsel at the Ace Group, where he was primary liaison to insurance regulators in Illinois and eight other states. In 2009-2010, he served as deputy chief of staff at the Illinois Toll Highway Authority, but began his career at CNA Financial, where he was counsel and later director of state government relations.
Under Boron’s watch, Illinois has been part of a long-running series of settlement agreements resulting from market investigations begun in 2009 over insurer use of Death Master Files. Illinois joined California, North Dakota, Florida, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania in the nationwide investigation of life insurers to ensure compliance with California’s Unfair Insurance Practices Act and similar laws. As of late March, 18 insurers had reached settlement agreements with states.
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