Florida Citizens names Tim Cerio CEO, as Gilway retires

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the property insurer of last resort for the Florida marketplace, has appointed its General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer Tim Cerio as its new President and CEO, as long-standing leader Barry Gilway retired yesterday.

Gilway, who had led Florida Citizens through a particularly challenging period in its history over the last decade, was known to be retiring from the role.

Tim Cerio had been appointed by the Board to succeed Gilway on an interim basis in December, but has now been appointed to lead Citizens Property Insurance Corporation on a permanent basis, taking over from today, February 1st.

“Tim brings institutional knowledge and a strong track record of leadership and service to all Floridians,” explained Citizens’ Board Chairman Carlos Beruff. “I’m going to sleep well knowing that Citizens is in good hands.”

“Over the past decade under Barry Gilway’s leadership, Citizens has become an industry leader on so many fronts,” Cerio added. “I’m excited and honored to continue that legacy as we address new challenges and work toward stabilizing the Florida property insurance market.”

Before he joined Florida Citizens as General Counsel, Cerio had more than 25 years of experience practicing law and advising clients that operate in highly regulated industries and at the highest levels of state government.

The Board felt it was important to have a new permanent leader installed well in advance of the next Florida legislative session, to implement the major reforms passed by the Florida Legislature in December.

As we recently reported, Florida Citizens expects to grow its policy count by around 46% during 2023, to reach roughly 1.7 million policies in-force by the end of the year, resulting in a need for much more in reinsurance and risk transfer.

Before he departed, Gilway said recently that he believes that after the enactment of new property insurance legislative reforms the Florida market will be more attractive to investor capital and that a “significant depopulation” of Citizens could happen as soon as after the next hurricane season.