The new year is ushering in major changes at Oswald Trippe

and Co. Inc., Southwest Florida’s largest privately owned independent insurance

agency. John Pollock, the company’s executive vice president, is being promoted

to president, signaling Gary Trippe’s transition out of the agency.

Trippe, who is involved in several local business and

community organizations, says he’ll remain chief executive officer for at least

two years and then will continue with the Fort Myers-based agency in some capacity

for at least another seven years, when he’ll turn 65. But as a company that’s

30 percent owned by its employees, Oswald Trippe had to have a succession plan

in place. “You don’t just one day walk in and say, ‘We’re going to elect a new

president,’” Trippe explains. “We identified John early on as a future leader.”

For Pollock, 33, the executive rise has been a steady

evolution. Pollock started with the company while still in college, working

during the summers doing everything from stacking boxes in the warehouse to

changing light bulbs. After graduating from Eckerd College in December 1990,

Pollock started full time. Over the past five years, the company has moved

Pollock into executive roles by sending him to leadership seminars such as

those at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and The Disney

Institute. He became executive vice president in 1997.

“Early on, [Pollock] showed an interest in being a leader in

the company and actually in being responsible for the operations and the growth

and development of the company,” Trippe says. “He took advantage of every

opportunity we gave him. He sought out his own opportunities as well.”

Oswald Trippe generates $100 million in annual sales from its seven offices. Since

the company was founded 20 years ago, it has consis- tently met its goals of

increasing business at a minimum of 15 percent a year. Pollock says his biggest

challenges will not be company-related, but industry-related. The Sept. 11

terrorist attacks have hit the insurance industry hard, with estimates that

insurance companies will pay between $50 billion and $70 billion in losses, he

says.

“It’s the worst disaster that’s ever happened to the

insurance industry,” Pollock says. “We’ll be strong, but how does the industry

protect itself and try to develop a model for sustaining another tragedy like

that? The way we did business three months ago is different than the way we do

business today.”