Bogardus Named 2006 IMCA Golden Torch Award Recipient

In recognition of his lifelong contributions to the insurance industry, the Insurance Marketing Communications Association (www.imcanet.com) awarded its Golden Torch Award to John A. (Jack) Bogardus, Jr.

Bogardus, former chairman and CEO of global insurance broker Alexander & Alexander, also is author of Spreading the Risks: Insuring the American Experience, an award-winning history of the insurance industry and insurance brokers. The award was announced at IMCA’s 2006 Annual Meeting, held at the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco.

During his 40-year career with Alexander & Alexander, Bogardus was a progressive and outspoken figure in the insurance industry. He championed the use of analytical statistics in risk management, was a featured speaker at numerous industry meetings, and served as a director of the Insurance Brokers Association of New York and a director and chairman of the governing committee of the National Association of Insurance Brokers.

He was also a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Insurance Committee and a board member of the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters and the Insurance Institute of America. In addition, he served as a Director of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc., Security Capital Corporation and United States Surgical Corporation. Bogardus, who currently resides in Scottsdale, Ariz., is a graduate of Princeton University and a former U.S. Naval Officer.

In nominating him for the Golden Torch Award, Nancy Oblinger, principal and consultant with Strategic Marketing & Communications in New York, said: “Jack Bogardus has worked to create context and relevance for our industry and its development. Throughout his half-century of service to the insurance industry, he has helped light the way for industry members and others, and worked to improve understanding of industry issues and conditions.”

First presented in 1991, the IMCA Golden Torch Award recognizes an individual, group or organization that has “helped light the way for others” in the insurance industry by improving standards for communications excellence, speaking out convincingly on behalf of the insurance industry, showing a sense of responsibility to society and/or improving public understanding of insurance issues.

Previous Golden Torch winners include Edwin S. Overman, president emeritus of the American Institute for CPCU and Insurance Institute of America; Nicholas J. Matthews, former senior vice president, National Association of Independent Insurance Agents; Walter Gdowski, president of the Rough Notes Company; Kathryn J. McIntyre, former publisher of Business Insurance magazine, Mark Wells, Jr., publisher of the Insurance Journal, and Donald Hurzeler, senior vice president, Zurich North America Commercial and past president of the CPCU Society.

Source: IMCA