J Powell Brown

Powell started as a trainee with Continental Insurance and then became an underwriter, earning the right to come back and work for his father. He went on to get his MBA in 1995 from Duke University, meeting his wife, Nancy, who was in the class immediately following his. He then climbed the ladder at Brown & Brown, rising from account executive to marketing manager to president. At 42, he replaced his 72-year-old father, Hyatt, as CEO in July 2009. Powell’s father, Hyatt, did him no favors by putting him in charge just when things are toughest With prices down, fewer brokerages want to sell. In 2009, Brown & Brown acquired less than a quarter of the new brokerage revenue it did the previous year.