Brown & Brown history

Poe & Associates, Inc. was founded by William F. Poe in 1956 as a one-man operation in Tampa, Florida.

He returned to help run the family business in 1959, immediately demonstrating his understanding of the interaction between relationships and sales.

In 1969, Jordan created the company's first standardized policy for small businessmen.

The company made an initial public offering of stock in 1973 and began branching outside of Florida.

Becher + Carlson remained independent until American Re-Insurance Company, one of the top providers of property and casualty reinsurance, acquired the company in December 1989.

Revenues had jumped from $83 million combined for the two separate companies in 1992 to $95.6 million after the merger, making Poe & Brown the 19th largest insurance broker in the world.

1994: William Poe resigns as chairman of the board.

But by 1995, unlike other brokers, Poe & Brown was poised to expand.

Before joining Hays Companies in 1996, she was the marketing manager for Sedgwick.

In 1997 Poe & Brown introduced a liability package for small to medium-sized architectural and engineering firms, rolling it out initially in Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, and Texas.

Before launching his insurance career, John played baseball for the University of Mississippi, and he was the assistant baseball coach at Jefferson Davis Community College for two years where he helped lead the team to a National Championship in 1998.

The new Brown & Brown continued its aggressive expansion program in 1999, acquiring 10 more independent insurance agencies and brokerages.

Brown & Brown continued to offer new products and make further acquisitions in the year 2000.

Brown & Brown's acquisition spree continued into 2001, as Brown & Brown added to its already dominant presence in Florida, as well as buying The Harris Agency of Manassas, Virginia, which added the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

John joined Brown & Brown in January 2002.

Following American Re’s decision to divest itself of the company in 2003, key employees purchased it with the intention of leveraging its strengths and capabilities to develop into a world-class brokerage and alternative risk firm.

Don joined the team via the acquisition process in 2004 and held positions in sales, office leadership and regional management, before being promoted to his current role of SVP and regional president.

Joe began his career at Brown & Brown in June 2006 as part of the Internal Audit Financial Team.

In 2008, that firm was purchased by Brown & Brown, at which time Mike took over responsibilities for the Palm Beaches and eventually, Fort Lauderdale, and now he serves as regional president.

John continued in that role until 2009 when he moved west to lead Brown & Brown’s Phoenix, Arizona, office.

After successfully building that business by more than 20 percent and growing his team over nearly 10 years, Rich was promoted to regional vice president in 2011.

Beecher Carlson was acquired by Brown & Brown, Inc. on July 1, 2013, becoming one of its large account risk management and consulting divisions.

He was named regional president in 2015 with responsibilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York.

He was promoted to his current position of Retail segment regional president in June of 2016.