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The Once and Future C&F - Fair and Friendly
in seemingly unattractive situations). A better analogy for P&C insurance companies in the late 1990s would have been cigar butt companies where the butt had been dropped in toxic nuclear sludge, rolled in asbestos, then stepped on a couple of times for good measure. Consequently, Fairfax acquired a few clunkers. Even after the massive restructuring — and all the capital Xerox pumped into it — C&F was still one of those clunkers. The company continued to have reserve issues, but probably more critical was that C&F had been stripped of its specialty businesses and the remaining regional middle-market package business had suffered years of neglect. The customers, agents, insureds and employees had been battered by years of restructurings and re-underwriting. It was a tough starting point. Hard as it is to imagine now, Fairfax did not always have an easy time hiring top talent. Today’s leadership meetings give off a “united nations of Fairfax” vibe – as Fairfax attracts the best and brightest people from all over the world. In the old days, those meetings had more of a “grizzled North American turnaround guys scowling at each other” feel. Fairfax’s latest acquisitions came with known, superior management teams – and today Fairfax has a deep bench to tap for succession events. None of those were really options with the C&F acquisition - senior management was moving on and Fairfax needed to find a brand-new team. After some early trial-and-error, Fairfax found a trio of industry veterans who were looking for their next assignment: CEO Bruce Esselborn (the underwriter), President Nick Antonopoulos (operations) and CFO Mary Jane Robertson (financial controls). Bruce and Nick knew each other from their days at AIG. Bruce and Mary Jane had worked together at a small E&S/ Surety operation that had recently been sold. The team brought credibility
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