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The Once and Future C&F - C&F Now
Marc Adee speaking with President George W. Bush at the C&F 200th Anniversary party.
S uccess is worth celebrating, so in 2022 — to mark the 200th anniversary of Captain Whiley’s enterprise — we hosted a party on Ellis Island (formerly Bedloe’s island and one of Captain Whiley’s fortification projects). Eight hundred of our people and partners were in attendance along with special guests Prem Watsa and President George W. Bush. As the guests ferried homeward, they were dazzled with fireworks behind the Statue of Liberty. It was quite a show of force. Over those two centuries, C&F has come a long way. I feel great about where we are today — but we are not done yet. We have plenty of areas for improvement. We have to be ready for the unexpected. And we have to expect our discipline to be tested the next time “the market” misbehaves. We are working to prepare the next generation of leaders – for the new realms
they will have to conquer. It is interesting to consider what Captain Whiley might have made of the uncertainty swirling around in 2024. Mass outbreaks of illness were a thing back then (North River had to relocate uptown for a few months in 1822 until a yellow fever outbreak subsided). Similarly, other things are eternal: war, politics, economic shifts, insurance market cycles, finding and training the next generation of talent. In many ways, Captain Whiley would have been right at home in today’s C&F. On the other hand, fending off cyberattacks and aggressive plaintiffs’ attorneys might have been a lot for him to process — and the idea of pet health insurance or artificial intelligence might have been too much! Maybe fighting in the woods would be good training for a career in insurance after all.
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