James Stone (executive)

James M. Stone (born November 12, 1947) is an American business executive. Jim Stone is the founder and CEO of Boston-based Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation and chief executive of its holding company, The Plymouth Rock Company. Stone was a lecturer in Economics at Harvard University in the early 1970s[1][2] and then was the Massachusetts Commissioner of Insurance from 1975 to 1979.[1] He was appointed as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by President Jimmy Carter, and was on the Commission until 1983.[3] He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[4]

James M. Stone
Born (1947-11-12) November 12, 1947
New York City
NationalityAmerican
EducationHarvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Ph.D. Economics)
Harvard University (B.A.)
Known forFounder and CEO of Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation
CEO of The Plymouth Rock Company
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)Cathleen Douglas Stone
Children2

Early life and education

James M. (Jim) Stone was born in New York City in 1947. His father was an attorney and a poet, and his mother, Babette Rosmond, was an author and also the Fiction Editor of Seventeen Magazine.[5] His younger brother is the writer Gene Stone. Stone was educated in the public schools of Pelham, New York, and at Harvard University. In 1969, Stone received his bachelor's degree, graduating with Highest Honors in Economics, and was also elected as a member to Phi Beta Kappa.[6] His academic work was recognized with the Young Prize for the best undergraduate economics thesis, as well as the Goldsmith Prize for best research paper presented to the Graduate School in Economics.[1] Stone later received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard in 1973. He was appointed as a lecturer in Economics by the Harvard faculty to teach courses on the economics of securities markets.[7]

Career

While teaching at Harvard, Stone consulted in the insurance industry on a part-time basis. During this period, he completed six examinations for admission to the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS), and his 1973 paper on the insurance of catastrophic risk became a standard requirement of the CAS syllabus.[8][9]

In 1975, Stone was appointed Insurance Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts [10][11] by Governor Michael S. Dukakis. In 1979, Stone was appointed chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) by President Jimmy Carter.[12][13] In 1983, Stone finished his term in Washington at the CFTC and returned to Boston.[3] In 1982, Stone founded Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation. He has been the group's CEO since its establishment.[14][15]

The Plymouth Rock Assurance Group of Companies operates a number of personal lines insurers, specializing in automobile and homeowners coverage in the Northeast United States.[15][16] It manages approximately $1.5 billion in annual premiums.[16]

Stone is also a member of the Administrative Committee of Lindsay Goldberg, a New York-based private equity investment firm. He was on the Board of Directors of The Boston Globe Newspaper Corporation from 1998 to 2006,[15][17] and he served for five years as vice chairman of GlobalPost,[18] a web-based international news service. Stone was a founder of Cat Limited, a Bermuda reinsurer, and Response Insurance as well as Homesite Group Inc., which is now among the nation's largest home insurers with $1.4 billion in annual homeowners premiums.

Other activities

Authorship

Stone is the author of One Way for Wall Street, a book on the securities industry,[3] and "Five Easy Theses: Commonsense Solutions to America's Greatest Economic Challenges" (May 2016), a New York Times Bestseller and a Bloomberg Best Books of 2016 selection.[19]

Front Cover of James M. Stone's "Five Easy Theses"

He has also authored articles on insurance, finance, and economics.[20][21][22]

Philanthropy

Stone is the chairman of the Academic Affairs and Commercial Relations Committees of the Board of Directors of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a genetics and cancer research institute.[23] He served for ten years on the Board (and is now Chairman Emeritus) of Management Sciences for Health, a large international humanitarian health infrastructure provider.[24] Stone is the chairman of the School on the Move prize panel, which awards the most improved Boston public school with a substantial monetary prize each year.[25] He is a member of the Trust and the Finance Committee of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[26] He is also a member of the Board of Directors of ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize winning non-profit investigative reporting organization.[27]

Personal life

Stone is married to Cathleen Douglas Stone, a lawyer and environmentalist and the widow of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. They have two children, Curtis and Lauren Stone. They live in Boston.[28]

Notes
  1. Christopher B. Daly (1 March 1975). "Governor Appoints Economics Lecturer To Insurance Post". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  2. "Harvard Environmental Economics Program Awards Student Prizes for 2009-10 Academic Year". Harvard Kennedy School. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  3. "Business People; Futures Commissioner Plans to Resign Post". The New York Times. The New York Times. 22 December 1982. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  4. ""American Academy of Arts and Sciences". April 2015. Accessed July 2015" (PDF).
  5. Eric Leif Davin. "Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965".
  6. "Catalogue of Members" (PDF). Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  7. "The Shape of Financial Re-Regulation". Harvard Kennedy School. 23 April 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  8. Management Report : The Massachusetts Division of Insurance from 1975 to 1978 (1978). Boston : Division of Insurance, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 1978. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  9. "From the President" (PDF). The Actuarial Review. May 1979. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  10. John F. Berry (26 June 1977). "A New Voice Is Heard By Insurance Industry: Insurance Industry in Massachusetts Is Hearing Youthful, Vocal Critic". The Washington Post.
  11. Dan Devine (26 July 2007). "State insurance commish puts premium on fairness". Baystate. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  12. "Commodity Futures Trading Commission Nomination of James M. Stone To Be Chairman". The American Presidency Project. 15 January 1979. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  13. Hal Weitzman. "Chicago's decade of innovation: 1972-1982". World Federation of Exchanges. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  14. Jerry Knight; Pete Earley (22 December 1982). "From Commodity Futures to Insurance". The Washington Post.
  15. Beth Healy (19 April 2013). "Two groups enter bids for Globe". Boston Globe. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  16. "Who We Are | Plymouth Rock Leading Insurance Provider". www.plymouthrock.com. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  17. "Business & Government Seminar Series". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  18. "Board of Directors". GlobalPost. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  19. The New York Times Bestseller List Hardcover Nonfiction May 22, 2016 and The Best Books of 2016, Bloomberg.
  20. Stone, James M. (1978). "Excerpt from the Opinion, Findings and Decision on 1978 Automobile Insurance Rates". Automobile Insurance Risk Classification: Equity & Accuracy, Massachusetts Division of Insurance. pp. 144–205.
  21. "A Simple Remedy for Wall Street Danger". Boston Globe. 4 July 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  22. James M. Stone (5 February 2009). "A new rulebook for financial regulations". Boston.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  23. "Leadership". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Archived from the original on 5 April 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  24. "Board and Team". Management Sciences for Health. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  25. "2013 School on the Move Prize Presentation". Edvestors. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  26. "Governance Committees - American Academy of Arts & Sciences". www.amacad.org. American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  27. "Board and Advisors". Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  28. "Board of Directors". Global Post. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
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