Stephen Hearn is moving from the boardroom to the C-Suite.
Hearn, who joined Brown & Brown’s Board of Directors in August 2024, was named chief operating officer and executive vice president. To accept the position, Hearn resigned from the board of directors and will join Brown & Brown’s operating committee.
Hearn has spent 35 years in the insurance industry. The company said he will shape Brown & Brown’s focus on scaling operations, fostering innovation and developing a talented team.
“Brown & Brown is an incredible, dynamic organization,” Hearn said, “and I feel very fortunate that the skills and experience I have acquired during my career are viewed as force multipliers for the work already being done within the company. Our shared focus and a commitment to relationships and people—customers, teammates, carrier partners, shareholders and those in our communities—make this opportunity all the more exciting.”
Brown & Brown President and CEO Powell Brown said Hearn is a friend of over two decades whom he has worked and traded with over time.
“He has made great contributions to Brown & Brown during his time on the board,” Brown said. “As we work towards our next interim revenue goal of $8 billion, we believe the timing is right to have Steve join the organization to help drive operational excellence and scale, while we continue to further our position as a leading global provider of insurance solutions. We are at an exciting stage of our growth journey, and leveraging Steve’s deep relationships and global experience further enables us to identify like-minded organizations to join Brown & Brown and to attract, recruit, develop and retain the best and brightest insurance professionals.”
Hearn’s insurance career began in 1989. Most recently, he served in executive roles with The Ardonagh Group, including as CEO of Inver Re, the company’s dedicated reinsurance broker division, Ardonagh Capital Solutions Holdings, the company’s reinsurance broking and captives division, and Ardonagh Specialty Holdings Limited.
He has also been CEO at Corant Global and the Ed Broking Group Ltd.
