Wednesday, October 13

William R. Berkley
Derek Hughes/NAPSLO Educational Foundation Lecture Speaker

William R. Berkley, founder of the Fortune 500 property-casualty insurance holding company, W. R. Berkley Corporation, has accepted NAPSLO’s invitation to share his perspective on the current business environment as well as the surety industry.

Berkley, who founded the company in 1967, has served as Chairman and CEO over the past 43 years. He has overseen the growth of the company into one of the largest commercial lines writers in the United States. W.R. Berkley operates in the following five segments of the property casualty insurance business: specialty insurance, regional property casualty insurance, alternative markets, reinsurance, and international.

During his career, he has also founded a number of public and private companies, some of which he continues to lead as chairman or director, and has similar roles in several financial institutions, including two banks (one in partnership with the Big I) and a number of industrial companies.  A graduate of New York University and the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, he is active on the boards of both New York University and Georgetown University, and serves as Chairman of Achievement First, a group of charter schools serving inner-city children in the New York metropolitan area.  He is the recipient of numerous awards for his business, civic and philanthropic activities over the years.