Eric Leavitt (pictured), executive chairman and CEO of Leavitt Group, has been elected board chair of the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB) for 2026/2027. The election took place at The Council’s 113th annual Insurance Leadership Forum in Colorado Springs last week. He succeeds John Howard, vice chairman of CRC Group.
Leavitt brings nearly 34 years with the Cedar City, Utah-based firm, which he joined in 1992. He has served as its president, CEO, and since 2017, executive chairman and CEO. Under his leadership, Leavitt Group has grown to more than 80 agencies and 290 locations across 30 states through a co-ownership model that gives local agency managers equity stakes in their offices. The firm ranks among the largest privately held independent brokerages in the US and, per Reagan Consulting, is the largest family-owned brokerage in the country.
“As a board director and officer, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with the most respected leaders in brokerage firms around the world,” Leavitt said. He added that the chair role was an opportunity to help CIAB evolve and respond to market shifts.
Joel Wood, president and CEO of CIAB, said Leavitt’s perspective on the association’s role within the industry had been invaluable to the board.
Leavitt will lead a board that includes newly elected vice chair J. Powell Brown of Brown & Brown in Daytona Beach, Florida; treasurer Mike Victorson of M3 Insurance in Madison, Wisconsin; and secretary Jacqueline Roth of IMA Financial Group in Denver, Colorado.
Six new directors join the board effective January 1, 2027: Dottie Chalmers Cutter of Chalmers Insurance Group; Jessica Jung of Oswald Companies; Tim Hall of Relation Insurance Services; Mike Hessling of Cottingham & Butler; Greg Spore of Lockton; and Benjamin Verlingue of Verlingue.
Six existing directors were re-elected: Matthew Kirk of Acrisure; Thomas Leek of Foundation Risk Partners; Dave Obenauer of CRC Group; James Parker of BroadStreet Partners; Bumpy Triche of Gallagher; and Andy Vetor of The MJ Companies.
CIAB's membership places the majority of US commercial P&C premiums and 70% of all employee benefits business, according to the association, giving its government affairs team and board considerable weight on Capitol Hill and with regulators. The conditions that board will navigate heading into 2027 are meaningfully different from those of recent years.
According to CIAB’s Q1 2026 Commercial P&C Market Index, average commercial premiums across all account sizes fell 1.2% in the first quarter, the first decline in 33 consecutive quarters. Large commercial accounts declined 2.7% while medium accounts declined 1.9%. Commercial auto remained the exception, posting its 59th consecutive quarter of increases at 5.8%, driven by nuclear verdicts, social inflation, and rising repair costs.
That softening is reshaping the competitive dynamics inside the brokerage market at the same time as consolidation continues to compress it. Having the CEO of an independent, co-ownership-model firm leading that advocacy reflects a signal from the membership at a moment when the interests of independent brokers and those of large consolidators do not always align, particularly on questions of market access, contingent compensation, and regulatory disclosure.
The Council Foundation will also see new leadership effective January 1, 2027. John Tallarida of Heffernan Group in Oakland, California, will succeed Rob Cohen of IMA Financial Group as Foundation board chair, with Nancy Mellard of CBIZ as vice chair and Kate Armfield of The Baldwin Group as treasurer.
