The 12th Annual Statesman Dinner was held on Thursday, February 4th at the Hudson Theatre in New York City. The event dates back to 1999 when David Foster, then a leading Lloyd's underwriter, now retired, was honored as the first Statesman of the Year.

Todd Jones, who runs Willis’ Northeast Region and was formerly its executive protection practice leader, was this year’s honoree.  Nobody was exactly sure what Todd did to earn the honor, but, nonetheless, it was a good excuse for a very enjoyable evening.

An independent event not affiliated with PLUS (or any other reputable insurance organization as far as we can tell), the Statesman Dinner is held each year not only to honor a deserving leader in the professional lines insurance industry, but also to raise significant funds for various charities. 

The event is the brainchild of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge’s John McCarrick, a man who has created, and/or played a key role in, a number of very successful charitable endeavors. 

McCarrick has been joined by Don Bailey of Willis and Dave McElroy of Arch in organizing the Statesman Dinner, along with many other unsung heroes, such as McCarrick’s very capable assistant, Karen Pinski.

The event, a sell-out every year, hosts roughly 250 people for a cocktail hour, dinner and post-dinner entertainment consisting of a roast of the honoree, and playful jabs at many others in the industry.  The typical proceedings each year include speeches, videos and live skits. 

Bailey, a very talented and funny master of ceremonies, was absent this year, but he appeared in larger-than-life form via two videos.  McCarrick and McElroy, each with his own style, also did excellent jobs of delivering entertaining presentations.  [Clearly, I'm hoping this critique will get me off the hook from skewering next year.]     

Many believe that the Statesman Dinner, a very hot ticket, has supplanted C&S Night as professional lines insurance's most enjoyable evening of the year. Individuals were in attendance from every corner of the United States, as well as Canada, Bermuda and the U.K.

Besides being a chance to catch up with old friends, the Statesman Dinner also seems to be the place where people bury the hatchet on old disputes and renew past friendships.  In general, it is a night of great industry camaraderie.

Each year the honoree chooses a charity to receive half of the dinner’s proceeds.  The organizers select the charitable recipients of the rest.  Todd chose the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a cutting-edge medical research organization.  A doctor from the charity was on hand to accept a $25,000 donation from the Statesman Dinner.  I would tell you his name, but someone at my table was yelling for more wine when it was announced.  The doctor made a very nice speech, telling people that significant advances are being made and that a cure for paralysis may occur during our lifetimes.

Todd made some very touching and funny remarks in his acceptance speech, despite being roundly ridiculed during the evening.  His graciousness was in keeping with the general nature of the proceedings (this blogger will, of course, depart from that path with the captions on the photos to follow…) 

All in all, the 2010 Statesman Dinner was another rousing success: people enjoyed themselves immensely and a lot of money was raised for very good causes. 

Here now are some pictures from the evening:

Statesman Dinner founder John McCarrick greets AWAC CEO Scott Carmilani during the evening's cocktail hour.  Scott would probably still have jet black hair if he were just a lowly underwriting manager, but our guess is that he'll take the gray and the CEO pay package any day of the week.

Bill Winget and Luigi Spadafora, two of my friends the industry's leading insurance defense attorneys, probably wish that they could have a do-over on this picture. 

Rob Wolfe of ACE, Mike Morales of Everest National, Catherine "No Relation to Danny" Seto of Everest National and Mark Paccione of Everest National enjoy the cocktail hour without cocktails.  New York State insurance officials were investigating to see if they really are in the industry.

Claudine Rossman (far left) and Laura Coppola (far right), both of Arch, flank two young ladies, one of whom is Robyn Semos of Arch Bermuda, the trouble is I'm not sure which one she is.  She knows however.  It was a hectic night, lay off the blogger. Tim Kelly, a very successful professional lines broker at Lockton in Houston, stands behind the girls in order to balance out their beauty and intelligence in this photo.  Sorry Tim, you knew you were taking your chances by letting me photograph you. 

Tom Gamble of Willis, Kathy Kelly of Arch and LouAnn Layton of Marsh catch up on old times before the dinner.  Each was overheard saying that they thought they should've been the Statesman instead of Todd.  That was a very common theme among attendees.

Rich Fernandez of AmWins Atlanta and Ray Santiago of Chartis New York. compete in the Ugliest Tie, Biggest Forehead and Phoniest Smile Contest.  It was a dead heat.  That looks sort of like a church pillar in the background but, believe me, it's not.

Andy Pritchard of AmWins, Steve Boughal of Travelers, Keith Riccio of Freedom Specialty and Tom Ruck of CNA stop discussing their Super Bowl bets long enough to be photographed.  The four, who worked together at National Union in the 1990s, were also overheard discussing when it would be safe to start wearing their AIG logo'd clothing in public again.

Tom Zacharopoulos of Integro Atlanta was looking for the New York Insurance Library and mistakenly ended up at the Statesman Dinner bar.  Oh well, he made the best of the circumstances. 

DANGER, DANGER WILL ROBINSON!  Word of advice from this blogger: never go to lunch at Nobu with this pair, Steve Pincus and Matt Baum of Willis.  Steve, normally a great guy, will advise "Just let the waitress bring what's fresh, don't bother ordering off the menu."  That will be your last memory before finding yourself in front of a bankruptcy judge.  Go with the Trinity Pub, much cheaper.  PS I know both of their wives, very cool women who could've done much better.  

Paul Lavelle, owner of LVL Claims Services, one of the professional lines industry's leading claims consultants, stands at the podium to roast Todd, not a difficult assignment.  Todd's enlarged photo, seen in the background, was later used by the kitchen crew to scare away rodents. 

Here's a photo of Table 4 and some of the other tables at the Hudson Theatre.  Look hard, you're probably there somewhere in the background.

Mike Karm of The Hartford and John Rafferty of Arch reprise Johnny Carson's "The Great Carnac" skit.  This blogger's favorite Raff insult: "May your wife's number be found on Tiger Woods' cell phone."  They did a terrific job for amateurs (I mean with the skit, not their underwriting...)

I only took this photo so that Todd would see the flash and think that someone really cared about what he was saying.  It worked, he welled up shortly after this was shot.  Everyone else was enjoying their wine and side conversations while he spoke.

After the event, Todd was so drained of emotion that all he had left for the camera was an empty glass and an empty expression.  The pressures of being named Statesman of the Year are known only to those so honored.  Good luck Todd, please represent the industry well in this next year and don't let any compromising erotic videotapes leak out.  Really, please.  We beg.

The Statesman Dinner is ripe for an after-party (smart marketers take note) but, in the absence of that, people broke off in groups and hit various bars.  Here, Steve Walsh of W.R. Berkeley and John Connolly former governor of Texas of Willis' Philadelphia office discuss how John's wife thinks he's on a business trip in Detroit.  John's best side for photographs, apparently, is the back of his right hand, which he proudly displays for the camera.  Walshy seems to be enjoying it.

And, finally, to sum up the entire evening, we have this photo of Martha Roberts and Brian Wanat of Aon.  Was it fun or what?  Another great evening at the Statesman Dinner.  We hope to see you all there again next year...