Everest offers big pay package to new CEO

Everest is offering its new CEO, Jim Williamson (pictured), a lucrative compensation package to ensure he stays on board.

Williamson will receive a $1.25 million base salary, with the potential to double that in annual bonuses. He could also earn up to four times his salary in equity awards if he successfully steers the troubled re/insurer back on track.

He will also receive a target annual equity award of 420% of base salary, plus a monthly car allowance of $1,000.

Plus a sign-on equity grant of $2.5 million worth of shares to tie Williamson in for the foreseeable. 

Williamson became CEO in January, having joined in 2020 as chief operating officer. Over his career, spanning Everest, The Hartford, Chubb and ACE, Williamson has held senior positions in all aspects of the property & casualty industry including commercial, specialty and consumer lines of business in the US and internationally.

Williamson has something of a rescue and recovery mission after the group wrote some $2 billion in gross reserves on US liability insurance after a fourth-quarter study, then admitted it had plenty of book restructuring still ahead.

The rebalancing of the Everest portfolio towards short-tail and specialty lines and improvement of diversification looked about half complete, management said at the time.

The to-do list still includes tasks such as “aggressively shedding underperforming accounts”, restructuring policy offerings and altering underwriting guidelines. Plans include a hope to “drive” the portfolio to price adequacy “in a single renewal”, management said.  

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