The Beacon Mutual Insurance Co.’s board of directors today named James V. Rosati to serve as president and CEO of Beacon, the state’s leading workers’ compensation insurer. His appointment ends a five-month national search for a successor to Joseph A. Solomon, who was fired last spring.
Rosati brings more than 25 years’ executive management and financial expertise. Since 2002, he has been an investment banking partner with Riparian Partners, a Providence-based company specializing in mergers, acquisitions and business valuations.
“Today’s announcement is a major step in the continuing process of restoring faith in The Beacon with our policyholders, regulators, employees and members of the Rhode Island business community,” Carl Hayes, chairman of Beacon’s board, said in a news release.
Rosati vowed to “take the company in a new and productive direction.” He added that “Rhode Island must have a strong and stable workers’ compensation system, and The Beacon Mutual Insurance Co. is an integral element of that equation.”
He acknowledged that Beacon’s problems aren’t yet over – for example, a R.I. Department of Business Regulation review of the company is still pending – but said he intends to “address any issues raised” by the DBR “in an open and transparent manner.”
Since 2003, Rosati has chaired the board of the R.I. Airport Corporation, which oversees T.F. Green Airport and five regional state-run airports. He has also served on the board of the Providence Mutual Fire Insurance Co. since 1993.
From 1994 to 2002, he was CEO of the Cookson Group’s Worldwide Telecommunications Division. Previously, he was chairman, president and CEO of Old Stone Bank from 1991 to 1993, and executive vice president of the bank from 1984 to 1991.
Rosati graduated from Bryant University with a degree in economics. A Rhode Island native, he lives in Narragansett and is married with two children.
