PBN 2021 Leaders & Achievers Awards
Thomas Lawson | Chairman, CEO and president, FM Global
Thomas Lawson, chairman, CEO and president of FM Global, will continue to serve as chairman of the Johnston-based commercial property insurer following his retirement at year’s end.
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Lawson will spend more time cataloguing and assembling his beloved model train collection, among other pursuits that he hasn’t had much time for in the past 42 years he has been with the company.
“I plan to also do charity work,” he said. “I’m looking forward to traveling, playing golf and having some lazy Saturdays.”
Lawson has led the firm since 2014, growing revenue in that time by 28%, from $5.3 billion to $6.8 billion. In 2020, the company landed in the Fortune 500 for the first time, at No. 447.
Lawson has not only been instrumental in growing FM Global’s revenue but also its footprint. In 2001, he spearheaded a $125 million, 1,600-acre research campus in Glocester, expanding the building in 2008. The facility – which includes a natural hazards lab and can replicate hurricane-force winds – has received global attention as a place where manufacturers can test equipment for electrical hazards, test the efficiency of fire protection systems, and evaluate the impact of ultraviolet sun radiation on building materials.
The FM Global Learning Center in Norwood was also constructed during Lawson’s tenure. It is dedicated to awareness about common property-loss risk factors.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic was the most challenging time to lead a company such as FM Global, Lawson credited his senior staffers with helping the company endure it.
“I have a great management team,” he said. “By no means is this all me; it’s the whole team.”
Lawson said the company was forced to make decisions without having all the information.
“The last thing you want to do is not make a decision,” he said. “I learned that you can’t overcommunicate. We send a message out every Monday telling employees to take care of themselves. We are still doing that. It’s probably the most-read piece of correspondence in the company.”
