TWIA General Manager to Retire at the End of 2022

Texas Windstorm Insurance Association General Manager John Polak will retire at the end of 2022 after 11 years of leading the wind and hail insurer of last resort for the Texas coast. The Board of Directors will immediately begin a candidate search to find a well-qualified and capable leader to fill this role.

TWIA’s Executive Leadership Team is preparing for the transition to new leadership. The Association has key staff and effective processes in place to efficiently maintain all compliance obligations and operational services to policyholders and other stakeholders. TWIA expects a new General Manager to be in place well before Polak’s departure.

TWIA Board of Directors Chair Chandra Franklin-Womack said, “John Polak has diligently led TWIA for eleven years to make TWIA a better steward of the financial resources entrusted to us by our policyholders. Working with state legislators, the Texas Department of Insurance, and our other stakeholders, John put TWIA on a more solid financial footing and improved the Association’s accountability and transparency. He steered our response to Hurricane Harvey, which put more than $1.3 billion into the recovery of our state. We thank John for his dedicated service to the people of Texas’ coastal communities and wish him the best of luck in his retirement.”

Before coming to TWIA in 2011, Polak held the positions of CEO, COO, CIO, and CUO in insurance companies ranging from large national and international carriers to midsized regional carriers. During a career spanning five decades, he oversaw the development and growth of profitable specialty books of business in both personal and commercial lines. He has overseen catastrophe loss responses in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and other parts of the country. Polak served from 2018-2020 as the chair of the Property Insurance Plans Service Office (PIPSO) Board of Directors, a nonprofit organization that oversees all 37 residual market property insurance plans.

Created by the Texas Legislature in 1971, TWIA provides windstorm and hail insurance to communities on the Texas coast when no one else will. The Association currently covers more than 190,000 homes and businesses in 14 coastal counties plus part of Harris County.