GEICO
| Government Employees Insurance Company (doing business as GEICO) | |
| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1936, Fort Worth, TX |
| Headquarters | Chevy Chase, Maryland |
| Key people | Olza M. "Tony" Nicely, CEO & Chairman |
| Industry | Insurance |
| Products | Auto insurance |
| Revenue | $9.212 billion USD (2004)[1] |
| Employees | 23,000 |
| Parent | Berkshire Hathaway |
| Contact | {{{contact}}} |
| Reference | {{{reference}}} |
The Government Employees Insurance Company, usually known by the acronym GEICO, is an American auto insurance company. GEICO is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and, as of 2007, has provided coverage for more than 10 million motor cars, trucks and other motor vehicles owned by more than 9 million policy holders. GEICO writes private passenger automobile insurance in the District of Columbia and in all U.S. states. The company is notable for its television advertising, with several prominent campaigns running simultaneously in national markets. Its mascot is a gecko that originally had an American accent but for marketing reasons was changed to a Cockney accent.
History
GEICO was founded in 1936 by Leo Goodwin and his wife Lillian Goodwin to provide auto insurance directly to federal government employees and their families [2]. GEICO's original business model was predicated on the assumption that federal employees as a group would constitute a less risky and more financially stable pool of insureds, as opposed to the general public. Despite the presence of the word "government" in its name, GEICO has always been a private corporation and not a government agency.
A dominant figure in GEICO’s history is David Lloyd Kreeger (1919-1990), who became president of the company in 1964 and helped to steer it into a major insurance enterprise. As noted in his New York Times obituary November 20, 1990, Kreeger was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. He was graduated with high honors from Rutgers and from Harvard Law School, where he was editor of the Law Review. Kreeger joined the Department of Agriculture as a lawyer early in FDR’s presidency; he later worked in the Department of the Interior. He then worked for the Justice Department. In 1948, he formed a group of investors who bought into GEICO. He became senior vice president and general counsel of the company.
Six years after becoming president of GEICO in 1964, he was named chairman and chief executive officer. He retained those titles until he retired in 1974. He continued as chairman of the executive committee until 1979, when he was named honorary chairman.
An accomplished amateur violinist, Kreeger was internationally known as a collector of Impressionist and modern painting and sculpture. He was president and chairman of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington for almost 20 years. Today, he is perhaps best known for the Kreeger Museum, a mansion on Foxhall Road in Washington, DC, in which he and his wife, Carmen, also a patron of the arts, lived since 1968. It was designed by the architect Philip Johnson as a showcase for the Kreeger collection.
Intriguingly, the GEICO web site avoids any mention of David Lloyd Kreeger (http://www.geico.com/about/corporate/history/).
In the 1970s, under Kreeger's leadership, GEICO began to insure the general public, after real-time access to computerized driving records became available throughout the United States. In 1996, GEICO became a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.
GEICO generally deals directly with consumers via the telephone and the Internet, freeing up capital that would otherwise be spent on employing insurance agents in the field. As a result, the company is now the 3rd largest direct writer of private auto insurance in the United States.[3] Today, GEICO does market their products through a small number of field agents, most of whom are based near military bases; more recently, GEICO has begun opening offices in locations other than near military bases. These agents are known as GFRs (GEICO Field Representatives). As of current there are GFR’S in every state except Massachusetts. GEICO’s goal is to have at least on GFR per major populated area.
Competition
GEICO's major competitors include State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, Nationwide, and USAA. Progressive is particularly countered in their commercials, with many GEICO commercials countering Progressive's claims of being able to quote their rates and those of several of their competitors' rates by stating that GEICO quotes are only available at GEICO.com.
References
- ^ Revenue: premiums written (2004), from Berkshire Hathaway 10-K
- ^ See History page on company website
- ^ GEICO at a Glance on company website
External links
- GEICO official website
Name: GEICO
State: Maryland
Country: USA
Web: http://www.geico.com/
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