Scottsdale’s Miller Departs to Lead Nationwide’s Venture Arm

Michael Miller, the longtime president and chief operating officer of Scottsdale Insurance Co., has quietly moved onto a new executive role with corporate parent Nationwide, where he’ll manage and spearhead strategic investments for the insurance giant.

Miller is the new president of Nationwide Ventures, Nationwide spokesman Eric Hardgrove told Carrier Management, Insurance Journal‘s sister publication.

Miller’s new role was formally announced in October both internally and with business partners, he noted.

“He is going to be… working to successfully source, manage and executive strategic investments for Nationwide,” Hardgrove explained.

Tom Clark will take over Miller’s slot at Scottsdale, an E&S insurer and wholly owned subsidiary of Nationwide. He is a 25-year industry veteran who was most recently executive vice president for Nationwide Excess & Surplus/Specialty Insurance. He also was a senior executive with Allied Insurance, Nationwide’s independent agent brand, which now uses the Nationwide name.

Miller first joined Nationwide in 1985 and signed on with Scottsdale Insurance in 1995 as chief financial officer. He became Scottsdale’s president and COO in 2004.

Scottsdale and Nationwide E&S are essentially the same entity at this point, stemming from a rebrand announced in 2014 with a focus on using the Nationwide name. That effort is being undertaken in phases.

Hardgrove explained that Nationwide first disclosed a planned change in leadership at Nationwide Excess & Surplus Specialty Insurance in 2014, at which point it identified Clark as Miller’s successor. Nationwide’s 2016 planning cycle, which began in October 2015, led to Miller’s new role as head of Nationwide Ventures, he said.

Why the switch? Hardgrove said it amounted to timing.

“The timing was right for a change,” Hardgrove said. He explained that Miller helped fuel “a tremendous amount of growth and [market] position in excess and surplus lines at Nationwide and made it a critical proponent of our diverse lines of business.”

He added that after more than a year of planning for Miller’s transition, it triggered this fall because “the timing was right.”

This wasn’t Scottsdale’s only big executive change.

Last summer, Gary Tiepelman, senior vice president of contract and professional lines underwriting, retired from Scottsdale.

In November, Validus Holdings Ltd. named him senior vice president of Western World Insurance Co., and he’ll manage the insurer’s office in Scottsdale, Ariz.