What are some of the responsibilities you take on as the Director of the Ohio Department of Insurance?
I run the department and the department regulates one of the largest insurance industries in the world. So I manage about 250 people but I also serve as a member of the governor's cabinet. And so to the extent that the governor and the administration have priorities, I am one of the people that needs to make sure we are fulfilling those priorities. I'll just mention one other thing, most people don't know about the director of insurance and that is insurance isn't regulated federally. It's regulated by the state and so the state coordinates in a national association. So one of my key responsibilities is to collaborate with other state insurance regulators and I even coordinate with international insurance supervisors. So there is a little bit different aspect to it than just what we do directly for the state of Ohio.
Out of the jobs you have had, which has been the most rewarding?
I've had a lot of jobs, I would say, well, there are really two. One is I was an assistant attorney general and I represented Ohio twice in the United States Supreme Court. So just defending the laws of Ohio from constitutional challenge and representing state-wide elected officials was deeply rewarding.
What was your time on the Supreme Court of Ohio like?
That was an amazing experience, I was there for eight years. My favorite part of that job was really being on the bench. Literally on the bench, listening to oral arguments, participating in oral arguments, and you know those were debates or discussions about the most important legal issues in Ohio at the time. There were lots of moments where I almost wanted to stop the conversation and say 'Is this not the best thing?'. You know here we are talking about the First Amendment or were talking about the Fifth Amendment, or were talking about some really impactful legal issues and we all get to do that right here in the Supreme Court, beautiful old supreme courtroom. So yeah, it was pretty fun.
Being in such a high position of authority, what leadership advice or leadership skills do you think is essential?
Well, I think communication is critical. Communicating your goals, communicating your expectations, but also communicating feedback. I think generosity is a critically important leadership skill that sometimes gets overlooked. But for me, the most generous leaders are the ones who give opportunities and they give feedback, and they give information. You know as a leader I want to make sure that I'm giving the information that people really need and all of the information necessary for them to be the best manager or employee they can be. Lots of leadership skills, I think just being thoughtful about where people are in their experience. You know two-hundred fifty employees of the department there are people who just started yesterday and they are really early in their journeys and then there are people who have been there for forty years, and they are well along. But it's important to remember where you are in that journey, that you can always learn something and you can always teach something. So I find that I learn a lot from the younger employees and those who are just coming out of school, different way to think or different way to communicate and I always have to keep in mind that I don't always have the answers and that I can always learn from other people. But I think the final and probably most important thing is to approach leadership as service. You know, really to be in service of the people around you. And make sure whatever time you spend with them, whether I'm going to be the director for now three years or if I'm going to be there for more years, to make sure that I served the people around me. That means making them the best possible version of themselves.
On the topic of advice, what advice would you give to undergraduate students who are looking to pursue a similar career path?
Well, I think I have always rather than seeking money, I've always sought out interesting jobs. So having gone from being an EPA and the attorney general office, the governor's office, being a judge, a justice, and now who would have thought the director of insurance. I think that it's important to really think about what are you going to do every day. Really find out, when you're looking at jobs, what does that offer you every day. I actually think that this generation now coming out of school is a lot better at that then I was. And so, I would just encourage this generation to keep that up, to decide what's most important to you. A couple things I guess and that is to think about state service. Think about going into state government, you can be, whether it’s a lawyer or a communications person or an actuary. You can be all of those things in government, but there's an added layer to it. That you also get to serve the public, you know you also get to decide, "alright I'm a lawyer I can come to a legal conclusion," but the added latter is, "but what's best for the public?" What's really in the public's interest and you don't get to do that outside public service. So even if it's just for a short time, I would encourage students to think about government service.
What was it like to move from the private sector to the public sector?
Well it wasn’t something I necessarily anticipated. I thought that it would be interesting, I thought that I would like it, and I was right about that. It can be different, I think that you can improve your skills no matter where you are. Whether that’s in public service or for a private company. But it is that added layer of thinking about what's the broader public interest that I think that is so different when you're going into government service. When I left the private sector, and I had a great time in the private sector I worked with really good people and mentors when I started my legal career, but there are really high expectations that the public has of public servants and that can sometimes be difficult to process. It can sometimes feel that no matter what you do you get criticized, either you're doing too much or you're not doing enough. So I think you have to really develop the ability to decide what you think is right and do the best you can with the information that you have. But no matter where you are, whether that's public service or in the private sector, you know find people who are doing the job that you might like to do eventually. Find people that you can emulate. For me that meant finding lawyers who I thought were even-keeled. They weren't the most aggressive of lawyers, they were smart, they were capable, but they were also nice. They treated people well and as a result of that they were highly respected. And so, those are the kind of lawyers that I tried to emulate and I found them in private practice and I found them in public service too.
How do you think your time at Ohio State has prepared you for the jobs you took on after and/or the one you have now?
Well, I stayed at OSU for 8 years, getting three degrees, I got my undergraduate in political science and then I took four years and did both law school and got my master's in history. I did both at the same time. It's such a great place to learn a little bit about a lot of things. So just having that ability to not only major in political science but also I have a major in history. And I think Ohio State is such a wonderful place where you really get to explore all kinds of things and even as a law student I had the ability to go get a master's at the same time, not every university has that kind of breadth that you get at Ohio State.
What is something you wish you did differently, if anything, early on in your career?
I think I wish I had worried less. I wish that I had been less afraid. I honestly don't have lots of regrets, looking back on my life, but I do regret ever being afraid. Worrying about is this the right job, is this the right opportunity, and there's never the perfect thing. Because the perfect thing is going to change over time, so what might be perfect for you right now may not be perfect for you in five years, and so I think it's just important to trust your instincts and to know that if it turns out not to be right for you then you do something else. Then you look elsewhere. That's something that took me a while to figure that out and it took making a move that turned out not to be what I thought it was and then making a different move. So, your career is going to be really long, I only know a couple a people, we all went to law school together, and only a couple of them are in the same job that they were when they started out of law school. The rest of us, the 98% have done a lot of different things. Don't sweat the business of trying to find the perfect thing, just do the best you can with the information you have and you just keep going.
What is your favorite Ohio State memory?
Some of my best friends were in Law School with me, and I think other students will appreciate this too, the ones you go through all the difficulty with. Just when I look back, those moments of just sitting around eating bad food, talking about the future, trying to figure things out, those are really special. They're the everyday kinds of things, the times you're just sitting around laughing with your roommates or you're thinking about the future, what will I do, what will my life be like? Those are pretty special times, those are probably my most favorite times, just when you're just hanging out with your friends and laughing, having a good time, and dreaming about the future.
Is there a professor at Ohio State that left a lasting impact on you?
Well I have to mention one of them, because I just, yesterday, learned that he passed away. Williamson Murray was one of my history professors, and he's really the one who started me thinking about opportunities that I might have. He really taught me how to write, how to write an essay. In history, political science, other liberal arts areas, you have to write a lot. He was one of those professors who really took the time to point out every little thing about your writing, he marked every single passive tense verb. Eventually, I think someone gave him a stamp that he could just use to do that. But he really took the time to not just look at what you were trying to say, but how you were saying it. He had a really big influence on me, and I just found out that he passed away a few months ago.
