James M. Stone
Born (1947-11-12) November 12, 1947
New York City
NationalityAmerican
EducationHarvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Ph.D. Economics)
Harvard University (B.A.)
Known forInsurance Commissioner of Massachusetts; Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseCathleen Douglas Stone
Children2

James M. Stone (born November 12, 1947) is an American business executive. Jim Stone is the founder of Boston-based Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation and chief executive of its parent company, The Plymouth Rock Company. Stone was a Lecturer in Economics at Harvard University in the early 1970s[1][2] and then was the Massachusetts Commissioner of Insurance from 1975 to 1979.[1] He was appointed chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by President Jimmy Carter, and served on the Commission until 1983.[3] He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[4]

Early life and education

James M. (Jim) Stone was born in New York City in 1947. His father was an attorney and a poet, and his mother, Babette Rosmond, was an author and also the fiction editor of Seventeen magazine.[5] His younger brother is the writer Gene Stone. Stone was educated in the public schools of Pelham, New York, and at Harvard University. In 1969, Stone received his bachelor's degree, graduating with Highest Honors in Economics, and was elected a member to Phi Beta Kappa.[6] His academic work was recognized with the Young Prize for the best undergraduate economics thesis, as well as the Goldsmith Prize for best research paper presented to the Graduate School in Economics.[1] Stone later received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard in 1973. He was appointed as a lecturer in economics by the Harvard faculty to teach courses on the economics of securities markets.[7]

Career

While teaching at Harvard, Stone consulted in the insurance industry on a part-time basis. During this period, he completed six examinations for admission to the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS), and his 1973 paper on the insurance of catastrophic risk became a standard requirement of the CAS syllabus.[8][9]

In 1975, Stone was appointed Insurance Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts[10][11] by Governor Michael S. Dukakis. In 1979, Stone was appointed chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) by President Jimmy Carter.[12][13] Stone’s CFTC tenure was controversial due to his calls for tight position limits, enhanced disclosure, and high margin requirements on derivatives. The trading profession and his fellow Commissioners dismissed his assertions that the burgeoning scale of speculative derivatives could prove destabilizing for the economy as a whole. In 1983, Stone finished his term in Washington at the CFTC and returned to Boston.[3] In 1982, he founded Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation. He has been the group's CEO since its establishment.[14][15]

The Plymouth Rock Assurance Group of Companies operates a number of personal lines insurers, specializing in automobile and homeowners coverage in the Northeast United States.[15][16] It manages approximately $1.7 billion in annual premiums.[16]

Stone served on the Board of Directors of The Boston Globe Newspaper Corporation from 1998 to 2006,[15][17] and for five years as vice chairman of GlobalPost,[18] a web-based international news service.

Authorship

Stone is the author of "One Way for Wall Street," a 1979 book on the securities industry,[3] and "Five Easy Theses: Commonsense Solutions to America's Greatest Economic Challenges" (May 2016), a Bloomberg Best Books of 2016 selection.[19] He has also authored articles on insurance, finance, and economics.[20][21][22]

Front Cover of James M. Stone's "Five Easy Theses"

Philanthropy

Stone served for ten years on the Board (and is now Chairman Emeritus) of Management Sciences for Health,[23] a large international humanitarian health infrastructure provider. He currently chairs the Academic Affairs and Commercial Relations Committees of the Board of Directors of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a preeminent genetics and cancer research institute.[24] He is the chairman of the School on the Move prize panel, which grants a substantial monetary award each year to the most improved Boston public school.[25] He is a member of the Trust and the Nominating Committee of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[26] He is also a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Finance Committee of ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize winning non-profit investigative reporting organization.[27]

Stone is the principal donor to eight academic programs for the study of wealth and income inequality. These are located at Harvard University;[28] the Harris School of Public Policy at The University of Chicago;[29] City University of New York Graduate Center;[30] Brown University;[31] University of California, Berkeley;[32] University of Michigan; [33] He and his wife have also established The Stone Living Laboratory, which is based at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and engaged in the study of coastal sustainability in the era of climate change. [34] The Stones created and sponsor, the Stone Museum of African-American History Book Prize, [35] which awards with a significant stipend each year the best scholarly book on African American history as chosen by a distinguished panel of academic jurors.

Personal life

Stone is married to Cathleen Douglas Stone, a lawyer and environmentalist and the widow of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. They have twin children, Curtis and Lauren Stone, born in 1995. They live in Boston.[36]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Christopher B. Daly (1 March 1975). "Governor Appoints Economics Lecturer To Insurance Post". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  2. ↑ "Harvard Environmental Economics Program Awards Student Prizes for 2009-10 Academic Year". Harvard Kennedy School. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 "Business People; Futures Commissioner Plans to Resign Post". The New York Times. 22 December 1982. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  4. ↑ ""American Academy of Arts and Sciences". April 2015. Accessed July 2015" (PDF).
  5. ↑ Eric Leif Davin. "Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965".
  6. ↑ "Catalogue of Members" (PDF). Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  7. ↑ "The Shape of Financial Re-Regulation". Harvard Kennedy School. 23 April 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  8. ↑ Management Report : The Massachusetts Division of Insurance from 1975 to 1978 (1978). Boston : Division of Insurance, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 1978. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  9. ↑ "From the President" (PDF). The Actuarial Review. May 1979. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  10. ↑ John F. Berry (26 June 1977). "A New Voice Is Heard By Insurance Industry: Insurance Industry in Massachusetts Is Hearing Youthful, Vocal Critic". The Washington Post.
  11. ↑ Dan Devine (26 July 2007). "State insurance commish puts premium on fairness". Baystate. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  12. ↑ "Commodity Futures Trading Commission Nomination of James M. Stone To Be Chairman". The American Presidency Project. 15 January 1979. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  13. ↑ Hal Weitzman. "Chicago's decade of innovation: 1972-1982". World Federation of Exchanges. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  14. ↑ Jerry Knight; Pete Earley (22 December 1982). "From Commodity Futures to Insurance". The Washington Post.
  15. 1 2 3 Beth Healy (19 April 2013). "Two groups enter bids for Globe". Boston Globe. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  16. 1 2 "Who We Are | Plymouth Rock Leading Insurance Provider". www.plymouthrock.com. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  17. ↑ "Business & Government Seminar Series". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  18. ↑ "Board of Directors". GlobalPost. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  19. ↑ The New York Times Bestseller List Hardcover Nonfiction May 22, 2016 and The Best Books of 2016, Bloomberg.
  20. ↑ Stone, James M. (1978). "Excerpt from the Opinion, Findings and Decision on 1978 Automobile Insurance Rates". Automobile Insurance Risk Classification: Equity & Accuracy, Massachusetts Division of Insurance. pp. 144–205.
  21. ↑ "A Simple Remedy for Wall Street Danger". Boston Globe. 4 July 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  22. ↑ James M. Stone (5 February 2009). "A new rulebook for financial regulations". Boston.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  23. ↑ "Board and Team". Management Sciences for Health. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  24. ↑ "Leadership". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Archived from the original on 5 April 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  25. ↑ "2013 School on the Move Prize Presentation". Edvestors. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  26. ↑ "Governance Committees - American Academy of Arts & Sciences". www.amacad.org. American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  27. ↑ "Board and Advisors". Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  28. ↑ "Stone PhD Scholar Fellowships".
  29. ↑ "Stone Center at Harris School of Public Policy".
  30. ↑ "Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality".
  31. ↑ "Related Centers and Projects at Brown | Stone - Inequality | Brown University".
  32. ↑ "Generous support from the James M. And Cathleen D. Stone Foundation establishes a new center for Wealth and Income Inequality at UC Berkeley". 2 October 2019.
  33. ↑ "Stone Econ at UCL".
  34. ↑ "Stone Living Lab".
  35. ↑ "MAAH Stone Book Award".
  36. ↑ "Board of Directors". Global Post. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
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