Blanton Tapped To Improve American Mercury Insurance Group

Mercury General Corp., a California automobile insurer with operations in a number of other states, has appointed Cooper Blanton, formerly executive vice president, as its new insurance group chairman.

The company says its financial results have lagged expectations and the appointment of Blanton as the top executive will provide AMI with the direction needed to grow and attain underwriting profitability.

Blanton has been with the company for more than thirty years and served as vice president in charge of Underwriting until 1995. Blanton helped build the system infrastructure that enabled Mercury to grow from a small non-standard writer in California to the largest agency writer of private passenger auto insurance in the state.

In 1995, Blanton was appointed president and chief operating officer of the Illinois and Georgia subsidiaries. Under Blanton's leadership, the Georgia and Illinois companies have gone from producing an underwriting loss to producing an underwriting profit. Year-to-date through September 1998, the Georgia and Illinois companies have produced combined ratios of approximately 92% and 85%, respectively.

Blanton will continue to oversee the Georgia and Illinois companies in addition to his new role at the parent firm.