Dereszynski searches for talent in return to Brown & Brown Empire State

SYRACUSE — Employee recruitment will be one of Brown & Brown Empire State’s major goals now that Nick Dereszynski is back in place as the firm’s president.

“We have high expectations that we’re going to recruit talent, develop talent,” Dereszynski says. “And then that talent would have the opportunity to stay here long-term, build their careers with Brown & Brown Empire State, or look at Brown & Brown Empire State as a portal to other opportunities.”

Dereszynski has returned to lead the insurance agency, which is headquartered at 500 Plum St. in Syracuse, after a year in Seattle. He had been at Brown & Brown Empire State from 2005 to 2011 before departing for Washington State to become regional vice president for the insurance agency’s parent, Florida–based Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE: BRO).

This July, Dereszynski started traveling back to Syracuse. Then the Central New York insurance agency officially reintroduced him as its head on Aug. 2.

Dereszynski will now be both regional vice president for the parent company and president of the Syracuse agency.

“It gives me better access to the leadership of Brown & Brown,” he says. “And I think in the future I will probably assume some oversight of other Brown & Brown offices.”

Dereszynski’s oversight of Brown & Brown Empire State charges him with leading the insurance agency’s 95 employees in three offices. Its Syracuse headquarters is home to 85 of its employees. The remaining personnel are divided between offices in Endicott and Clifton Park.

At an Aug. 2 news conference marking his return to Syracuse, Dereszynski spoke of hiring anywhere between a “handful” of people to 25 candidates. But he says those were just examples — he isn’t willing to focus on adding a specific number of workers. Instead, Brown & Brown Empire State’s rate of hiring will depend on how many high-quality candidates it can find, he says.

In part, the recruitment efforts are a piece of a larger push at the parent company Brown & Brown Inc.

“Brown & Brown nationwide has a goal of $2 billion in revenue,” Dereszynski says. “We’re currently at about $1.1 billion, roughly. We know that in order to get to $2 billion in revenue, we’ve got to double the number of team members that we have.

“So in order to do that, we have to look to our foundation offices or our flagship offices,” he continues. “Syracuse is definitely a flagship office for Brown & Brown.”

New recruits will not be expected to leave upstate New York, Dereszynski says. But those who wish to follow opportunities in other parts of Brown & Brown will be given the chance to do so, he adds.

Potential opportunities could include working in internal auditing, quality control, mergers and acquisitions, and leadership positions, according to Dereszynski. Brown & Brown Empire State is starting out by looking for professionals to work in both sales and service positions, he says.

The Syracuse insurance agency’s recruitment efforts include radio and print advertisements. They are in the process of rolling out, Dereszynski says.

A majority of Dereszynski’s duties in Seattle centered on mergers and acquisitions, he says. He worked to find agencies that could be acquired and to help recently acquired agencies integrate into Brown & Brown’s organization.

That was a different job than leading Brown & Brown Empire State, he says. But he would not rule out the Syracuse agency making acquisitions in the future.

“I think the only thing I can say is that we do have ongoing discussions, but there’s nothing that we can identify by name,” he says. “It’s a big focus for Brown & Brown around the country. I think in upstate New York, we’ve got our fair share of candidates that we’ve identified that we’d either like to talk to or we have some ongoing conversations with.”

Brown & Brown Empire State generated about $20 million in revenue in 2011, Dereszynski says. He projects growth of 5 percent in 2012.

In returning to the Syracuse agency, Dereszynski replaces Linda Taylor as its president. Taylor is returning to Brown & Brown Inc.’s Buffalo office, where she worked as executive vice president and profit-center leader before coming to Syracuse.

The leadership change came as Brown & Brown worked to find the “right person” to lead its Syracuse office, according to Dereszynski.

“My company reached out to me and said, ‘Would you consider it?’ ” he says. “I think from the company’s perspective, from Linda Taylor’s perspective, and from my perspective, this was the right move and good for everybody.”

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com