Business Observer: CEO John Tomlin’s New Venture

Not content to take it easy in retirement, a longtime insurance industry executive risked his nest egg on a real estate venture. One key to pulling it off? Knowing there are things you don’t know.

Nearly a decade ago, John Tomlin faced a dilemma familiar to CEOs of companies that go through mergers: relocation or retirement.

At the time, Tomlin was CEO of Tampa-based AAA Auto Club South, as it was known in 2011, when it merged with Dearborn, Mich.-based The Auto Club Group. He had begun his career with insurance giant Progressive Corp., which transferred him to Tampa in 1984. Five years later, he joined AAA and began his ascent up its corporate ladder.

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