Peter Lewis

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For the Australian politician, see Peter Lewis (politician)
For the philosopher, see Peter Lewis (philosopher)

Peter B. Lewis (born 1933) is the Cleveland, Ohio-area based Chairman of Progressive Insurance Companies. Lewis cultivates a reputation as a maverick, a controversial leader and businessman, and creative thinker.

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[edit] Biography

Lewis graduated from Princeton University in 1955. He attended Camp Roosevelt for Boys, an overnight summer camp in Perry, Ohio, as a camper and counselor from 1943 through 1950.

[edit] Business

In 1965 Lewis inherited his father's company as chief executive officer after joining as an underwriting trainee in 1955. At that time Progressive had 100 employees and $6 million in revenues. As of 1997, Progressive had grown to 14,000 employees with sales of $4.8 billion and become the fifth largest auto insurance company in the United States. In 2002 Lewis retired as CEO of Progressive, though he remains as Chairman of the Board.

In 1987, Lewis and Alfred Lerner (1933-2002), owner of the Cleveland Browns and CEO of MBNA America Bank, attempted a takeover of the Cleveland Trust Bank of Cleveland, Ohio. Though the takeover attempt was ultimately unsuccessful, it was profitable for both Lewis and Lerner.

Lewis's approach to business is often unorthodox. For instance, Progressive's headquarters, designed by Bialosky + Partners Architects and built in 1994, includes a health club and travel agency in addition to the ubiquitous contemporary art. Lewis credits these and other unorthodox factors for helping create an environment in which creative thinking thrives—the kind of creative thinking that Lewis says makes a more profitable business.

[edit] Donations

With an estimated net worth in excess of a billion dollars, Lewis frequently donates money to charities and political groups. He is a patron of the arts and supports many artistic pursuits. Lewis's personal and corporate contemporary art collection is well known—the corporate collection is displayed at Progressive Insurance offices. Lewis has made donations to:

Lewis is a trustee of Princeton University, former chairman of the board of directors at the Guggenheim Museum (resigned January 19 2005), and serves on the board of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Although Lewis often gives substantial gifts to artistic and educational organizations, he also has a reputation for--often forcefully--insisting that such organizations be financially accountable and financially sound; as of late 2004, Lewis has said he will no longer give to Case or Cleveland's University Circle neighborhood due to poor leadership and management. He has said that those funds might instead be diverted to Cleveland State University.

Lewis is an advocate of taxing and regulating the use and sale of marijuana and is one of the main financial backers of the recent, partially successful, campaign to legalize the use of marijuana for medical use in the U.S. In January 2000, Mr. Lewis was arrested and charged in New Zealand for possession of marijuana. Lewis pleaded guilty to three charges and paid a substantial fine, though under New Zealand law he was not required to serve time in jail or prison. According to his lawyer, Marie Dyhrberg, Lewis used the marijuana on the advice of his doctor for pain relief after the partial amputation of his leg in 1998, although some maintain that Lewis's marijuana use long predates 1998[citation needed].

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[edit] External links

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