How Patrick built the fortune
Patrick Ryan made his first fortune by building a small insurance agency into one of the largest insurance brokers in the world. In 1964 he founded Pat Ryan and Associates, which sold credit life and related insurance to car buyers through automobile dealerships. The idea was simple: people financing a car could buy coverage that paid off their loan if they died or became disabled, and dealers were well placed to sell it. The business grew quickly across the United States.
In 1982 his company merged with Combined International, the insurer built by W. Clement Stone, and Ryan became the head of the combined group. He renamed it Aon in 1987 and began a long series of acquisitions that shifted it away from selling insurance policies and toward brokerage, consulting and risk management for corporations. Aon bought brokers in the United States and abroad and grew into a global rival to Marsh. Ryan served as chief executive until 2005 and as executive chairman until 2008. The name Aon, taken from a Gaelic word meaning oneness, was chosen to reflect the integration of many acquired businesses under one brand.
Rather than retire, he started again. In 2010 he founded Ryan Specialty Group, a wholesale broker and managing underwriter that helps retail brokers place unusual or hard to insure risks. The company grew rapidly and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, and his stake in it became a major part of his wealth alongside earnings and shares from his decades at Aon. Ryan Specialty went on to acquire a number of other wholesale and underwriting firms, building a national platform in specialty insurance within little more than a decade.
Companies and holdings
Ryan Specialty is led today by his son Patrick G. Ryan Jr. as chief executive, while Pat Ryan serves as executive chairman. The firm operates in wholesale brokerage, binding authority and underwriting management, and it has made many acquisitions of its own. Specialty insurance covers risks that standard insurers often avoid, such as large construction projects, transportation, professional liability and property in areas prone to natural disasters. Wholesale brokers and managing general agents act as intermediaries between retail agents and the insurers willing to take on those risks.
- Ryan Specialty Holdings, founder and executive chairman
- Aon plc, founder of the predecessor company and former CEO
- Board and investment roles in Chicago businesses and institutions
Early life and career
Ryan was born in Milwaukee and grew up in the Midwest. He showed an early knack for selling, working in sales jobs while still a student. He attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, graduating in 1959. Northwestern later became the centre of his philanthropy.
After college he worked briefly in insurance sales and soon concluded that selling coverage through car dealerships could be scaled into a national business. He founded his own firm in 1964 and spent nearly two decades growing it before the merger that created the foundation of Aon. He has been a long time member of Chicago's business establishment and has served on the boards of several companies and civic groups. His experience growing a small agency into a national business shaped his view that insurance distribution could be consolidated on a large scale.
Philanthropy and public life
Northwestern University has been the main focus of his giving. Pat and Shirley Ryan have funded buildings, research and athletics there, and their family gave a very large gift toward the rebuilding of the football stadium, which carries the Ryan Field name. Shirley Ryan founded Pathways.org, which focuses on early childhood development, and the family has supported the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, a rehabilitation hospital in Chicago. Their giving to Northwestern spans academic programs, medical research and student facilities as well as athletics, making the family among the university's most significant benefactors.
Ryan led Chicago's unsuccessful bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics as chairman of the bid committee. He has also served on the board of trustees of Northwestern, including as chairman, and remains a visible figure in the city's civic life.