Auto specialist to insurance exec

William R. “Bill” Thompson’s career path started with an enthusiasm for cars and led to his appointment as president of the Guam office of Aon Insurance, which today is the world’s largest global insurance broker. “My background is primarily automotive,” he says. “But I was exposed to insurance over a long period of time so I have a working knowledge of it.” Indeed, Thompson played a critical role in the company’s establishment and expansion on Guam that accompanied the company’s global growth of the 1990s.

During his 40-plus-year career Thompson worked for some of Guam’s oldest and most respected companies. He also worked with, and learned from, some of the island’s business luminaries — whose ranks he joined as attested to by his selection as 1997 Guam Business Executive of the Year. He also broadened his resume when he served as chairman of the board of the Guam International Airport Authority from and 1995 to 1997 during a major expansion of the airport. He later served as its executive manager from 2000 to 2004.

Thompson first came to Guam as a member of the U.S. Air Force in 1966 working in communications at the Wettengel receiver site. During that time, he established two important connections that would significantly impact his future — he took a part-time job with Avis Rent a Car, and during a side trip to Saipan on Pan American Airways he met his future wife, Censia, the first Chamorro flight attendant. In 1968, he left for the U.S. mainland to be discharged from the military and came back to Guam, where he returned to Avis, and married Censia.

Shortly after his return, Thompson was recruited by Jones & Guerrero Inc. to manage its National Car Rental operation. He was later appointed general manager of the company’s automobile dealership which sold primarily Datsuns as well as the Ford, Lincoln Mercury and Mazda lines of vehicles. While at J&G, and still in his early 20s, he added to his business acumen. “I worked for Ken Jones [founder of J&G] and Bob Jones [now president and CEO of Triple J Enterprises] and directly for Billy Jones [brother of Ken and Bob] back in the day,” he says. “I picked up some of their strengths and tried to mirror that. After a while, it became part of my persona.

They instilled a work ethic; you had to stand and deliver. You couldn’t be complacent; you had to have a lot of drive.”

In 1982, Thompson was asked to join Atkins Kroll and became its president shortly thereafter. The “jewel in the crown” of Atkins Kroll, he says, was its auto dealership, which sold, as it does today, Toyota, Lexus and General Motors cars, as well as Mercedes Benz vehicles and Yamaha motorcycles, boats and generators. But it also, at the time, had a commercial division that sold hotel and restaurant supplies, janitorial products, and wine and spirits. Through parent company, the London-based Inchcape, Atkins Kroll also had a shipping agency — and a full-service insurance agency.

As Thompson moved from the auto business to the multi-faceted AK. “They didn’t give me a very long handover; my predecessor sat me down,” he says. “ And he said, ‘Bill, it’s just like a 747; just leave it on autopilot for a while and watch it. It’ll come to you.’ Which it did.”

Thompson took the reins of Atkins Kroll at a high point in Guam’s economy. “The island was booming and tourism was taking off,” he says. “We were riding a crest and when one activity may have a slowdown, the other businesses would bring that up. AK was a balanced company, so we weren’t relying on strictly one thing, like automotive.”

In 1988, Inchcape transferred Thompson to Hong Kong, “to look after their motors operations, Best of British, which is Jaguar, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Land Rover, Range Rover,” he says. “That was a lot of fun.”

When the company reorganized in 1991, he was asked to return to Guam as president and chairman of Atkins Kroll, and “also to continue with my business development roles in Asia — Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong.” That work included helping to establish the first foreign Mercedes dealership in Japan, “which was kind of a coup for Inchcape.”

In 1996, as part of more than two decades of fast-paced global growth, Aon Corp. acquired the worldwide operations of Inchcape’s insurance division. “When Aon acquired Inchcape’s insurance operations around the world, there was a proper handover around the world, including Guam, Saipan and Micronesia,” Thompson says. “I was approached by Robert Harrison, who was a director with Aon and he asked if I could stay on as president and chairman of the [local] company. I said I would. I was honored to be considered, especially considering that I was not an insurance specialist.”

As Thompson looks back at his time with Aon he points to three areas to which he says he has contributed most significantly. “First of all, working with the local staff here,” he says. As the company changed and Aon management rotated in and out of Guam, he was a constant as daily operations continued. “They’d see different managers coming and going; I’m sort of like the anchor.”

Thompson also did his best to ensure that ex-patriate managers became acclimated to Guam quickly. “I always made sure their wife came along [during preliminary visits] and went shopping and so on,” he says. “Of course, my wife was always helping out.”

Third was his involvement in the acquisition of Baldwin Insurance in 1998. “We were basically doing agency work which included reinsurance, marine, fire and workman’s comp,” Thompson says. “But the strong suit of Aon is their risk management and broking services. We talked about it and I asked, ‘How can we get this up to speed?’ So the idea was maybe we could acquire a business here that features that, that has global connections already, thus the Baldwins Insurance operation. I’d known George [Baldwin] for over 20 years and … I approached him and said, ‘Would you consider Aon Insurance?’ George is a sharp broker, a risk management individual and it was a great fit for us. So we came to an agreement to buy his operation with a proviso that he stay on board for several years.”

Settling into retirement, Thompson has moved from Kentucky, where he grew up, to be near his grandchildren in Sacramento. The car aficionado, says that his dream cars, are an Aston Martin and a Bentley. He sold his Jaguar XK-8 to buy a van for the move, “I felt like I had to put on dark glasses and a hat to hide,” he says.

Reflecting on his years with Aon, “I feel honored that Aon has given me the position and responsibility to help look after their business here,” he says.