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February 20, 2021 / 2021 Power 50

2021 Power 50: 16. Christopher Swift

Christopher Swift
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Christopher Swift — chairman and CEO of The Hartford, one of the largest property-and-casualty insurers in the country — is a major Hartford booster.

When former GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowksi wrote a scathing op-ed about the city of Hartford in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, Swift responded with a strong defense of the city his company has called home for more than two centuries.

“Prior to the pandemic, there was a palpable change in Hartford’s mood, a discernible shift in how the city thinks of itself and of its future,” Swift’s Jan. 11 op-ed in the Hartford Courant read. “The cloud that has hovered over the city since the late 1980s was lifting. Together, I know we will recapture that momentum as we finally put the deadly coronavirus behind us.”

Swift represents another corporate CEO who has significantly ramped-up his civic engagement in recent years. He was one of three insurance executives in 2017 who declared that his company would give the city of Hartford millions of dollars over five years, to help with its dire financial issues. He was also a member of the state legislature-backed Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth.

Swift also spearheaded a multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign that will yield a new Boys and Girls Clubs recreation center in Hartford’s South End.

Besides defending the city, Swift has also had to defend The Hartford’s response to the pandemic, specifically when it comes to dealing with business interruption insurance claims filed by companies hit hard by COVID-19. Many companies argued such policies covered pandemic-related business interruptions but insurers including The Hartford have fought — including in court — against that notion.

In June, Swift penned an op-ed for CNN Business, arguing that viruses are generally outside the scope of business interruption coverage due to the absence of any physical damage.

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