NEITHER R Danny Williams nor Life of Jamaica (LOJ) — rebranded Sagicor Life Jamaica (SLJ) in 2007 — seem able to cut the umbilical cord that binds them.

Sagicor this week announced to the Jamaica Stock Exchange that the LOJ founder is back at the helm as chairman, following the decision of Barbados-based Dr Dodridge Miller to relinquish the post as chairman of the SLJ Board of Directors on January 31, 2010.

Miller, who will continue as a board member of SLJ, will pay greater attention to parent company, Sagicor Financial Corporation, which he was quoted as saying would require greater focus in the upcoming years “as we pursue strategies that will allow us to achieve our growth targets”.

“I remain fully committed to Sagicor Life Jamaica and will continue to contribute to this important member of our group as a director,” Dr Miller said.

But for R Danvers ‘Danny’ Williams, the chairman’s seat in the boardroom is a natural fit.

Williams founded Life of Jamaica in 1970, at the height of a spectacular career in the insurance industry, and built it up as one of the largest insurance firms in the Caribbean.

He served as president and CEO of the company on two separate occasions. But in the midst of the 1990s financial meltdown, he ceded control of the company to the state-run Financial Adjustment Company (Finsac).

Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society and Life of Barbados acquired majority interest in LOJ some years later. Barbados Mutual in turn acquired LOJ, demutualised and which was rebranded as Sagicor.

Williams remained a shareholder with 12.33 million shares through his company Ravers Limited at the time.

When the rebranding programme was being rolled out in Jamaica, Danny Williams was the most known face at the press conference table, endorsing the new name and assuring the Jamaican clientele it was business as usual but even better than before.

Williams was only 18 years old when he joined North American Life Assurance Company, NALACO, as a salesman, in 1953. Within seven years, he was appointed branch manager for Jamaica and over the next decade, he guided the branch to the number one position in the company’s international network.

Williams is also remembered for his three-year stint as a senator, minister of state and minister of industry and commerce respectively between 1977 and 1980.

He has served on several other boards, including that of the Jamaica Broilers Group as director emeritus and Jamaica College as chairman; the Alkali Group, Virginia Dare (Jamaica) Limited and Mavis Bank Coffee Factory Limited; as president of the Jamaica Association for the Deaf for 10 years; chairman of the former Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of Literacy, JAMAL; the National Development Foundation of Jamaica, as well as vice-president of the Jaycees of Jamaica and the West Indies Jaycees.

For his services to Jamaica, Williams earned himself the national honours of Commander of the Order of Distinction in 1972 and the Order of Jamaica in 1993. He was conferred with the degree of Doctor of Laws (Hon) by the University of Technology in 2005.