Executive Profile
Thursday, June 10, 1999

Name: Craig M. Watanabe
Age: 41
Position: Captive insurance administrator, Hawaii Insurance Division
First job: Replanting sugar cane, Oahu
Favorite pastimes: Soccer, family time

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Checking insurance
compliance for the state

Craig M. Watanabe heads up the recently formed captive insurance branch in the state insurance division, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Hawaii passed a law in 1987 which allows companies to get a license to self-insure.

"My primary objective is to regulate and make sure these companies are serving the public interest," Watanabe said.

He also works to help companies. Hawaii has attracted more than 65 companies to captive insurance.

Singapore is Hawaii's major competitor.

Watanabe has more than 12 years in insurance, starting as an internal auditor for Crum & Forster Corp. in San Francisco and later as a workers' compensation underwriter for Industrial Indemnity Inc. in Honolulu.

Watanable earned a bachelor's degree in administration and management science and economics from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pennsylvania.

He earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of San Francisco.

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By Jerry Tune, Star-Bulletin