Policy and People: The Balance of an Insurance Commissioner’s Life

Alan McClain was appointed as Arkansas’s 24th Insurance Commissioner by former Governor Asa Hutchinson in April 2020, and continues to serve as Commissioner under Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Prior to his appointment, McClain served for five years as Commissioner of Arkansas Rehabilitation Services (ARS)—a sister agency of the Arkansas Insurance Department (AID) under the state Department of Commerce.

Commissioner McClain began his career in state government in 1992 at AID, spending eight years in its Public Employee Claims Division. Prior to joining AID, he served as a Claims Manager for self-insured workers’ compensation plans at the Little Rock offices of Sedgwick James Insurance.

McClain served thirteen years with the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission (AWCC), where he spent almost nine years as its Chief Executive Officer. While at the AWCC, he also served as the regulator for companies and groups seeking to self-insure workers’ compensation risks. In 2013 McClain left the AWCC to join the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he worked alongside numerous state workers’ compensation agencies as they utilized the work of WCRI in making data-driven policy decisions.

McClain served as President of the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation between 2019-20, as well as President of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards & Commissions (IAIABC) in 2011, where he was named Co-Chair of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)/IAIABC Joint Working Group. During his time as Commissioner of Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, Governor Hutchinson also appointed McClain to serve on the Arkansas Workforce Development Board, and the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities.

In addition to membership on a number of other NAIC task forces and working groups, McClain currently serves as Chair of the NAIC Property and Casualty (C) Committee, as well as Chair of the Workers’ Compensation Task Force, a subgroup of the Property and Casualty (C) Committee. He also serves on the Financial Standards and Accreditation (F) Committee, which reviews insurance department ability to analyze company solvency.

McClain is a native Arkansan. He holds an undergraduate degree from Hendrix College in Conway, as well as a Master of Public Administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

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