Big Auto Insurer Names Ashley as Its New President

The parent company of 20th Century Insurance, one of California’s largest auto insurers, announced Friday that it has named Neil H. Ashley as its president and chief operating officer.

The move completes a management shake-up initiated in July, when G. Robert Thompson, 57, was demoted from president to executive vice president. Ashley, a 63-year-old lawyer, was promoted at the time from group vice president to executive vice president.

He was named president of Woodland Hills-based 20th Century Industries and the insurance company that is its only operating unit to oversee the business’ rapid growth and to increase sales of homeowners’ insurance, spokesman Rick Dinon said. Dinon added that the management changes were unrelated to second-quarter earnings, which one analyst called disappointing.

The company posted net income of $6.9 million during the quarter, up 17% from a year earlier, but it lost $199,000 on operations. It finished in the black thanks to $7.3 million in investment income.

Net premiums written--the volume of new policies put on the company’s books--totaled $97.9 million, up 40% from the same quarter last year.

“20th Century is a company that has had a lot of potential, and it’s sometimes been disappointing,” said Joanne Morrissey, president of Firemark, an investment firm specializing in insurance companies. “It’s a company that could really have explosive earnings.”

Dinon said Louis W. Foster, 73, remains chairman and chief executive of the business that he founded in 1958 in downtown Los Angeles. It sells insurance exclusively to low-risk customers in California by direct mail and telephone rather than through outside agents.