Sharing Economy: An Interview with California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones

Armand Feliciano

Commissioner Dave Jones

nsurance Commissioner Dave Jones was elected on November 2, 2010 and re-elected on November 4, 2014. Jones leads the California Department of Insurance (CDI) and regulates the California insurance market. Insurers collect $257 billion a year in premiums in California, making it the nation’s largest insurance market. The Daily Journal, the state’s largest legal newspaper, named Jones one of California’s Top 100 Lawyers in 2011. Commissioner Jones served in the California State Assembly from 2004 through 2010, where he chaired the Assembly Health Committee, the Assembly Judiciary Committee and the Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. He began his career as a legal aid attorney, providing free legal assistance to the poor with Legal Services of Northern California from 1988 to 1995. In 1995, he was one of only 13 Americans awarded the prestigious White House Fellowship. He served in the Clinton Administration for three years as Special Assistant and Counsel to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. He also served on the Sacramento City Council from 1999 to 2004. He graduated with honors from DePauw University, Harvard Law School and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He and his wife, Kim Flores, have two children, Isabelle and William, and live in Sacramento.

Armand Feliciano is the current chair of the State Bar Insurance Committee and is Vice President with the Association of California Insurance Companies (ACIC). ACIC is part of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), a national trade organization representing nearly 1,000 insurance companies. Its purpose is to advocate its members’ public policy positions at the state and federal levels and to provide its members with targeted industry information. Prior to ACIC, he was Associate Director of Medical and Regulatory Policy for the California Medical Association (CMA), and previously worked for WellPoint/ Anthem as Director of Government Relations. His public sector experience includes working as a Deputy Attorney General for the California Department of Justice, as Deputy Legislative Secretary for Governor Gray Davis, and as a Legislative Staff and Committee Consultant in the California Senate and Assembly. He earned his juris doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of California, Riverside. He is also an alumnus of the California Senate Fellows program. He resides in Sacramento with his wife Hilary and daughters Sofia and Ella.