Luis Miranda Casañas (Oct 1937 - January 7, 2019), a native of Santana barrio, in
Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Arecibo (; ) is a Arecibo barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, located north of Utuado, Puerto Rico, Utuado and Ciales, Puerto Rico, Ciale ...
, was the Chairman of the Board of Universal, the largest insurance group in Puerto Rico, which he founded in 1998. It also has a corporate presence on the United States mainland. He is credited, during his long career with Universal, as being the driving force behind the emporium's gradual but steady expansion into diverse lines of business and of successfully surviving banking's incursion into the insurance business.
Career
A graduate of the
University of Puerto Rico
The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...
Río Piedras campus School of Business Administration,
his professional career in the insurance business began in 1957 as an underwriting trainee. In 1959, he founded his own company, and in 1983 founded the Eastern America Insurance Agency, the cornerstone of the Universal Insurance Group, which in 2004 began its mainland United States expansion and now has operations in Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, South Carolina and Texas, and had reached $1.4 billion in total assets by 2008. A leader of Puerto Rico's insurance industry, Miranda presided ACODESE, the insurance industry's trade group in 1985, 1990 and 1998.
Miranda was a member of the prestigious
Caribbean Business Hall of Fame, and one of only 22 businessmen to obtain the annual Lifetime Achievement Award instituted in 1988. In 2007, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award.
On a personal level, he was a
paso fino
The Paso Fino is a naturally gaited light horse breed dating back to horses imported to the Caribbean from Spain. ''Pasos'' are prized for their smooth, natural, four-beat, lateral ambling gait; they are used in many disciplines, but are especi ...
horse enthusiast.
Death
He died on January 7, 2019, at the age of 81 leaving a wife and a daughter.
Legacy
His daughter Monique Miranda-Merle founded the Luis Miranda Casañas Foundation and the "Universal University" with the purpose of supporting the insurance industry in Puerto Rico.
References
1937 births
2019 deaths
People from Arecibo, Puerto Rico
University of Puerto Rico alumni
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