Special to South Florida Times

When Jim McKinley retired this summer from the insurance firm he founded two decades ago, he put his long-time protégés Ralph W. Campbell Jr. and Charles Murphy in charge of the firm.  
Campbell, who joined the company in 1999, now serves as CEO and president and is responsible for managing the overall operations, including sales agent recruitment and training and new business development. He previously worked for UNUM Life Insurance Company and has extensive experience in leadership training.  He co-founded Summit Education, a Fort Lauderdale-based training firm.  He is involved in several business and nonprofit organizations, including the Leadership Broward Foundation, the Urban Teachers Academy Program (UTAP), Women in Distress and the Broward Partnership for the Homeless.

Campbell is a graduate of Leadership Florida and a four-time nominee for the JM Family African American Achievers Award.  His honors include the Women in Distress Men of Style and 2009 Leadership Broward Fun Lunch Honoree.

His vision for McKinley includes helping small businesses navigate health care reform rules, supporting nonprofits and growing national accounts. 

“We are building on Jim’s strong legacy and success in building McKinley to be the largest minority-owned insurance firm in the country,” Campbell said in a statement announcing the appointments. “Now our focus will be to compete in the global arena as strong overall insurance consultants to a variety of entities, including universities, municipalities, businesses, and nonprofits.”

Murphy, named chief operating officer, joined McKinley in 1990 as a sales agent and left in 1992 to gain national sales and business development experience with both AT&T and Verizon. He has developed the McKinley’s national account base since returning to the company in 2007.

An active community volunteer, Murphy serves on several nonprofit boards and is president of Men United for Positive Action (MUPA) and the Dania Athletic Club.

Under this new management team, the insurance firm will now operate as McKinley Insurance Services Inc. to more accurately reflect its core business.

McKinley Insurance employs about 40 people and operates a second office in Orlando.   The independent agency represents more than 100 insurance carriers and is licensed in more than 30 states.