James Thomas Morris, FSA (born January 11, 1960) is an American businessman in the insurance industry.
Morris is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Life Insurance Company, as well as its parent companies Pacific Mutual Holding Company and Pacific LifeCorp. He has held these roles since 2005/7. He is only the 14th CEO the company has ever had in its 145-year history. He took on the role after Thomas C. Sutton retired, who said: “Jim Morris has a 26 year history with Pacific Life. During this time, he has increasingly been involved and responsible for the growth of the company. The directors of our boards are impressed with Jim’s leadership style and business acumen and this appointment reflects our complete confidence in his ability to lead Pacific Life and its family of companies.”[1]
Morris serves on the Hoag Hospital Foundation Board of Directors, and is on the board of visitors of the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.[2] He is also a Trustee of Pacific LifeCorp Annuity Services Inc. and its 54 Funds complex managed by Pacific Life Insurance Company.
Before his current role at the firm, Morris held a variety of other roles at the firm. On joining the firm in 1982, he was an assistant actuary, Special Marketing. He then advanced to various managerial roles in the life insurance division until in 1996 he became Senior Vice President of M-Operations. Other roles included: Assistant VP of Individual Product Research and Development, Second Vice President, Product Design/Development, Executive VP and Chief Insurance Officer.In this latter position, Morris was responsible for the Annuities Mutual Funds Division and Pacific Select Group. A year later he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Between 1981 and 1982 he was a summer actuarial student with Transamerica Occidental.[3]
Between 2007 and 2014 Morris was an on the board of directors at the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), between 2012–13, as its chairman. Between 2002 and 2006, he was on the Life Insurance Marketing Research Association's (LIMRA) Strategic Marketing Issues Committee. He was also a Chairman of the Junior Achievement of Orange County.[4]
Morris has a BA in Mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Pacific Life Insurance Company is an American insurance company providing life insurance products, annuities, and mutual funds, and offers a variety of investment products and services to individuals, businesses, and pension plans. Pacific Life also counts more than half of the 100 largest U.S. companies as clients.
