Former Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Agent Adrian Brown started Brown & Owen, later Brown & Brown, with his cousin Charles Owen in 1939. By 1959, Adrian Brown’s son Hyatt Brown had graduated from the University of Florida with a double major in real estate and insurance. Hyatt Brown officially started at the family business and landed the company a contract with the University of Florida’s student accident insurance.
Hyatt Brown bought the company two years later and started the process of increasing revenue and margins with acquisitions and company reorganization. In 1993, the company merged with Poe & Associates and became Brown & Brown, Inc. Today, Hyatt Brown is company chairman and his son, J. Powell Brown, runs the business. Brown & Brown reached $1 billion in revenue in 2012.