Insuring all goes well: Gregory Jones turned his penchant for movies into a career

Black Enterprise, March, 1996 by Cassandra Hayes

When you think "behind the scenes" in Hollywood, you'd better think Gregory Jones. Before a camera can roll or a director can yell "action," Jones, and entertainment insurance brokers like him, ink the insurance deals of their producer clients.

As senior vice president of entertainment at Max Behm & Associates/USI Insurance Services Inc.--one of the top three entertainment insurance brokerage firms in the country--Jones analyzes a film's script and budget to determine how much it will cost to insure production. He then shops the film around to insurance companies to get the best deal. By marrying his passion for entertainment with the pragmatism of the insurance industry, Jones has proven that some hobbies can make for quite intriguing careers.

Before first grade, Jones was memorizing film credits, jingles and sports statistics. "My mother would say, `Tell your uncle who does the music for The Lucy Show,' and I would answer, `Wilbur Hatch,'" recalls Jones, now 40. Soon-thereafter, Jones was reeling off the names of producers, directors and writers. By the age of 12, the gifted student with a photographic memory was auditioning for drama roles in New York City theaters.

But as a boy growing up in Harlem, Jones says his acting wasn't popular with his sports-minded peers, and he abandoned it. Nonetheless, his strong interest in the arts motivated him to earn a degree in English literature from New York's Lehman College in 1977, where he was also named "Athlete of the Year."

After college, Jones flirted with the idea of teaching, but opted for business instead. He took a job as an underwriter trainee with American International Group, a New York insurance company, and later moved to Chubb Insurance where he was a commercial property insurance manager. About a year later, Jones was bored.

"I was unhappy and feeling unfulfilled," he recalls. But one day, after overhearing an entertainment broker and a producer talk about scripts, actors and the use of animals in a film, things changed. Jones drilled colleagues on the ins and outs of entertainment brokering and within a year obtained his broker's license. Later, an associates degree in risk management helped Jones better understand how movie studios purchase insurance.

By 1986, Jones had two compelling reasons to move to Los Angeles. His then-infant son Gregory Jr. had asthma, which New York's climate aggravated. The second reason was a job offer from Albert G. Ruben & Co. in Beverly Hills, the entertainment insurance leader. The move paid off: While a vice president at Ruben & Co., Jones handled all the insurance for Viacom International, the parent company of Showtime, Paramount Pictures, MTV and Nickelodeon.

Over the past 10 years, Jones has negotiated more than $3 billion in production insurance placements for more than 200 films, television shows and commercials. His long list of film credits includes blockbusters such as Die Hard With a Vengeance, Dances With Wolves, Panther and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.

Jones must take into account everything from general liability to props to actors falling ill in order to determine the cost of a film's insurance. It could cost up to $800,000 to insure a $40 million film from script to distribution, and most brokerage firms walk away with 10% to 15% in commission. Brokers get a percentage of that fee and easily rake in $100,000 to $200,000 a year. Those salaries are sure to keep pace with film production costs that continue to jump 20% annually.

Despite the aura, die industry is not as glamorous as people think, notes Jones, who occasionally gives lectures on production insurance at the University of Southern California and at the American Film Institute. He can count on one hand the number of actors he has met. "Producers call me all times of day or night with questions," says Jones, who over the past 12 years has never lost a client because of poor service. "Success in this business is measured by your accessibility." Adds Jones, "Insurance is not just a guy with a briefcase knocking on your door. There is a niche for any interest."