In 1987, Greg Belton, then 29, and John Hawkrigg, 25, purchased Muntz
& Beatty Inc., a Toronto firm founded in 1889. After seven years
of strong revenue growth, Muntz & Beatty merged with another established
Toronto firm -- Guthrie, Keilty, Bickerstaff, whose origin dated back
to the 1920’s -- forming Keilty Muntz & Beatty in 1994. With
that merger, Robert Keilty and Neil Morrison became equal partners with
Belton and Hawkrigg.
Keilty Muntz & Beatty doubled its revenue over the ensuing four
years and, in 1998, merged with Hunter Rowell Limited -- a firm which
had been owned and operated in Toronto by the Hunter family since 1888.
The merged firm, Hunter Keilty Muntz & Beatty tripled its revenues
over the next five years.
On January 1, 2007, HKMB acquired the commercial operations of the Toronto and Vancouver offices of Morris & Mackenzie Inc., a well-established Canadian brokerage with a history dating to 1894. The acquisition cemented HKMB’s position as Canada’s largest, privately owned, commercial insurance brokerage.
On January 2, 2008, HKMB combined with HUB International Limited to become HKMB HUB International. Greg Belton, John
Hawkrigg, Neil Morrison, and Robert Keilty continue to lead the firm they built and are major shareholders in HUB International Limited.
HKMB Climbs the Ladder: Hunter Keilty Muntz & Beatty Leapfrogs the Competition, Canadian Insurance April 2007
When Gregory Belton set out at the age of 29 to open his own commercial brokerage in partnership with his 24-year-old business partner, John Hawkrigg, the consensus was that they were “doomed to failure.” Their enthusiasm and ambition notwithstanding, Belton recalls, they were warned by the brokerage community that they were too green and inexperienced; they had never run any kind of a business, let alone a brokerage, so what could they be thinking.
“We were told it was completely unrealistic to believe we could acquire a brokerage and be a success,” Belton recalls with a laugh. “The prognosis was gloomy.”
Belton can well afford to look back with amusement. The privately held Toronto-based brokerage that he and his partner bought 20 years ago has evolved into Hunter Keilty Muntz & Beatty, a leader in the commercial p&c industry. The founders had high hopes when they brushed aside the skepticism of the naysayers and hung out their shingle but they moved even further up the ladder than they initially dreamed of.
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