Bio

In November 2008, North Carolina voters elected Wayne Goodwin as the first new Commissioner of Insurance in 24 years. Since taking office in 2009, Wayne has ordered insurance rate cuts, rate freezes, rebates, refunds and restitution that have saved North Carolinians more than $1.3 billion.

Under Wayne’s leadership, auto insurance refunds totaling $50 million were delivered to one in four North Carolina drivers. Reductions in workers’ compensation rates saved at least $115 million for North Carolina businesses, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina refunded a historic $155.8 million to 215,000 families.

Wayne has made fighting insurance fraud a priority in his administration. Since 2009, his team of criminal investigators has made more than 600 arrests, resulting in nearly $49 million in restitution and recoveries for victims.

He has also worked with the North Carolina General Assembly to protect North Carolinians. Wayne’s actions led to insurance companies giving up $800 million of surplus in the Coastal Property Insurance Pool, helping avert a statewide homeowners insurance crisis. Additionally, Wayne persuaded the legislature to expand and protect monetary grants for fire, rescue and EMS departments in an effort to help keep homeowners insurance rates as low as possible.

Wayne is a staunch advocate for preserving state regulatory rights, fighting the federal government on multiple fronts as Congress has tried to reduce state government authority on insurance regulation.

A native of Hamlet, N.C., Wayne is from a family active in agriculture and banking. He excelled in Richmond County public schools, becoming the first Morehead Scholar and William Randolph Hearst/U.S. Senate Scholar from Richmond Senior High and attending Governor’s School in mathematics.

Wayne graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with honors in political science. He then went on to graduate from the UNC School of Law, working at the Institute of Government during his studies. Returning to his native Richmond County, he worked in private legal practice for 13 years and started three successful small businesses.

In 1996, Wayne was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives and represented Richmond, Scotland, Montgomery and Stanly counties for four terms. Wayne was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Insurance and Assistant State Fire Marshal for North Carolina in 2005, before being elected Insurance Commissioner in 2008.

Wayne has been a member and Sunday school teacher at First United Methodist Church in Rockingham for many years and is now an associate member at Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Raleigh. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club and various civic, non-profit and other boards, and is a past director for the Methodist Home for Children. Wayne and his wife Melanie live in Raleigh with their daughter Madison and son Jackson.