Vilmos Ormody de Ormod
Vilmos Ormody was born in 1838 in Miskolc. He was one of the most important insurance specialists of his time. Immediately after his secondary school education, he joined the First Hungarian General Insurance Company, serving as an officer for nearly 40 years, then as its CEO for 24 years, and finally as its president for a decade until his death at the age of 94. He is credited with a number of initiatives and charitable foundations, mainly for the welfare of civil servants. For his work in the field of economics, he was made a nobleman with the title of Orvald in 1897 and a baron in 1906, and was made a member of the House of Lords.
His life
Ormody - at birth Berger - Vilmos was born on 8 December 1838 in Miskolc, the sixth of twelve children of József Berger (1797-1854) and Borbála Spitzer (1805-1862), the sixth of a family of Jewish bourgeoisie. After his secondary school education, he joined the newly founded First Hungarian General Insurance Company (EMÁBIT) in 1857 and remained with the company for 75 years, until his death. His family took the name Ormody in 1862. Vilmos Ormody lived in Sopron from 1857 and then in Pest from 1865, where he married Mór Eisenberger's daughter Amália Eisenberger (1849-1903) on 2 June 1868. They had one child, Róza Ormody (1876-1956), whose first husband was Pál Tarcsay (1873-1909), director of the Central Commercial and Industrial Bank in Budapest, and whose second husband was Emánuel (Manó) Hegyi (1877-1944), a music academy teacher. Vilmos Ormody was awarded the nobility of Ormody in 1897 and the title of Baron in 1906 for his successful work in the field of economics, and was made a member of the House of Lords. Of his brothers, only Lajos and Bertalan (Miskolc, 7 January 1836 - Pest, 24 December 1869), poets and newspaper writers, have survived. After his retirement in 1922, Vilmos Ormody became president of the society and continued to live in his apartment in the EMÁBIT's Vigadó Square palace. It was here that he died on 6 December 1932, aged 94. He is buried in the Israelite cemetery on Kozma Street.
Professional activity
After finishing his studies, Vilmos Ormody started to work in Sopron as secretary of the main office of EMÁBIT, which was being organised in Sopron. In 1862, our sources show him as Berger in the same place, but in 1867 he was certainly already head of department in the Central Office in Pest. He had probably been working in this position for a few years by then, because the following year he was appointed deputy director, from 1881 director, from 1888 member of the board of directors, and on 14 March 1898 general manager.
Vilmos Ormody, as CEO of First Hungarian, was also an advocate of more prudent business management. Whereas in the Lévay era, dividends were paid out on a ratio of 60-701 TtP3T of net profit, under Ormody's leadership this ratio fluctuated between 30-601 TtP3T. Ormody's prudent business policy was most effective in the ice insurance sector. The ice sector, with its exceptional claims fluctuations, also caused management many headaches during this period. The main antidote to the fluctuations was seen in the wider dissemination of insurance, but the Hungarian Farmers' Ice Insurance Association, set up earlier by EMÁBIT, did not bring the expected breakthrough. Ormody embarked on a comprehensive reform of the ice business in his first year as CEO. He did not renew the association, and from 1898 EMÁBIT again wrote new business only on its own account. The tariffs were completely revised, and were subject to annual revision on the basis of empirical loss statistics. In practice, this meant a significant price increase. In order to manage the volatility of losses, the company reinsured a much higher proportion of its ice business than in the past, retaining only 35% of its own risk. The reform succeeded in reducing EMÁBIT's ice losses significantly, but it also had a long-term, market-wide transformative element, namely the restructuring of the ice claims settlement process, with the creation of an Ice Bureau acting on behalf of all insurers.
As Director General, Vilmos Ormody relied mainly on the senior officials of the Central Office. As one of them - he valued, loved and supported the civil service. While Lévay initiated foundations to support agents, Ormody supported officials. The Millennium Foundation, established in 1896 at the end of their period together with Lévay, was for the higher education of the children of officials and agents, while the Vilmos Ormody Foundation (1897) was for the treatment of sick officials in spas. In 1903, in memory of his wife's death, he created the Amélie Ormody Foundation, which supported the marriages of the daughters of officials, the benefit being distributed each year on the day of the eponym's death in 1903. In response, grateful officials used their own money to establish an Ormody Amélie Wreath Fund. However, William Ormody was at the forefront of the lobbying of officials not only within the company but throughout the industry. From 1891, he was the first president of the newly formed National Association of Insurance Officers, whose successor organisation, the National Association of Insurance Officers, was founded in 1912.
The entire Ormody era was characterised by a strong Central Office, illustrious careers as a senior civil servant and a society that generously looked after its officials. His role in the office was just one small addition: until his retirement in 1922, he held the telegraphic addresses of both EMÁBIT and the Pannonia Reinsurance Company ormodyvil, only then was the popular emabit for short.
Ormody retired from the position of CEO after 65 years of service, but at the same time he took over the chairmanship of the company from Endre Count Csekonics. He kept all his salary, tantiem, profit-sharing and his official residence. The latter was significant because it was the only apartment in the EMÁBIT's Vigadó Square office palace. The former CEO was therefore a regular visitor to the office until his death.
Vilmos Ormody's positions in the First Hungarian Group
Secretary to the General Board of the First Hungarian General Insurance Company 1857-1865
head of department 1865-1867
deputy director 1868-1880
Director 1881-1887
member of the board of directors 1888-1897
general manager 1898-1922
president 1922-1932
Pannonia Reinsurance Audit 1870
board member 1871-1932
Member of the Board of Directors of the Vienna Insurance Company 1887-1926
Member of the Board of Directors of the Vienna Life and Annuity Insurance Company 1887-1926
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hungarian-French Insurance Company 1893-1932
National Accident Insurance Company, member of the Board of Directors 1894-1924
chairman of the board 1896-1914
president 1913-1932
Of William Ormody's brothers, Lajos and Bertalan also had links with EMÁBIT. Not much is known about Lajos Ormody. In 1875 he must have been the secretary of the EMÁBIT General Office in Debrecen, and this was recorded as a founding member of the local Masonic lodge when it was founded. His name was listed in the compasses as head of the main office until 1911. Bertalan Ormody, a poet, like Vilmos, also started working in the main agency in Sopron in 1861, but showed little enthusiasm for the agency career. Rather, he would have preferred to establish a new journal - Sopron Notes - which would have published literary, artistic and social news and also served as the journal of the life insurance branch of EMÁBIT. If successful, it would have been the first Hungarian-language insurance journal in Hungary. However, a day before its launch, scheduled for 1 June 1861, the poet was arrested for a patriotic poem published without permission and sentenced to four months in prison, despite a rescue campaign by his brother and the ladies of Sopron. The paper was never published and Bertalan Ormody soon left the insurance business.
Public activities
Ormody vilmos appeared in public life primarily in his role as a patron and supporter. His foundations for insurance officials have already been mentioned. In addition, he has supported a number of cultural and charitable initiatives, both from the insurance company and from his private wealth.
In 1895, he was elected president of the Budapest Music Lovers' Association.In memory of his wife, who died in 1903, he established a literary foundation at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the aim of which was to reward "works of fiction that pay homage to the pure feminine ideal". In 1906, she was elected a perpetual member of the House of Lords, and in that year she was one of the five Israelite members of the upper house, along with Ferenc Chorin, Sándor Hatvany-Deutsch, Zsigmond Kornfeld and Károly Sváb. In June of the same year, the Emperor awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph. He was a founding member of the Kisfaludy Society.
His writings and publications
Ormody has published relatively little, with little in the general public and business press and not much in insurance journals.
Memorandum on insurance reform (Budapest, 1900)
On the deposit of premium reserves (Hungarian Insurance Yearbook, Budapest 1901)
Jubilee album of the First Hungarian General Insurance Company: 1857-1907. editor (Budapest, 1908)
Preface to the four-volume table of the mortality of the Hungarian insured (Budapest, 1912)
In memory of
The tomb of William Ormody and Amélie is located in the Israelite cemetery on Kozma Street.
Sources
EMÁBIT (Ormody Vilmos) 1908: Jubilee album of the First Hungarian General Insurance Company: 1857-1907. Budapest.
Jenő Molnár:A visit to the ninety-one-year-old Vilmos Ormody. Magyar Hírlap 25 December 1929: 51.
Association news. National Association of Insurance Officers. Budapesti Hírlap, 9 February 1891 5.
No name 1897: Ormody Vilmos Sunday Newspaper (44.) 51. 865.
Gyula Horváth - Gábor Tamás 2017:A Short History of the First Hungarian General Insurance Company. Insurance and Risk. (4.) 3. 94-97.
Béla Kempelen 1913: Hungarian noble families. Volume 8. Budapest.
József Szinnyei 1906: The life and work of Hungarian writers. Budapest.
Gábor Tamás 2019: Managerial dominance? Organizational evolution and career paths of officials in an insurance company. Kövér György - Pogány Ágnes - Weisz Boglárka (eds.): Domain - Company. Hungarian Economic History Yearbook 2019. (3.) 287-324.
Péter Újvári (ed.) 1929: Hungarian Jewish lexicon. Hungarian Hungarian Jewish History.
Born: 8 December 1838.
Place of birth: Miskolc
Date of death: 6 December 1932.
Place of death: Budapest
Occupation: CEO of an insurance company
Parents: József Berger (1797-1854) Borbála Spitzer (1805-1862)
Married to Amália Eisenberger (1849-1903) on 2 June 1868 in Pest
Children: Róza Ormody (1876-1956)
Author: by Gábor Tamás
Born: 8 December 1838.
Place of birth: Miskolc
Date of death: 6 December 1932.
Place of death: Budapest
Occupation: CEO of an insurance company
Parents: József Berger (1797-1854) Borbála Spitzer (1805-1862)
Married to Amália Eisenberger (1849-1903) on 2 June 1868 in Pest
Children: Róza Ormody (1876-1956)
Author: by Gábor Tamás
Vilmos Ormody de Ormod
Vilmos Ormody was born in 1838 in Miskolc. He was one of the most important insurance specialists of his time. Immediately after his secondary school education, he joined the First Hungarian General Insurance Company, serving as an officer for nearly 40 years, then as its CEO for 24 years, and finally as its president for a decade until his death at the age of 94. He is credited with a number of initiatives and charitable foundations, mainly for the welfare of civil servants. For his work in the field of economics, he was made a nobleman with the title of Orvald in 1897 and a baron in 1906, and was made a member of the House of Lords.
His life
Ormody - at birth Berger - Vilmos was born on 8 December 1838 in Miskolc, the sixth of twelve children of József Berger (1797-1854) and Borbála Spitzer (1805-1862), the sixth of a family of Jewish bourgeoisie. After his secondary school education, he joined the newly founded First Hungarian General Insurance Company (EMÁBIT) in 1857 and remained with the company for 75 years, until his death. His family took the name Ormody in 1862. Vilmos Ormody lived in Sopron from 1857 and then in Pest from 1865, where he married Mór Eisenberger's daughter Amália Eisenberger (1849-1903) on 2 June 1868. They had one child, Róza Ormody (1876-1956), whose first husband was Pál Tarcsay (1873-1909), director of the Central Commercial and Industrial Bank in Budapest, and whose second husband was Emánuel (Manó) Hegyi (1877-1944), a music academy teacher. Vilmos Ormody was awarded the nobility of Ormody in 1897 and the title of Baron in 1906 for his successful work in the field of economics, and was made a member of the House of Lords. Of his brothers, only Lajos and Bertalan (Miskolc, 7 January 1836 - Pest, 24 December 1869), poets and newspaper writers, have survived. After his retirement in 1922, Vilmos Ormody became president of the society and continued to live in his apartment in the EMÁBIT's Vigadó Square palace. It was here that he died on 6 December 1932, aged 94. He is buried in the Israelite cemetery on Kozma Street.
Professional activity
After finishing his studies, Vilmos Ormody started to work in Sopron as secretary of the main office of EMÁBIT, which was being organised in Sopron. In 1862, our sources show him as Berger in the same place, but in 1867 he was certainly already head of department in the Central Office in Pest. He had probably been working in this position for a few years by then, because the following year he was appointed deputy director, from 1881 director, from 1888 member of the board of directors, and on 14 March 1898 general manager.
Vilmos Ormody, as CEO of First Hungarian, was also an advocate of more prudent business management. Whereas in the Lévay era, dividends were paid out on a ratio of 60-701 TtP3T of net profit, under Ormody's leadership this ratio fluctuated between 30-601 TtP3T. Ormody's prudent business policy was most effective in the ice insurance sector. The ice sector, with its exceptional claims fluctuations, also caused management many headaches during this period. The main antidote to the fluctuations was seen in the wider dissemination of insurance, but the Hungarian Farmers' Ice Insurance Association, set up earlier by EMÁBIT, did not bring the expected breakthrough. Ormody embarked on a comprehensive reform of the ice business in his first year as CEO. He did not renew the association, and from 1898 EMÁBIT again wrote new business only on its own account. The tariffs were completely revised, and were subject to annual revision on the basis of empirical loss statistics. In practice, this meant a significant price increase. In order to manage the volatility of losses, the company reinsured a much higher proportion of its ice business than in the past, retaining only 35% of its own risk. The reform succeeded in reducing EMÁBIT's ice losses significantly, but it also had a long-term, market-wide transformative element, namely the restructuring of the ice claims settlement process, with the creation of an Ice Bureau acting on behalf of all insurers.
As Director General, Vilmos Ormody relied mainly on the senior officials of the Central Office. As one of them - he valued, loved and supported the civil service. While Lévay initiated foundations to support agents, Ormody supported officials. The Millennium Foundation, established in 1896 at the end of their period together with Lévay, was for the higher education of the children of officials and agents, while the Vilmos Ormody Foundation (1897) was for the treatment of sick officials in spas. In 1903, in memory of his wife's death, he created the Amélie Ormody Foundation, which supported the marriages of the daughters of officials, the benefit being distributed each year on the day of the eponym's death in 1903. In response, grateful officials used their own money to establish an Ormody Amélie Wreath Fund. However, William Ormody was at the forefront of the lobbying of officials not only within the company but throughout the industry. From 1891, he was the first president of the newly formed National Association of Insurance Officers, whose successor organisation, the National Association of Insurance Officers, was founded in 1912.
The entire Ormody era was characterised by a strong Central Office, illustrious careers as a senior civil servant and a society that generously looked after its officials. His role in the office was just one small addition: until his retirement in 1922, he held the telegraphic addresses of both EMÁBIT and the Pannonia Reinsurance Company ormodyvil, only then was the popular emabit for short.
Ormody retired from the position of CEO after 65 years of service, but at the same time he took over the chairmanship of the company from Endre Count Csekonics. He kept all his salary, tantiem, profit-sharing and his official residence. The latter was significant because it was the only apartment in the EMÁBIT's Vigadó Square office palace. The former CEO was therefore a regular visitor to the office until his death.
Vilmos Ormody's positions in the First Hungarian Group
Secretary to the General Board of the First Hungarian General Insurance Company 1857-1865
head of department 1865-1867
deputy director 1868-1880
Director 1881-1887
member of the board of directors 1888-1897
general manager 1898-1922
president 1922-1932
Pannonia Reinsurance Audit 1870
board member 1871-1932
Member of the Board of Directors of the Vienna Insurance Company 1887-1926
Member of the Board of Directors of the Vienna Life and Annuity Insurance Company 1887-1926
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hungarian-French Insurance Company 1893-1932
National Accident Insurance Company, member of the Board of Directors 1894-1924
chairman of the board 1896-1914
president 1913-1932
Of William Ormody's brothers, Lajos and Bertalan also had links with EMÁBIT. Not much is known about Lajos Ormody. In 1875 he must have been the secretary of the EMÁBIT General Office in Debrecen, and this was recorded as a founding member of the local Masonic lodge when it was founded. His name was listed in the compasses as head of the main office until 1911. Bertalan Ormody, a poet, like Vilmos, also started working in the main agency in Sopron in 1861, but showed little enthusiasm for the agency career. Rather, he would have preferred to establish a new journal - Sopron Notes - which would have published literary, artistic and social news and also served as the journal of the life insurance branch of EMÁBIT. If successful, it would have been the first Hungarian-language insurance journal in Hungary. However, a day before its launch, scheduled for 1 June 1861, the poet was arrested for a patriotic poem published without permission and sentenced to four months in prison, despite a rescue campaign by his brother and the ladies of Sopron. The paper was never published and Bertalan Ormody soon left the insurance business.
Public activities
Ormody vilmos appeared in public life primarily in his role as a patron and supporter. His foundations for insurance officials have already been mentioned. In addition, he has supported a number of cultural and charitable initiatives, both from the insurance company and from his private wealth.
In 1895, he was elected president of the Budapest Music Lovers' Association.In memory of his wife, who died in 1903, he established a literary foundation at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the aim of which was to reward "works of fiction that pay homage to the pure feminine ideal". In 1906, she was elected a perpetual member of the House of Lords, and in that year she was one of the five Israelite members of the upper house, along with Ferenc Chorin, Sándor Hatvany-Deutsch, Zsigmond Kornfeld and Károly Sváb. In June of the same year, the Emperor awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph. He was a founding member of the Kisfaludy Society.
His writings and publications
Ormody has published relatively little, with little in the general public and business press and not much in insurance journals.
Memorandum on insurance reform (Budapest, 1900)
On the deposit of premium reserves (Hungarian Insurance Yearbook, Budapest 1901)
Jubilee album of the First Hungarian General Insurance Company: 1857-1907. editor (Budapest, 1908)
Preface to the four-volume table of the mortality of the Hungarian insured (Budapest, 1912)
In memory of
The tomb of William Ormody and Amélie is located in the Israelite cemetery on Kozma Street.
Sources
EMÁBIT (Ormody Vilmos) 1908: Jubilee album of the First Hungarian General Insurance Company: 1857-1907. Budapest.
Jenő Molnár:A visit to the ninety-one-year-old Vilmos Ormody. Magyar Hírlap 25 December 1929: 51.
Association news. National Association of Insurance Officers. Budapesti Hírlap, 9 February 1891 5.
No name 1897: Ormody Vilmos Sunday Newspaper (44.) 51. 865.
Gyula Horváth - Gábor Tamás 2017:A Short History of the First Hungarian General Insurance Company. Insurance and Risk. (4.) 3. 94-97.
Béla Kempelen 1913: Hungarian noble families. Volume 8. Budapest.
József Szinnyei 1906: The life and work of Hungarian writers. Budapest.
Gábor Tamás 2019: Managerial dominance? Organizational evolution and career paths of officials in an insurance company. Kövér György - Pogány Ágnes - Weisz Boglárka (eds.): Domain - Company. Hungarian Economic History Yearbook 2019. (3.) 287-324.
Péter Újvári (ed.) 1929: Hungarian Jewish lexicon. Hungarian Hungarian Jewish History.