Timothy M. "Tim" Cerio is President, CEO, and Executive Director of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, Florida's state-run, not-for-profit insurer of last resort and now one of the largest property insurers in the state. He has led Citizens since February 2023, joining the company as General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer in 2021 and succeeding longtime CEO Barry Gilway.
A Tallahassee lawyer with roughly 30 years of practice, Cerio spent most of his career at the intersection of regulated industry and state government. He served as General Counsel to Governor Rick Scott, acting as chief legal advisor to the Governor and legal liaison for the Executive Office, and earlier as both General Counsel and Chief of Staff at the Florida Department of Health. In private practice, he handled administrative and health care law at GrayRobinson, P.A. He holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Florida (1990) and a J.D. with honors from the UF College of Law (1995), where he was a member of the Florida Law Review, and he remains a fixture in UF institutional life as a past president of both the UF Alumni Association and the College of Law Alumni Council and chair of the Florida Blue Key Alumni Advisory Board.
Cerio was appointed to the Board of Governors of the State University System of Florida in 2017, where he now serves as vice-chair on a term running to 2031, and he sat on the 2017–18 Florida Constitution Revision Commission. He was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission in 2021, previously served on the First District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission, and sits on the board of the James Madison Institute. He lives in Tallahassee with his family.
