I am writing to express my support of Olivia B. Claud for the position of Clerk of the Circuit Court for the City of Franklin and County of Southampton.

I had the pleasure of hiring Claud as a market conduct examiner at the State Corporation Commission’s Bureau of Insurance in 1989.

It quickly became clear that Claud’s organizational and people skills could be better utilized in a position where she could more directly provide direct assistance to consumers.

Therefore, in 1992, when the commonwealth implemented a counseling program for seniors (known as VICAP — The Virginia Insurance Counseling and Advocacy project), Claud was without question the best candidate to work with other state agencies as the Bureau of Insurance representative.

As expected, Claud immediately took a leadership role in creating the counseling program, working with representatives from the Virginia Office for Aging at its numerous locations, as well as coordinating with both state and federal program representatives to assure that the information provided to Virginia citizens was both complete and accurate.

Claud became a highly sought-after speaker throughout the Commonwealth, providing information, assistance, counseling, and support to thousands of Virginia seniors.

Her work with the VICAP program resulted in other organizations asking for a Bureau of Insurance representative to speak at their meetings, and the requests rapidly outnumbered

Claud’s available days, evenings, and weekends.

It was at this time that we created the Bureau of Insurance Life & Health Consumer Outreach Program, under the direction of Claud.

In addition to recruiting other Bureau of Insurance employees as speakers, and training them both in the office and in the field, Claud assumed responsibility for updating existing consumer guides and for developing new consumer guides where none had previously existed.

I have no doubt that Claud can readily transfer her organizational and leadership skills, as well as her highly regarded ability to explain complicated material to others, both to improving and updating the functions of the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court.

She has, during the 18 years that I have known and worked with her, demonstrated not only admirable abilities and skills, but an unsurpassed dedication to the citizens to whom she was providing assistance.

The people of the City of Franklin and County of Southampton will be well-served by electing Olivia B. Claud as Clerk of the Circuit Court.

I wish that I was in a position to cast my vote for her, but since I cannot, I can only urge others to do so.

Gerald A. Milsky

Former Virginia Deputy Commissioner of Insurance

Richmond