Hitzig will depart at the end of this month along with Distinguished Express president Helen English and Distinguished Specialty chairman Dusty Rowland.
The move comes only months after the company reportedly engaged the services of corporate finance firm Evercore to advise on the potential sale of all or part of its operations.
In an internal communication seen by this publication, Potash told employees that he had decided to “reinsert” himself into the company full time as CEO as he looks to reposition the firm.
He revealed that Distinguished LLC is in the final stages of raising a significant amount of capital “to take advantage of historically high sales prices to provide liquidity to our shareholders who want it, and to provide the necessary capital to grow the business from here”.
Potash, who is thought to be majority owner of the business, added that a “significant amount” of that capital would come from him, with the raise slated for completion in the first quarter of 2019.
In the memo the former Frank Crystal & Co president outlined his vision to “change the way small business owners experience insurance and, in doing so, help them to thrive”.
He said Distinguished LLC’s new business model will be based on product and program development with multi-channel distribution through brokers, third party aggregators, direct to consumer field sales and online internet sales.
The strategy will include buying up other program managers to diversify industry verticals, broaden the range of products and add expertise.
It will also involve acquiring small retail brokers around the US to build a footprint in key markets, provide accounts for existing programs, and provide accounts that can be used as a “petri dish to build new programs”.
The business model will be founded on “technology-enabled everything”, from data collection, analysis and usage; customer service; operations excellence; to delivering consistent underwriting profits to carrier partners.
One of the first steps will be merging the spun-off Bikeland unit formerly known as Distinguished Insurance Services back into the group as the foundation for the new retail division and direct sales group.
Potash said the departures of Hitzig, English and Roland reflected the change in business model.
“They deserve tremendous credit for the success we’ve had over the last twenty years,” he added.
Hitzig joined Distinguished Programs in 1997 and held several executive positions before being named CEO in 2006.
English joined the program manager in 2000 and was named president in 2014, while Rowland joined with the acquisition of Fulcrum, which became Distinguished Specialty.
Following the departures James Flynn, president and COO, will lead Distinguished Programs, overseeing the Specialty and Express divisions, as well as IT, data analytics and actuarial science, and operations.
Distinguished LLC’s core program business reported 3 percent growth in revenue to $53.1mn in 2017, generated from premium volume of $234mn.
It produced Ebitda of $16.1mn.
In April this year Distinguished LLC sold a majority interest in its other main business, insurance industry solutions provider ReSource Pro, to private equity firm DFW Capital Partners.
In 2017 ReSource Pro delivered organic revenue growth of 18 percent to $74.9mn, with Ebitda up 28 percent to $12.2mn.
Potash, who founded Distinguished in 1995, had been less actively involved in the day-to-day operations of the company in recent years, dedicating time to The Distinguished Social Ventures Foundation.