Peter Lewis is highly respected in financial and philanthropic circles in the United States.

Peter Lewis is highly respected in financial and philanthropic circles in the United States.

By JOSIE CLARKE

"I love thinking, throwing ideas off the wall, challenging conventional wisdom..."

Peter Lewis

"Frankly, no one is particularly surprised. He's always made his feelings on the issue known."

Blair Sanford, company analyst

The name Peter B. Lewis meant little to New Zealanders who trawled the internet when news broke that a mystery American billionaire had escaped drugs charges while on holiday here.

But back in the United States, Lewis' name raced through financial and philanthropic circles where he has cultivated a high profile as an eccentric - but highly respected - chairman and chief executive officer of Progressive Corporation, the country's fourth largest personal car insurer.

Lewis, aged 66, has been regarded as a business phenomenon since he inherited his father's company as chief executive officer in 1965 after joining as an underwriting trainee in 1955.

He has led its transformation from 100 employees and $US6 million in revenue to one of the fastest-growing insurers in the United States.

Now more than 14,000 employees generate $6 billion in revenue each year. The company returned $456.7 million in profits in 1998.

It ranks among the top US companies in any industry for long-term growth and total return to shareholders.

Lewis owned about 9 million shares of Progressive's stock at the beginning of last year, worth an estimated $640.2 million, and has a personal fortune estimated by Forbes magazine last year at $1 billion.

Asked about his business philosophy, he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper: "For me, what's important is creativity. I love thinking, throwing ideas off the wall, challenging conventional wisdom and trying to see into the future."

In 1994, he moved his company into a $75 million showcase headquarters in Mayfield Village, Ohio. It contains a travel agency, health club and more than 4000 pieces of contemporary art - about which Lewis is passionate - designed to create a more stimulating work environment for employees.

Lewis' former wife, Toby Devan Lewis, is the curator of the art collection. The pair are the parents of three grown children - two sons and a daughter - and remain good friends.

Lewis is also known as an extraordinarily generous philanthropist. He has donated $50 million to the visual arts institution the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the largest pledge in its history.