Dr. Sean Lee.
A Ph.D. scientist and former JPL/NASA researcher who actually ran an insurance book. For 28 years.
I am not running for office. I am running to fix a broken market that is hurting the people I came to California to serve.
Dr. Sean Lee
From Caltech to California's biggest insurance crisis.
Came to California in May 1996 to do research at JPL and the California Institute of Technology, connected to NASA's climate, ocean, and risk-modeling programs. He holds a Ph.D. in physical oceanography from Texas A&M University and a B.S. in geophysics, with software-engineering study, from the University of Science and Technology of China. He then moved into the insurance industry and spent the next 28 years there, rising to President and CEO of Antai Global Inc. Underwriting, executive leadership, product design, and the kind of reinsurance and catastrophe-pool work that almost nobody outside the industry understands but that determines whether Californians can buy a policy at all.
He is running because the people writing California's insurance policies have stopped showing up for Californians, and the current Commissioner has no plan to bring them back. Dr. Lee lives in Southern California with his spouse, their two children, and his parents.
Five reasons this candidate is not like the others.
Not a career politician
No legislative seat to defend. No party machine to feed. No consultant class to repay. The first day in office is the first day on the job, not the first day of the next campaign.
Industry insider with public-interest instincts
28 years at the underwriting table means he knows where the levers are. And which ones the industry hopes you never find.
Refuses corporate insurance money
The campaign is funded by Californians. Period. No conflicts to work around once in office, no donors to thank during rate review.
Trained as a scientist
A Ph.D. in the physical sciences means decisions are evidence-driven. Rate filings get analyzed, not rubber-stamped. Bad math gets called out before it becomes bad policy.
A plan, not a slogan
The CCRP framework is real reinsurance policy. Studied, modeled, and stress-tested against California's actual catastrophe history. The math is on file.
Thirty years in California.
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May 1996
Arrived in California. Joined NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology to pursue doctoral research in applied science.
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Late 1990s
Ph.D. earned. Doctorate in physical oceanography from Texas A&M University, with research connected to JPL/NASA and Caltech.
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1998 to 2025
Insurance executive in California. 28 years across underwriting, product, and reinsurance leadership. Direct work on catastrophe-risk pools and structured reinsurance.
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2024
Public advocacy. Published the first version of the CCRP reinsurance proposal as the California market began its accelerating exit.
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2026
Candidate for Insurance Commissioner. Filed for the June 2 primary.
The Caltech years still matter.
Applied-science research at JPL and the California Institute of Technology trained Dr. Lee in probabilistic modeling, risk analysis, and the discipline of taking a hypothesis apart until the data answers honestly.
That is what California's rate review process has not had for a long time. Insurance is, at the end of the day, a probability problem. The people running it should be people who have actually done the math.
Photo: Caltech alumni gathering with Caltech President Thomas Rosenbaum.
The last chance to rebuild this market.
Seven of the top twelve insurers have stopped writing new homeowner policies in California. The FAIR Plan is over-exposed by an order of magnitude. The current Insurance Commissioner has been in office for the entire window during which this crisis became unfixable through normal regulatory tools.
The race for the next Commissioner is the last chance to install someone who actually knows how to rebuild the market before it collapses entirely. Sean is running because nobody else with both the technical record and the independence from the industry has stepped forward.