Subject to the provisions of section 17B:18-21 as to the number of elected directors, the number of the directors of any such mutual insurer to which sections 17B:18-18 to 17B:18-28, inclusive, apply, shall be twenty-three, except where the chairman of the board and not the president is the chief executive officer of the corporation in which case the number shall be twenty-four, all of whom shall be policyholders of the corporation. Six of such directors shall be appointed as hereinafter provided by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey and are hereinafter called the public directors. Sixteen of such directors shall be elected in the manner hereinafter provided and are hereinafter called the elected directors. The president of the corporation shall be ex officio a director, and the chairman of the board, if he is the chief executive officer of the corporation, shall also be ex officio a director; and if the president or such chairman of the board shall be a director by appointment or election either at the time of his election as president or chairman of the board, or on the date that sections 17B:18-18 to 17B:18-28, inclusive, become applicable to such corporation, the office of director so held by the president or such chairman of the board shall become vacant.

L.1971, c. 144, s. 17B:18-19