Date: Thursday, December 8th, 3:30 PM

Location: The Des Moines Golf and Country Club

Join us and our Professional Development panel: Marsha Aldridge, VP of HR at IMT Insurance; Ali Payne, President at ethOs and Practice Leader, Employee Experience & Wellbeing at Holmes Murphy; and Jessica Hendricks, VP of Agency Development at EMC Insurance.

They will be sharing their career experiences while focusing on the topics of Leading in a Virtual Environment and Mentorship.

After the panel, please stay and enjoy heavy appetizers, good company, and hosted bar! We will also be having a food drive for the Food Bank of Iowa! Please feel free to bring in any non-perishable food items and/or cash donation with you! We look forward to seeing you there!

If you have paid your 2022 CPCU Society dues, your registration is complimentary. If you have not paid your dues, it is $25.00 to attend.

Please register here.

Greetings Chapter Members!

If you haven’t been able to join us for a meeting this year, there’s still time! Our professional development day is next Thursday, December 8th at 3:30 at Des Moines Golf and Country Club. Three local leaders will share their professional development experiences and answer your questions. The meeting will be followed by a social hour complete with appetizers and a hosted bar. Registration closes at 4:30 on December 2nd so register now.

It might be because of looming performance reviews or my November birthday, but the end of the year always prompts me to stop and take stock of where I’m at and what I’ve accomplished. Looking back at 2022 I’m extremely proud of what our CPCU chapter has achieved. We’ve had 7 successful chapter meetings with another coming in December, a fantastic I-Day, a Good Works event in the spring and a fall networking social where we celebrated our new designees.  Mary Calmer also authored an article which was published in the fall edition of Insights! These accomplishments are a large part of why the Iowa Chapter is consistently recognized with the Platinum Circle of Excellence by the Society.

I have been a member of the Iowa Chapter’s board of directors since 2016. Our chapter is privileged to have a phenomenal group of volunteers supporting us year after year. I believe the relationships built by meeting and working with fellow Iowa Chapter members are the most important and valuable benefit of my membership in the CPCU Society and I’m grateful to have been a member of this group for the last 6 years.

Best wishes to all of you for the upcoming holidays and I look forward to seeing you at a CPCU event in 2023!

Sara VanWyk

Iowa CPCU Society Chapter President

In late April of this year, I attended the CPCU Society’s Leadership Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada on behalf of the Iowa Chapter. You might be asking yourself, wasn’t the NFL draft also held in Las Vegas in late April? You would be right! The draft took place across the street from the Flamingo, where the Leadership Summit was hosted. So when everyone asked if I was in Vegas for the draft, I got to coolly reply: “No, I’m here for the insurance leadership conference.”

My main takeaway from the Leadership Summit was to not let Leadership/Professional Development get stale. Like many other areas of our lives, it involves consistent practice and revisiting. Leadership was explained as choosing inspirational behaviors. The most memorable example shared was NBA Coach Phil Jackson leaving inspirational notes for Michael Jordan in his locker before big games. Looking over his career stats playing for Coach Phil Jackson, it’s safe to say the notes worked! 

Beyond being inspired, it was a wonderful opportunity to reengage with live people in a business setting. I was even able to meet two fellow EMC team members from our branch offices. It was a valuable experience for me, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for leadership training with an insurance industry flavor.

Barnes Kelley, Iowa CPCU Society Chapter Treasurer

Scot Hansen

Data Governance Director

Farm Bureau Financial Services

I grew up in a small town (Audubon) which is about an hour west of Des Moines. Audubon is also home to the world’s largest bull name Albert and if you are driving through you should stop and hear his story. I grew up on a farm raising cows, chickens, pigs and growing corn and soybean, but we eventually moved to town where my dad worked for the local John Deere implement and mom ran her own business. I have a wonderful wife (Jen), and we have two children (Liam and Eden) who keep us very busy with activities. 

I graduated from Simpson College with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. I also have a master’s degree from Drake University. Since college I have always worked in the Des Moines area specifically in the insurance industry. I currently work for Farm Bureau Financial Services and currently lead the Data Governance and Business Intelligence teams. This is a very unique opportunity because data is used everywhere. Together my team works to protect the livelihoods and futures of our client members by ensuring information and data used to make business decisions is well-defined, accurate, and fit for purpose. 

I started my pursuit of the CPCU at a prior company to help understand more about the key business activities to help better anticipate the needs of the business when it comes to data and analytics. Farm Bureau Financial Services does a great job encouraging and supporting employees to expand their knowledge through continuing education. For me, studying on-line presentation worked well when paired with practice exams. I would like to think of myself as a continuous learner and am looking for the next thing that will benefit my career and the company. For the time being though I am enjoying the time back to spend time with family and friends and maybe catch up on a few shows I missed.

One thing people may not know about me is that I used to be a part-time farmer helping to take care of my wife’s family farm, and I hope to someday have the opportunity to farm again.

• Name: Christopher Huszar
• Hometown: Des Moines
• Alma Mater: Central European University
• Employer: AmTrust Financial Services
• Title: Assistant Vice President, Program Management
• Insurance Designations: AIAF, ARC, ARe, ASLI, CPCU, AIC, AU-M
• Area of study: Finance
• How long been a member of CPCU? 2018
• How as your involvement with CPUC influenced your career? In addition to the excellent knowledge and resources that courses provide, being active in the CPCU Society has given me great opportunities to learn new skills and network with others the industry.
• What’s something about you (a fun fact) that not many people know? I can eat an entire doughnut in one bite. This has yet to be useful in my career.
• What’s the last book you read (personal or professional)? Ikigai, by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles
• Words you live by: I like the quote by Douglas Adams: “I’d far rather be happy than right any day.” It’s not good professional advice, but great words to live by outside of work.