ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 13, 2012 – InVEST, the insurance industry’s premier classroom to career education program, recently announced that Brian D. Flemming has joined its national board. Flemming is Harleysville Insurance vice president of marketing and agency relations.
“InVEST is proud to announce Brian Flemming has joined our distinguished group of board members,” says Heather Minkler, InVEST board chair and CEO of Clark-Mortenson Agency, an independent agency in Keene, N.H. “Brian brings enthusiasm and more than 20 years of industry experience to the InVEST board of directors. We look forward to drawing from his expertise.”
Flemming joined Harleysville in 2000 as a senior underwriter in the company’s New Jersey office. Later that year, he was selected to take part in a commercial lines territory manager (CLTM) pilot program, and went on to serve as a CLTM until being named business development manager for New Jersey and Pennsylvania in 2004. In 2006, he was promoted to vice president of commercial lines business development for the Mid-Atlantic region, and assumed his current position later that year. Before joining Harleysville, Flemming held various underwriting and field positions with both Philadelphia Insurance and USF&G Insurance. He has more than 20 years of insurance industry experience, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Eastern University.
“InVEST is critically important not just to the future of the independent agency system, but to the insurance industry as a whole,” says Robert Rusbuldt, Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) president & CEO. “Survey results from the Agency Universe Study by Future One (a collaboration of the Big ‘I’ and leading independent agency companies) pointed to InVEST as crucial to the future of the industry, with a majority of respondents stating the insurance industry should encourage high schools and community colleges to help students plan for insurance careers. Educators, volunteers, agents and industry leaders, like Brian Flemming, are key to the success of this program.”
As a 501(c)(3) educational trust, InVEST benefits from the support of numerous insurance organizations, hundreds of agencies, brokers and volunteers. The program provides the insurance industry with motivated, talented and intelligent professionals through a support structure of state associations, board members, national staff, teachers and the many industry professionals who work in the field as classroom liaisons.
Founded in 1970 and based in Alexandria, Va., InVEST promotes insurance education in order to attract individuals to pursue a career in the insurance industry. Each year, the program prepares thousands of students for insurance-related careers with a hands-on curriculum taught in high schools, adult education centers and colleges. The high school curriculum is a business-education program that utilizes a hands-on approach which simulates an insurance agency and company operations to prepare students for various business careers and create more knowledgeable insurance consumers. At the college level, InVEST is an information-intensive curriculum of risk management and financial services. These courses provide students with a working knowledge of the basics needed to pursue careers in the insurance industry. For more information, go to www.investprogram.org.
Founded in 1896, the Big “I” is the nation’s oldest and largest national association of independent insurance agents and brokers, representing a network of approximately a quarter of a million agents, brokers and their employees nationally. Its members are businesses that offer customers a choice of policies from a variety of insurance companies. Independent agents and brokers offer all lines of insurance—property, casualty, life, health, employee benefit plans and retirement products. Web address: www.independentagent.com.
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