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How has your role with Holmes Murphy & Associates changed?

It’s an evolvement of roles that hopefully is mirroring the evolvement of our company. I’ve been our national property and casualty practice leader for three years and then on our executive leadership team for two years. Part of the property and casualty practice leader’s responsibilities are helping what we call our “younger producers” learn the business, and I’m going to continue that here in Des Moines.

So now you’re focusing more on training?

Yeah and really focusing on developing producers. Our company’s been very focused on growing people professionally and individually. We’ve had our producer development program for some time, and I’ll slowly be learning how we’ve been running that program and helping grow it further.

What are you most excited about with this new position?

Working with young people. I think youths have a great deal of energy and energy begets energy. I grew up inside the company. I came here as intern in 1989 when I was going to Drake University and joined them full time in 1991. I moved to Cedar Rapids in ’94 to start our Cedar Rapids property and casualty operation and then moved back now.

Tell me about the sales system you created.

As we look at the future of our company, a big part of being able to grow is being able to position our people to grow at a faster rate and within new geographical regions. You have to consider how you can train, mentor and lead people in that regard and make sure we’re continuing to position our people to exceed our clients’ expectations. I realized there needed to be some kind of training program, some kind of sales system to help our people achieve more. I looked back on my career and at other successful people inside our company and found there was a certain way in which they were able to acquire clients’ trust. What we did was try to learn from that and develop a sales system accordingly.

Is that your greatest career accomplishment?

I don’t focus much on accomplishments, more on opportunities to get better.

What excites you about Des Moines?

We moved away from Des Moines after the Floods of 1993. Now we’re moving back to Des Moines after the Floods of 2008 in Cedar Rapids. So I’m not sure if Des Moines wants me here, but what I have seen is how Des Moines has come together from that difficult disaster and how it’s grown. There’s a lot of energy in this city, and we look forward to learning more about it.

Are you going to get involved in other organizations here?

I’m already going to a number of different functions this week and looking forward to helping where it makes the most sense. I’ve been involved in United Way, chambers of commerce, Junior Achievement. I look forward to doing the same here in Des Moines.

What do you like to do for fun?

Spend time with the family. Over the years, I’ve participated in coaching many sports with (my children). And I like to exercise: cycle, run, swim, those kind of things.

Is there something that motivates you?

I can tell you my personal mission statement: “Help others help themselves.” I’ve had a lot of people help me over the years, and if I can do the same, I think that’s a great way to show your mentors that you care about what they did for you.