UmialikXpress
Agency Bulletin
March 19, 2020
Umialik Insurance Company’s Parent Company Announces Appointment of Rick Long as President
I am very pleased to announce that Western National Mutual Insurance Company, parent company of Umialik Insurance Company and the Western National Insurance Group, today announced the appointment of Rick Long as President.
Rick has served as Senior Vice President of Claims for Western National Mutual Insurance Company since joining the company in 2010, and as President of affiliate Michigan Millers Mutual Insurance Company since 2016. He has served on the Boards of Directors of all Western National wholly owned stock companies, as well as on the Board of the Property Loss Research Bureau and the Minnesota Insurance Guaranty Association. Prior to joining Western National Insurance Group, Rick served as Senior Vice President of Claims for Farm Family Casualty Insurance Company, having worked his way up to that position from the role of field adjuster in 1984. He has a BS in Business Administration from SUNY at Binghamton, New York, and he has earned the AIC, CPCU, and ARe designations.
This well-deserved promotion of Rick to this new leadership position is the result of his many leadership successes at Western National over the last decade, and at Michigan Millers over the last several years, as well as his contributions as a member of our Senior Management Team. Splitting the CEO and the President role will also serve as the next step in my own succession plan. I will spend the next year preparing our new President to assume the role of CEO as well as President, after which time I will retire from active involvement in the companies and their operations. I do plan on continuing in the service of our employees, agents, and policyholders by remaining on the Board of Directors of the Mutual Company after this transition.
All of my direct reports will now report directly to Rick, who in turn will report to me, with the exception of American Freedom Insurance Company. The split of the President and CEO roles will see Rick focused on driving the execution of our corporate plans, while I, as CEO, will focus on strategy and transition.
Please join me in congratulating, and fully supporting, Rick in this new and very important role.
Stu Henderson, J.D., CPCU
Chief Executive Officer, Western National Insurance Group
