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 J. Russell Reid
Board Member
"A big part of InsureZone's mission is deploying our strategy for
InsureZone's affinity partners - for example, a financial institution
establishing an online insurance business to serve its customers under
its own label."
A Brief Summary of Rusty's Career
J. Russell "Rusty" Reid brings to InsureZone 18 years of insurance
industry experience with a history of success. Since 1989, he has
served as president and CEO of Higginbotham & Associates, Inc., the
118th-largest U.S. insurance broker. Under Rusty's leadership, the Fort
Worth-based company grew from 500 customers to more than 20,000
nationwide, while premiums exploded from $10 million to $200 million.
For more than a half century, Higginbotham has represented many of the
nation's leading insurance carriers. Rusty began his corporate career
in 1983, while still a student, as an assistant producer for Ramey,
King & Minnis Insurance Agency. He moved on to American General
Fire & Casualty Company as territorial marketing manager before
joining Higginbotham. Rusty is a board member of Lone Star Insurance
Co. Ltd., Fireman's Fund Presidents' Council, and the Safeco Summit
Council, as well as serving on the advisory board of Frost National
Bank in Texas. He is a member of The Young Presidents' Organization and
a ranking member of several philanthropic organizations. Rusty received
a bachelor's degree in business administration/insurance from the
University of North Texas.
Rusty on what led him to InsureZone
"My approach has always been to take what I have, and reengineer it to
make it work more successfully. When I came to Higginbotham, I deployed
an aggressive growth strategy, and built the infrastructure and
incentives to support it. It's also my style to try to be on the
forefront. As we built Higginbotham, we were well aware that
deregulation would allow banks to get into the industry, and that the
Internet was obviously going to play a role. So we started working with
banks to be the sole provider of insurance products to their customers,
and with some large corporations to offer personal, auto, homeowners
and umbrella coverage to their employees. The problem was finding an
easy way to distribute those products. We needed a way, in essence, to
look like that bank or that large corporation. InsureZone's MarketSecure
platform provides that capability. So obviously, when InsureZone came
to us with it, it made a lot of sense to partner with them."
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