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Two recently appointed officers in the Nationwide companies spoke with Buckeye Farm News about insurance, agriculture and the Nationwide-Farm Bureau relationship.

Brett Harman is president and chief operating officer of Nationwide Agribusiness and Farmland Mutual Insurance. He is responsible for all operations of the combined companies that together are the nation’s largest insurer specializing in commercial property and casualty insurance and risk solutions for farmers and agribusinesses.

Harman said the input Nationwide receives from its Farm Bureau partnership is especially helpful as his company works to address the changing needs of farm policyholders. "As the farm industry has changed, we’ve had to change along with it." Today’s farms face "more points of risk," according to Harman.

His goal is to deliver what farmers want and do so quickly. "It’s all about becoming a leader in the industry relative to new product development. We’ve got to get faster relative to understanding the specialty nature of a lot of the farms we’re insuring, and then developing special coverages very quickly to meet the changing environment."

Jim Hagenbucher is vice president of Nationwide Property Casualty Insurance Organization (PCIO) where he leads Affinity and Sponsor Relations development. He describes his job as "developing best practices across all Nationwide companies and bringing more value to our Farm Bureau relationships."

"We operate in rural areas, and we feel a responsibility to bring quality products to those consumers as well as supporting those issues that are important to the ag community, " he said.

Hagenbucher agrees with Harman that policyholders and Nationwide each benefit from working closely together. He talked about the annual policyholder conference, during which farmers talk with Nationwide executives and staff about the risks they face. "As we listen to their needs, we take those ideas and try to get them back into our product development areas, and say here are some ideas that came from our consumers, what can we do about this?"

Harman and Hagenbucher operate from Nationwide’s offices in Des Moines, Iowa, where they are both active in various civic and community organizations.