Country Financial Announces New Organizational Structure

The board of directors for COUNTRY Financial® has approved a new organizational structure, effective immediately.  The structure, developed by Chief Executive Officer Jim Jacobs after months of internal and external stakeholder discussions, will help reinforce the organization’s focus on clients, strengthen the sales force, modernize company and business processes, drive innovation, reduce silos between business and technology areas, better understand risks for clients and the organization, protect the overall culture while evolving the organization into a more engaged, empowered and diverse workforce, and leverage the relationship between COUNTRY Financial and its parent company, Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB).

The new structure will be based on six categories: client experience; products and technology; agency (sales force); people; legal, compliance and enterprise risk management; and finance and strategy.

Along with the structure changes, Chief Marketing Officer Doyle Williams has announced plans to retire in 2020.  Williams has served in various marketing roles during his 40-year career with COUNTRY Financial.

New Leadership Structure

• Client Experience:  A search will be conducted to fill the newly-created role of executive vice president and chief experience officer. This leader will have oversight over Marketing, Claims, Billing, and the Customer Service Center.  Williams will temporarily serve in this role until the position is filled.

  A search to fill the role of vice president of Marketing will also be conducted once the client experience officer has been named.

• Products and Technology:  Steve Denault, executive vice president of Enterprise Customer Operations, has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer.  He will be responsible for leading the Property Casualty, Financial Services, and Technology divisions.

  Denault joined COUNTRY Financial as a health business analyst in 1992.  He has held various positions since then, including vice president of Human Resources, senior vice president of Human Resources and Communications, executive vice president of Corporate Services, and executive vice president of Enterprise Business Services.

• Agency:  Tim Harris, agency vice president of District 2 (Oregon), has been promoted to executive vice president of Agency.  He will be responsible for leading the agency force and Agency Operations.

  Harris previously served as the district director of agencies for the Western Region District 3 and the West Portland agency manager.

• People:  Rachael Sklamberg, senior vice president of Human Resources, has been promoted to executive vice president and chief human resources officer.  She joined COUNTRY Financial in July 2014 as vice president of Human Resources and was promoted to her current role in March 2017.
• Legal, Compliance and Enterprise Risk Management:  Jennifer Vance has been named executive vice president, secretary and general counsel.  She joined IFB as an attorney in 2005.  She has since held positions as general attorney, assistant general counsel, deputy general counsel and assistant secretary until being named general counsel, secretary and chief legal officer in 2019.

  With Vance’s expanded role, two additional employees are being promoted and will report to her.  Chad Allen, vice president of Investment Services, will become senior vice president and chief risk officer.  Andy Bender, deputy general counsel for IFB and COUNTRY Financial, will become senior vice president and deputy general counsel.

• Finance and Strategy:  Miles Kilcoin will continue to serve as executive vice president and chief financial officer with oversight over Investments, Internal Auditing, Corporate Actuary, and Controllers.

  Within this category, Brandy McNalis, director of Business Process and Applied Analytics, has been promoted to vice president of Strategy and Innovation.  McNalis is a master black belt and served as the manager of Claims Data and Performance and manager of Business Intelligence before serving in her current role.