2024-2025 ELP Class

Anthony Kubik, American Farm Bureau Insurance Services, Inc.

Anthony (Tony) Kubik is the Michigan Claims Supervisor with the American Farm Bureau Insurance Services, Inc. Tony’s role at AFBIS includes policy analysis, compliance, and crop insurance claims management for a diverse array of crops. He attended St. Clair County Community College with Business Management as his key focus. He worked in grain origination for seven years prior to becoming a crop adjuster. Tony owned and operated his own farming operation that included coarse grains, sugar beets, and small grains along with a small cow-calf operation. He and his fiancé Megan have four children: Keagan, Addyson, Claire, and Jack. They are the pride and joy of both parents, and they enjoy watching their sport games and growing into young and successful adults. He has been a volunteer fireman for 20 years, is an avid golfer, and is a member of non-profit organization called Goodtimers which raises funds for local community development.

Crystal Mulcahy, American Farm Bureau Insurance Services

Crystal Mulcahy is the Managing Director of American Farm Bureau Insurance Services, Inc. In her role as the Managing Director, she leads the Training and Marketing and Information Security Departments. She has over 16 years of crop insurance experience in various leadership roles. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Management along with a Master of Science in Management from the University of Mary. In her free time, Crystal loves spending time with her family. Her favorite thing to do is to hang out with her three grandsons.

Tanner Schroder, AgriSompo North America

Tanner Schroder is actively working as the Regional Claims Manager in the Upper Midwest Region of the United States for AgriSompo Crop Insurance. Currently, he directly manages 5 Area Claims Supervisors and indirectly 46 crop adjusters servicing 157 independent agencies for MPCI and Crop Hail Insurance. Tanner graduated from South Dakota State University in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Business. While attending college, he was part time adjuster and moved into a full-time crop adjuster position upon graduation. He currently lives in Cherokee, IA with his wife, Kelsey, and three year-old son, Rhen. Tanner is an active member of the Cherokee County Fair board, Cherokee County 4-H Expo Board, and enjoys team roping in his free time.

Shay Foster, AgriSompo North America

Shay Foster is the AVP of Policy and Commission Services for AgriSompo. In this position, she oversees all day-to-day operations for insured and agent accounting. She received her associate degree in accounting and has 22 years of experience in every aspect of accounting in the crop insurance industry. During her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, gardening, working on the farm, singing in church, and spending early mornings on the porch with her dogs and coffee.

Craig Fenster, Aon

Craig Fenster is a Managing Director for Aon Re where he is a crop and livestock reinsurance broker. Prior to becoming a broker, Mr. Fenster held actuarial, operations, and structured reinsurance underwriting positions at several firms including Centre Re and AIG. He earned his BA in mathematics from Columbia University and his MBA from Trinity College Dublin. Mr. Fenster is a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Associate in Reinsurance (ARe), and Associate in Insurance Data Analytics (AIDA). In his spare time, Mr. Fenster is an active scout leader.

Carissa Lozier, COUNTRY Financial

Carissa Lozier works as a Crop Claims Field Supervisor for Country Financial.  She communicates regularly with adjusters, underwriting and agency, monitors the claim log and works in the field with adjusters when appropriate.  Carissa has completed insurance industry designations of AINS and SCLA and has been working in the Crop Insurance industry for 15 years.  She enjoys spending time with her husband and two children attending their sporting events, camping, gardening and canning, and attending Chicago Bears games when time allows. 

Luke Aupperle, COUNTRY Financial

Luke Aupperle is the Agribusiness Pricing Supervisor for COUNTRY Financial. He is responsible for the budgeting, developing, updating and maintaining the rates for Farm and Private Product Crop Hail lines of business. Luke graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University in 2005 with a major in Mathematics and has been working at COUNTRY since with a focus on Agribusiness since 2017. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family, watching his kids’ sporting events, cheering on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and helping with harvest on the family farm.

Kasey Engel, Farm Bureau Financial Services

Kasey Engel is a Regional Crop Consultant for Farm Bureau Financial Services living on the family farm where he grew up near White City, Kansas, about 30 minutes southwest of Manhattan. He has been with the Company for over 23 years, all of which were spent in the crop insurance department. In his current role he is responsible for training new Farm Bureau multi-line agents on crop insurance and educating client members in the field about various risk management options to help them protect their livelihoods. Kasey attended Hutchinson Community College and Kansas State University, earning a degree in Ag Business. Kasey and his wife Sara have four kids that keep them very busy. When they aren’t working together on the farm, they are running around to various ball games and activities the kids have.

Candy Magee, Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company of Iowa

As Senior Vice President of BI, Candy oversees FMH’s policy form and rate filings, warehouse maintenance and reporting, and analytics with a focus on profitability and strategic direction. In addition, she works closely with the FMH Chief Risk Officer in the management and placement of FMH’s ceded reinsurance program. Candy has worked at FMH for over 30 years. After a long tenure in the Reinsurance Department where her responsibilities varied between assumed and ceded, in 2018 she switched gears to head up the newly formed BI Department. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family and pets, cheering on the Iowa Hawkeyes, reading and engaging in creative activities.

Billy Meade, Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company of Iowa

William “Billy” L. Meade is a Sales Development Manager at Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company based in Des Moines, Iowa. In his role, he specializes in growing business, supporting field agents and staff, and seeking out innovative solutions to enhance the company’s operations. William graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a major in Computer Science and Special Education for the Hearing Impaired. In his free time, he enjoys reading, automotive racing, and technology applications/programming development

Connor Scharfe, Gallagher Re

Connor Scharfe is a Senior Vice President at Gallagher Reinsurance. In his role, he works with crop and livestock insurers and distribution partners across the United States to bring (re)insurance capacity to producers and cattleman as effectively as possible. Connor completed his undergraduate degree at Queens University (Canada) and his master’s degree at the London School of Economics (UK). He has three kids which leaves him precious little time for hobbies! But enjoys hiking, golf, pickup football with friends, and following the Buffalo Bills.

Brian Johnson, Great American Insurance Group

Brian Johnson is currently the Field Office Director for Great American Insurance Group, Crop Division. In this role Brian currently oversees the marketing, underwriting, claims, and daily operations of the office for an 11 state region (Gulf Coast and Midwest area). Brian attended the University of Nebraska receiving a BS degree in Animal Science, upon completion of the degree he returned to the family farm raising row crops and livestock. He got into crop adjusting as a claims adjuster and moved up through the ranks to his current position. Brian still enjoys farming in Nebraska and spending time with his wife, Abby, and his two daughters, Kelsey and Kali. Some hobbies include watching football and just being outdoors camping, hunting, or fishing.

Sarah McEachern, Guy Carpenter

Sarah McEachern is an Associate Broker at Guy Carpenter on the Crop Team. She works alongside AIPs to summarize their book of business and build their reinsurance programs based on their risk appetite and work with reinsurers to understand their risk appetite and explain which programs best fit their goals. Sarah graduated from Middlebury College as an Economics and Political Science Double Major. She previously worked in crop reinsurance for 3 years on Guy Carpenter’s Crop Reinsurance Broking Team. Sarah enjoys sailing and races boats every week during the summer; she is also a big hockey fan, her favorite team is the Boston Bruins.

Mike Weber, Hudson Crop

Mike is a Lead Claims Processor for Hudson Crop. In this capacity he serves as the primary auditor for Hudson’s Florida specialty crop claim adjustment processes. His other responsibilities for Hudson include working with claims staff throughout the country as support for claims processing, process improvements for the department and organization, software system enhancements and training, as well as supporting the entire organization with his GIS proficiency. Mike is a graduate of the University of Kansas (Class of 2005), where he majored in Religious Studies and History, and has been in the Crop Insurance industry since 2010. Living in Kansas City since 1983 has led to Mike being a devout fan of the Jayhawks, Chiefs and Royals. A few of Mike’s favorite activities in his spare time include going to the movies, attending live music events and playing golf.

Ronnetta Rountree, Hudson Crop

Ronnetta is currently the Livestock Underwriting Manager at Hudson Crop Insurance. Her role involves managing the livestock underwriters while facilitating the daily task of assisting agents with meeting the daily sales closing deadlines. Ronnetta attended Park University with a degree in Business Administration. Ronnetta has worked in the crop insurance industry for 19 years. She loves shopping, traveling and spending time with her family. Her favorite football team is the New Orleans Saints.

Landon Svennes, Precision Risk Management

Landon Svennes is the Director of Finance for Precision Risk Management. Landon oversees finance, accounting, and reinsurance related activities. Landon graduated with degrees in Finance and Economics from Liberty University. Landon’s hobbies include most things outdoors, from adventures with his family to the quiet solace of the golf course.

Jon Clarke, Rural Community Insurance Services

Jon Clarke is an Area Claims Manager for Rural Community Insurance Services. His responsibilities include managing 18 crop adjusters while serving 24 agencies in the state of Virginia, aiding the RCIS Claims Training Team in the training and development of crop adjusters, and advocating for the RCIS adjusting staff as the Chairman of the RCIS Adjuster Advisory Council where he fields ideas and collaborates across RCIS departments to implement change processes. Jon received a Bachelor of Science degree in Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences from Virginia Tech before beginning his now 14-year career in the crop insurance industry where he’s been an Adjuster, Field Claims Specialist, Area Claims Manager, and Chairman of the National Crop Insurance Services East Committee. His hobbies include cooking out with family, fishing in the Chesapeake Bay of Virginia and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and cheering on Virginia Tech college football and Baltimore Orioles major league baseball.

Sandy Johnson, Rural Community Insurance Services

Sandy is a Field Service Representative for RCIS. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing agencies and growing business in Northern Minnesota and Southeast North Dakota. Along with business growth, she enjoys the opportunity to partner with agents and be a trusted resource on crop policy. Sandy enjoys being a Field Service Representative because it is ever changing and allows constant opportunities to learn new things. Sandy graduated Suma Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from Rasmussen Business College. In her free time, she enjoys to read, travel, garden, run and spending time with her family. 

Kyle Jore, Watts and Associates

Kyle Jore is a Development Program Manager for Watts and Associates, Inc. In this role, Kyle interacts with farm groups, AIPs, agencies, congressional offices, and a team of economists, underwriters, actuaries, and analysts at Watts and Associates to facilitate federal crop insurance development efforts. Prior to joining Watts and Associates, Kyle was an Associate Professor of Mathematics who returned to school to study Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota where he was introduced to the world of USDA support and crop insurance development. Residing and farming in Northwestern Minnesota, Kyle and his wife have two school aged children.