Bird Prepares to Land After 20 Year Flight with North Carolina Big ‘I’ Agents

Retiring Leader Sees Agency Management Education Program at Appalachian State as Top Achievement

After 20 years as an advocate for independent agents, Bob Bird, chief executive officer of the Independent Insurance Agents of North Carolina, is stepping down.

During this year’s convention scheduled for Oct. 12-15, Bird will officially pass the baton to his successor, Kelley Erstine.

Erstine is the former Arkansas Big “I” chief executive officer and is familiar with North Carolina having previously worked with the North Carolina Dental Society.

Erstine is currently installed at IIANC, working with Bird and the IIANC staff on the executive transition process.

Proudest Program

Of all of his accomplishments at IIANC, Bird, who came to insurance from the textile industry, said he is most proud of the Insurance Executive Program taught at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. The school wanted to implement a continuing education program for agents in association with the Richard S. Brantley Risk & Insurance Center at the University’s Walker College of Business, Bird said. Brantley, the center’s namesake, was Bird’s predecessor with the IIANC.

Bird said his idea to establish a course on agency operations evolved from seeing the continuous flow of new agency people without experience operating a business. The executive program trains people in business management and is not necessarily insurance-related.

Course professor, David Wood, said the program began in 1991 as a management development course for independent agency managers. In its first iteration, students attended a series of six weekend sessions. It has since transformed into one weeklong class held around the second week in May each year.

Students learn a wide range of subject matter including personnel management, administration, financial planning and long term planning. Many graduates have gone on to manage their own agencies, according to Bird.

Wood said Bird has been a “tremendous supporter in his capacity” and his support of the program has been a critical to its success.

“He has helped us at every turn,” Wood said. “Bob’s position on the board of advisors has been invaluable. He is also instrumental in student job placement.”

Wood said Bird has closely monitored the program over the years. “He (Bird) is very committed and he has held our feet to the fire,” Wood said. “The program gets great reviews throughout the industry. We typically have close to 20 students per session who come in from across the country. It’s an extremely interactive program and it is constantly improving.”

Wood says he has enjoyed his professional association with Bird and appreciates the way the CEO tempers a serious work ethic with humor.

“We have a great relationship. He is a real joker and a lot of fun to work with – but he also has very high expectations when it comes to his work,” Wood said of Bird. “He was always good at handing out back-handed compliments.”

Light Touch

Bird said he always tried to keep things light and that he had fun on the job.

“My wife always said she couldn’t think of a day I said I didn’t look forward to going to work,” Bird said.

He came to the insurance association out of the textile industry and credits his success and lengthy tenure to the people he hired to staff the organization and the agents he has collaborated with over the years.

“I didn’t have an insurance background,” Bird said. “My background was in personnel and human relations. I have had the pleasure of working with some of the top agents in the country and the staff is top notch.”

Fresh Air

Powell, vice president of insurance operations with the IIANC, first worked with Bird as an agent member and then as an executive staff member. Powell said Bird substantially changed the culture of the association in a positive way after replacing his predecessor.

“Bob opened the windows and let the fresh air blow in,” Powell said.

Powell said Bird’s contribution to the association “has been tremendous.”

The association developed a solid schedule of annual meetings during Bird’s tenure and now holds four separate meetings per year throughout the state.

“We started years ago with a single farm insurance program conference which was successful for several years,” Bird said.

The retiring CEO said the farm agents meeting transitioned into a rural and small agents conference, which then morphed into the state’s eastern agents conference – and eventually grew to annual attendance of around 350.

“Shortly after that we started the western agents conference, which has about the same number of attendees each year,” Bird reported.

The group also sponsors a North Carolina young agents gathering yearly and a collective agents convention in October at Asheville’s Grove Park Inn.

Bird said he and his wife will remain in North Carolina. “There is no place finer,” he said.

He plans to spend some of his spare time volunteering at an area hospital emergency room. He said he has previous ER volunteer experience and would like to return to that endeavor.

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