InVEST Introduces New Board Member

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 29 -- Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America issued the following news release:

InVEST, the insurance industry's premier classroom- to- career education program, recently announced that Wendy Sabean has joined its national board. Sabean is director of training at Safeco Insurance, a Liberty Mutual Insurance company.

"InVEST is pleased to announce that Wendy Sabean has joined our distinguished board of directors," says Robert G. Slocum, CPCU, CIC, InVEST board chair and president of The Slocum Agency, Inc., an independent agency in Warwick, R.I. "Wendy brings more than 20 years of experience in the learning and performance development disciplines within the insurance, financial and high tech marketplace sectors. We look forward to drawing from her expertise to develop and polish this wonderful program." As the director of training for Safeco Insurance, Sabean leads both internal (sales, underwriting and service) and agency training for Safeco Insurance in the Seattle office. Sabean previously worked for Microsoft, Fidelity Investments and Liberty Mutual. At Microsoft, she led the MSN online customer education, technical support and customer service training teams, as well as the engineering excellence performance consulting team. At Fidelity Investments, Sabean was the chief performance consultant on their IT transformation initiative and at Liberty Mutual she helped to create curriculum for the project management, systems development and life insurance business. She earned a bachelor's degree in education and mathematics at Springfield College and a master's degree in instructional design and technology at Boston University. "InVEST is critically important for the future of the independent agency system and the insurance industry as a whole," says Robert Rusbuldt, Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big "I") president & CEO. "Educators, volunteers, agents and industry leaders, like Wendy Sabean, are key to the success of this program as it continues to grow and expand into more schools. We applaud and thank her for her commitment to this critical program."

Sabean is replacing Bill Norman as the Liberty Mutual representative on the InVEST board. Norman was an active member of the board for nine years and recently retired. As a 501(c)(3) educational trust, InVEST benefits from the support of numerous insurance organizations, hundreds of agencies, brokers and volunteers. The program provides the insurance industry with motivated, talented and intelligent professionals through a support structure of state associations, board members, national staff, teachers and the many industry professionals who work in the field as classroom liaisons.

Founded in 1970 and based in Alexandria, Va., InVEST promotes insurance education in order to attract individuals to pursue a career in the insurance industry. Each year, the program prepares thousands of students for insurance-related careers with a hands-on curriculum taught in high schools, adult education centers and colleges. The high school curriculum is a business-education program that utilizes a hands-on approach which simulates an insurance agency and company operations to prepare students for various business careers and create more knowledgeable insurance consumers. At the college level, InVEST is an information-intensive curriculum of risk management and financial services. These courses provide students with a working knowledge of the basics needed to pursue careers in the insurance industry. For more information, go to www.investprogram.org.

[Category: Insurance]

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