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Leadership

Meet the people dedicated to doing good.

Like you, our senior leadership team feels privileged that their jobs enable them to make a difference in the lives of others every day. They bring a wealth of insurance, financial, business and leadership experience to GuideOne, but they also bring their passion for doing good and their fierce commitment to community. Our leaders are actively involved in local nonprofits, schools, churches and boards — organizations like yours — so they understand your dedication.

  • Click on a Senior Leader to learn more!

Senior Leadership Team

Ken Cadematori

President & Chief Executive Officer

Ken serves as GuideOne’s President & Chief Executive Officer. He previously held the role of Chief Financial Officer at GuideOne, leading the finance team and providing oversight of investments, accounting, financial planning, reinsurance, reserving, capital management, procurement and facilities. Ken’s experience includes more than 30 years of leadership and executive roles across all aspects of finance and accounting.
 
Ken earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Lycoming College and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Travis Sheets

Senior Vice President & General Counsel

Travis is responsible for corporate strategic and tactical legal initiatives, overseeing a broad range of corporate governance and legal functions including regulatory compliance. Additionally, he provides legal advice supporting the Company’s strategic objectives and leads its legal team and outside counsel.

Before joining GuideOne in 2024, Travis served as Chief Legal Officer for BH Companies. He also served as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company and Senior Counsel for HNI Corporation.

Travis holds a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in business administration and economics from Austin College.

Adam Niebrugge

Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Adam is responsible for all aspects of GuideOne’s accounting, finance, investments, reserving, capital management and reinsurance in his role as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to this role, Adam led GuideOne’s actuarial team, overseeing the company’s enterprise risk management strategies and its evaluation of financial risk exposures.

He has a broad range of experience in actuarial leadership roles, reserving, pricing, planning and forecasting.

Adam earned his bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics from Indiana University Bloomington and his master’s degree in actuarial science from Ball State University.

Troy Spoonemore

Chief Underwriting & Risk Officer

Troy is responsible for leading GuideOne’s commitment to underwriting excellence to achieve profitable growth. He oversees all aspects of GuideOne’s underwriting operations and governance, while also providing account-level risk insights across all business segments.

Troy joined GuideOne in 1998 and has cultivated a unique breadth of insurance and leadership skills through roles spanning claims, loss control, risk management and underwriting. He most recently served as GuideOne’s Vice President, Technology & Innovation Strategy.

Troy holds an associate degree in applied science, business and information technology from Heald College.

Bernard Hengesbaugh

Transition Officer & Board Chair

Bernie serves as Transition Officer for GuideOne Insurance after leading the company in his role as Chief Executive Officer from 2022-2024. In addition, Bernie is Chair of the GuideOne Board and has served as a director since 2011. Bernie offers a wealth of knowledge and insights to GuideOne from both an industry and leadership perspective.

Prior to GuideOne, Bernie spent 23 years with CNA Insurance in various underwriting and operating leadership roles, culminating in becoming the company's CEO. After that, he served as the chief operating officer for the American Medical Association, where he oversaw operations and successfully managed national policy issues for the 300,000-member organization.

Brian Nelson

Senior Vice President, Chief Claims Officer

Brian is responsible for the management of claims policies, guidelines and governance, risk control and for maintaining a superior customer service experience in our Customer Care Center. Before joining GuideOne in 2017, Brian served as Associate Vice President of Claims at Nationwide Agribusiness. Prior to that, he held various roles with Travelers Insurance. Brian earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa and his Master of Business Administration from Drake University. He has obtained several designations and certifications, including Charter Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Claims (AIC).

Naomi Myers

Senior Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer

Naomi was Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer at GuideOne, responsible for leading GuideOne’s HR strategy, specifically in the areas of talent acquisition, talent management, training and development and compensation and benefits. Prior to this, she served as the Vice President of Strategic HR Partnership for Rite Aid, leading a geographically dispersed team to deliver strategic solutions and day-to-day execution in support of 45,000 associates. In addition, Naomi spent over 16 years in senior HR leadership roles for Nationwide Insurance and later at CNA Insurance. Naomi earned her bachelor’s degree in human services at Buena Vista University.

Chris Steele

Senior Vice President, Enterprise Operations

Chris is a proven leader in the steering and delivery of major operational initiatives. As Senior Vice President of Enterprise Operations, he leads efforts to simplify operational complexities through working across all parts of the company on the strategic planning for and delivery of all facets of enterprise operations and related capabilities.  

Chris joined GuideOne in 2013 with the charge of building out a Project Management Office to support the delivery of large initiatives. Over time, he has taken on various other responsibilities across Strategic Planning, Underwriting Support Services and driving special projects on behalf of the Senior LeadershipTeam. Chris has worked across all areas of the company and in doing so has built solid relationships and has a reputation for collaboration and execution.

Chris earned a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Northern Iowa. 

Paul Knutson

Senior Vice President, Business Development

Paul is responsible for developing and executing all facets of the company’s programs, partner and member strategy, in addition to reinsurance purchasing. He comes to The Mutual Group from GuideOne where he was heavily involved in strategy for all business segments across GuideOne and was instrumental in aligning the company’s reinsurance solutions with its financial and long-term capital goals. Paul’s track record includes over 25 years of leadership, reinsurance buying and reinsurance brokerage experience.

Shane Maas

Vice President, Chief Information Officer

Shane is a collaborative trusted leader with 25 years in the property casualty insurance industry. He leads GuideOne’s shared Information Technology Services team in support of our evolving organizational needs with a renewed focus on the simplification of our processes, meeting commitments, and focusing resources on value-added work, processes and tools. In Shane's tenure at GuideOne, he has helped to modernize our Commercial Underwriting Systems, virtualizing our server/desktop resources, and his teams have been featured by Forrester in an economic study after successfully migrating all of GuideOne's server infrastructure to the Cloud in less than 60 days.

Lori Chappell

Vice President, Corporate Communications & Marketing

Lori leads GuideOne’s corporate communications and marketing functions in addition to managing the GuideOne Foundation. She is a proven leader with more than 30 years of communications, marketing and customer service experience. Lori and her team are responsible for leading the company’s strategic brand and marketing initiatives, as well as advertising, creative services, social media, and internal and external communications to deliver measurable results. Prior to joining GuideOne, Lori was Senior Marketing Manager for LCS, where she led new business development initiatives. Before that, she was Marketing Director and Public Information Officer for the Iowa State Fair, directing the full range of marketing and in-house agency functions for the nationally renowned institution. In addition, she has held numerous marketing leadership roles with Simon Property Group and Westfield. Lori is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and actively supports the Greater Iowa Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. She is a graduate of Iowa State University with a BBA in marketing.

Board of Directors

 

BERNARD HENGESBAUGH, Executive Chair

Transition Officer & former Chief Executive Officer, GuideOne Insurance; Retired Chief Operating Officer, American Medical Association; Retired Chief Executive Officer & Board Chair, CNA Financial

H. LYNN HORAK, Vice Chair

Retired Chief Executive Officer, Norwest Bank/Wells Fargo

DIANE BRIDGEWATER, Chair of the Audit Committee

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, LCS Holdings, Inc.

CARA HEIDEN, Chair of Human Resources, Nominating and Governance Committee

Retired Division Co-President, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage

CAROL SANDERS, Chair of Risk Committee

Former Chief Financial Officer, Sentry Insurance Company

ROBERT HARTWIG

Clinical Associate Professor of Finance, University of South Carolina, Darla Moore School of Business; Retired President & Chief Economist, Insurance Information Institute

MICHAEL HUGHES

Former President of Business Insurance, Liberty Mutual

ROBERT MORETTE

Advisory Partner, Bain & Company, a management consulting company not affiliated with Bain Capital Insurance

KAREN SHAFF

Retired Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Principal Financial Group