Jeff Dailey of Farmer's Insurance, is Jane Wells' latest guest on CEOs You Should Know. With more than 30 years of experience in the insurance business, Dailey worked his way up, starting as an adjuster, and moving through a variety of management and leadership roles during his illustrious career.
Originally from Detroit, Dailey attended college at the University of Wisconsin and earned a bachelor of science degree the university's Economics program, and went on to earn his Masters of Business Administration. After leaving his first job for Progressive in 1981, Dailey was promoted several times during his 14 year tenure with the company, where he ultimately was appointed the President of their Northeast Division.
In May 2001, Dailey went on to join Bristol West Holdings Inc. as their Chief Operating Officer and was later promoted to the president of the company and Chief Executive Officer. When Bristol West Holdings Inc. merged with Farmers Insurance in July 2007, Dailey was retained by the new company as the President of Personal Lines at Farmers Group, Inc.
"I would say that was the first time in my career, outside of the company I started, that I ever really had the goal of being the CEO," Dailey said of the merger between Bristol West Holdings Inc. "The idea of going into a big company and not being the CEO, was something that wouldn't have worked very well for me."
In 2012, he achieved his goal when he was named Farmers' Chief Executive Officer.
The Farmers Insurance CEO has seen his fair share of major disasters, including the many wildfires that have become a major concern for homeowners in California. Dailey says one of his company's biggest assets is their rapid response teams who are deployed when major events like the Woolsey fire occurs.
"We actually pride ourselves on disaster events. If we weren't first, we were really close to first to bring big, huge, mobile catastrophe vans to [disasters]," Dailey said. "We want to have a big presence and do that better than anybody. We actually just upgraded our 'cap' buses
Farmers even has a new tractor-trailer that can bring in a mobile office for people who need to make claims when they've lost or been evacuated from their homes due to a massive disaster event.
"We've got barbecue grills, we're cooking food for people," Dailey said. "We're bringing places where people can plug in their phones and charge things."
Dailey says his company doesn't just look out for people who have policies with them. They also do their best to look after the people who work for them to make sure they aren't burning out or working too much when major disasters happen.
"It really does take a toll on our people," Dailey says. "Our managers are cued in to make sure they can tell when people are starting to get burned out. We force people to go on mandatory vacation ... we have trained therapists that they can talk to if they have problems and so we really do try to monitor that, because it's really important."