The 62nd annual meeting of the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau (CIRB) wrapped up last week in Indian Wells, California and concluded Lindsay Rinkenberger’s term as chair of the organization. Rinkenberger, who is director of Commercial Agribusiness Underwriting at Country Financial, says they did make some changes in the program this year. “So we did change up the speakers, the …
Meet CIRB’s Newest Leadership Development Class
The Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau (CIRB) has 14 industry professionals in its 2025-2026 Leadership Development Program (LDP), formerly called the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP). The program is designed to build the next generation of crop insurance and reinsurance leaders and provide new leadership opportunities for seasoned crop insurance professionals. The LDP is open to employees of CIRB member companies …
Crop Insurance Industry Navigating Change
The 2026 Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau (CIRB) Annual Meeting is being held this week in Indian Wells, California, bringing together industry leaders, experts, and stakeholders across the crop insurance industry. CIRB Executive Director Mike Torrey says the industry is dealing with lots of changes right now. “I think coming into the conference, the one guiding principle for the board …
VANE Agricultural Insurance Solutions Appoints CEO
VANE Agricultural Insurance Solutions, a leading provider of custom agricultural insurance, has appointed Clayton Becker as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for overseeing the company’s day-to-day operations, driving business development, and accelerating sales growth while ensuring operational excellence. Becker brings a wealth of experience in agriculture, with over two decades at Syngenta, and most recently, as President of Farmers National, a …
ZimmCast 742 – Cattle and Crop Insurance
Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. In this episode I’m going to share some interviews with last week’s CattleCon 2025 and CIRB Annual Mtg. I was in San Antonio while Cindy was in Bonita Springs, FL. This is definitely the busy time! So, let’s get started with CattleCon. I talked with Colin Woodall, CEO, NCBA who says they were going …
Meet the Tenth CIRB Emerging Leaders Program Class
There are 19 members in the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau’s (CIRB) 2024-2025 class of the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP), which is designed to build the next generation of crop insurance and reinsurance leaders. Now in the tenth year, the program offers extensive educational programming, valuable networking opportunities, and active engagement in Washington, D.C., to provide each class with a …
CIRB Protecting the Crop Insurance Industry
With a new Congress and a new administration, there are lots of new people who need to be educated about the importance of crop insurance and CIRB has its work cut out for it this year. “Obviously we are hoping to get a farm bill again this year,” said Tara Smith, Deputy Executive Vice President of the Crop Insurance and …
Critical Time for Crop Insurance at CIRB Annual Meeting
Members of the Crop Insurance Reinsurance Bureau (CIRB) are holding their annual meeting this week in Florida at a critical time for the industry. “This meeting is very important just with the current political landscape, the change changing of the guards, if you will for multiple agencies across the the government with the Risk Management Agency being one of them,” …
CIRB Announces Tenth Class of Emerging Leaders
The Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau (CIRB) has named 19 industry professionals to its 2024-2025 Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) class. The 2024-2025 CIRB Emerging Leaders Program class includes: Anthony Kubik, American Farm Bureau Insurance Services Sara Hamm, American Farm Bureau Insurance Services Tanner Schroder, AgriSompo North America Shay Foster, AgriSompo North America Craig Fenster, Aon Carissa Lozier, COUNTRY Financial Luke …
CIRB Celebrates 60 Years Serving Farmers
At it’s annual meeting this week in Scottsdale, Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau (CIRB) is celebrating 60 years of serving farmers with safety net products to help them keep feeding the world. The numbers show that crop insurance is more important than ever for farmers. “A four billion dollar industry 15 or 20 years ago is now an 18 billion …