Wednesday, a group of fifteen School of Business students traveled to Goldsboro, NC to tour the newly renovated space of Atlantic Casualty Insurance Group, Inc.
Atlantic Casualty is owned and operated by two distinguished Campbell Business alumni, Paul Aycock, Executive Vice President of Agency Services, and Bret Strickland, CEO and President of Atlantic Casualty.
The company’s mission is to provide innovative specialty insurance solutions; Students were able to witness, firsthand, the success of this mission.
Atlantic Casualty was formed by the Strickland Insurance Group (SIG) in 1983. By the late 1990’s, their books had grown to over $100 million of premium in seven states.
In 1998, the decision was made to refocus the company in commercial products. Their current product lines include Commercial General Liability, Commercial Package, Inland Marine, Ocean Marine, Commercial Property, Boiler and Machinery and Commercial Auto (NC only).
In January of 2016, Atlantic Casualty and the Strickland Insurance Group were acquired and became part of the Auto-Owners Insurance Group.
Now, with offices in Goldsboro, NC; Hartford, CT; Scottsdale, AZ; and Richmond, VA; Atlantic Casualty has positioned itself to better serve its agency force. Their hard work and solid results over the past 30 years has earned them an A+ (superior) IX (financial size) rating from A.M. Best.
During the trip on Wednesday, students were able to chat with Paul Aycock and Bret Strickland about their journey of entrepreneurship, Mark Bryan (also a Campbell MBA alumnus) about potential career opportunities, and five other alumni that work for the company about their career paths and experiences working at Atlantic Casualty.
Students left with a new perspective of the insurance industry, goodie bags, and a plethora of job opportunities.
The trip continued with a 30-minute drive to Kinston, NC where students were given a tour of the revitalization efforts of the Downtown Kinston Revitalization group lead by Leon Stele.
The group was able to witness, full circle, the process of reviving a rural main street, from boarded up building being kept off market by absent landlords, to thriving restaurants, a local farmers market space, and art galleries.
One stop on the tour was Little Union Academy of Martial Arts – a black belt school that is focused on giving their students a constructive place to build life skills today, to strengthen their futures tomorrow.
The final stop of the evening was dinner at the Laughing Owl, a locally owned Asian fusion style restaurant. The group was joined by a few alumni they met earlier in the day at Atlantic Casualty.
The Lundy-Fetterman School of Business is thankful to have corporate partners, alumni, and local community leaders who are interested in investing in students’ futures.