Rotary Welcomes Protective President & CEO Rich Bielen

RCB President Brenda Hackney and Rotarian Laura McDonald with Rotarian Rich Bielen following his presentation.

The Rotary Club of Birmingham recently welcomed Rotarian Rich Bielen, Protective Life Corporation President & CEO, as a guest speaker. Bielen highlighted the company's growth over its 115-year history and honored its past leaders, including Rotarian Billy Rushton who passed away last year.

He explained the importance of Protective's strong, supportive parent company, Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Inc. and the five core segments of Life Marketing, Annuities, Acquisitions, Stable Value Products and Asset Protection. He illustrated how the company’s virtuous cycle of procuring a stable earnings stream through retail lines allows the company to make strategic acquisitions that continuously drive growth and scale.

“Twenty years ago, I had no one dedicated to cyber, now I’ve got twenty people dedicated to security and cyber,” Bielen said. “You have to get bigger in order to be able to absorb. You cannot stay small,” Bielen said. “It’s about growth and scale. I keep repeating these themes again and again.”

Bielen discussed the impact of the pandemic on business, the future of work, the challenges of the labor market, advances in technology, cybersecurity, and the roles of environmental, social and governance factors. He shared the company's new brand identity, excitement around becoming the title sponsor of Birmingham's new Protective Stadium and the opportunity to effect change in the surrounding neighborhoods.

"The Protective employees were proud that we would step up into the community, put our name on the stadium and they could be proud to say, 'I work at Protective,' Bielen said. "We're engaged in a community engagement strategy called Protecting Good that's being done with the state and the city. There are funds being made available to go in and help fix 100 homes in the Northside communities over the next year...It's really phenomenal."