Robert Chappell is overseeing but a chapter in the long history of Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co.
For 160 years, the Horsham-based company has changed and evolved to better fit the needs of its customers and the demands of the marketplace, and to continue to thrive, it must keep doing
so, says Chappell, CEO of the company since 1995 and chairman since 1997.
His job, he says, is to foster the innovations that will keep Penn Mutual at the top of its industry for years to come. You must enable your employees to cultivate and share ideas, and to do that,
you must provide them with the tools and the environment to make it happen.
“The big thing for a company like ours, with a product that’s changing but has some stability to it, is to be able to make sure you can keep an excitement and keep innovation going on in that
arena,” Chappell says.
Chappell’s ability to keep Penn Mutual adaptable has allowed the company to become one of the pillars of the life insurance industry, with 40 offices and nearly 870 employees and 2,000 agents
across the United States, and an estimated $1.2 billion in 2005 revenue.