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Your Advisor
John Pryor, CPCU,
ARM, AAI, AIS is a 45-year veteran of the property-casualty
insurance industry. Over the course of these years, he’s provided
advice and counsel to hundreds of businesses – large and small, closely
held and publicly held – throughout California, in other states, and
even in other countries.
After graduating
from San Jose State University with a degree in Business
Administration (minor in insurance), Pryor served in the US Navy as a
line officer aboard large auxiliary ships in the Western Pacific. His
primary duties were as personnel officer and legal officer. Both
responsibilities prepared him for entry into insurance.
After release
from active duty, Pryor joined a major insurance carrier in San
Francisco. At the same time, he did post-graduate work to prepare for
(and pass) the extensive battery of national essay-question exams
leading to conferment of the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU)
professional designation.
He then returned
to Bakersfield to join his father, Lindsay Pryor, in the family
insurance agency, Pryor Insurance, formed in Bakersfield in 1926.
In 1970, he
initiated the founding of Kern Insurance Associates, Inc. He also
co-founded (in 1985) a highly specialized personal insurance agency,
Personal Express Insurance Services. Both firms continue today under
separate ownership to be major players in their respective segments of
the central California commercial and personal insurance marketplace.
In 1989, he
was elected president of the Independent Insurance Brokers and Agents of
California. Also at the state level, he served on the board of
directors of the Insurance Educational Association in San Francisco and
on the California Department of Insurance Curriculum Board in
Sacramento.
At the national
level, he has held – and, in some cases, continues to hold – these
responsibilities:
-
Board of Trustees, American
Institute for CPCU / Insurance Institute of America (current)
-
Board of Governors of the CPCU
Society (1999 to 2005)
-
Presidential Commission on Best
Practices of the Insurance Brokers and Agents of America
-
Founder of the Total Quality Special
Interest Section of the CPCU Society
He also writes
a series on the principles advanced by W. Edwards Deming on Total
Quality Management as applied in the insurance industry for the
International Risk Management Institute in Dallas.
Pryor resides
in Bakersfield with his wife, Meg, and has been very active in that
community over the years. He’s served as president (or board chairman)
of several not-for-profit organizations. For example:
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So. Sierra
Council, Boy Scouts of America
-
Greater Bakersfield Chamber of
Commerce
-
Stockdale County Club
-
Kern Community Foundation
-
Mid State Development (SBA lending)
-
CSUB Business School Advisory Council
-
Bakersfield West Rotary Club
-
St. Paul’s Episcopal Parish
In 2004, he
received the coveted John Brock Community Service Award. Other awards
include membership in Blue Key National Honor Fraternity in college,
honorary membership in the CSUB chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma Business
Fraternity, and Silver Beaver Award of the Boy Scouts of America. |
