Hutch Mauck, President, Scott Insurance
Founded during the Civil War, this thriving agency serves clients from nine offices across the Southeast
By Keith Mann
At Scott Insurance, we are extremely proud of our long history of service as trusted partners who implement strategic solutions through empowered people. Headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia, our 100% employee-owned company has evolved over time from a local independent agency into a thriving regional firm with a growing footprint. Our history provides a solid foundation on which we continue to build a strong culture and thriving business today.
Looking back
The history of Scott Insurance, a division of James A. Scott & Son, Inc., dates to our founding in 1864 by Lynchburg businessman and Virginia state legislator Peter J. Otey. Our earliest record of business is dated two days after President Abraham Lincoln’s re-election on November 10, 1864, when a $10,000 fire protection policy was written.
In 1900, James A. Scott, who would later become president, joined the company, bringing the Scott name to the business. The agency was incorporated with headquarters in downtown Lynchburg in 1923.
After a few ownership changes, the company stock was sold to five agency principals in 1974.
One of these principals, Bob Nein, became president and led our growing agency into what was then a cutting-edge business model that quickly became the cornerstone of our company’s culture and philosophy: employee ownership.
After attending an insurance industry conference where he heard about the recently passed legislation allowing this unique and innovative ownership structure, Nein had the strategic vision to see how establishing an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) would provide an orderly transfer for our company’s ownership.
This vision was realized as the Scott Insurance ESOP was implemented in 1975, allowing the business to be perpetuated and continue to prosper. Our ESOP was one of the first in the nation to be established and is now considered a model for the industry.
After Nein, another forward-thinking leader took the helm. In 1986, when Walker Sydnor Jr. became president, Scott’s revenue was $3.5 million and we had approximately 60 employee owners. Sydnor served as president until his retirement in 2013.
During his tenure, we expanded our offerings to include employee benefits, established our specialized risk performance group, entered the captive insurance market, and opened our first offices outside of Virginia. During this season of significant growth and innovation, many of today’s leaders came on board, including our current president, Hutch Mauck.
After joining Scott in 1991 and successfully leading our office in Richmond, Virginia, as a commercial risk advisor, Mauck became president in 2014 and today leads our organization alongside a seasoned and smart team of sales, service, and operations leaders.
Our employee ownership model has allowed us to remain
independent and perpetuate the company.
We are thankful to have many long-standing employee owners at Scott. We have 40 employee owners with 20-plus years with the company. A few examples are:
- Hutch Mauck, president (32 years)
- Jim Redmond, vice president, risk performance (33 years)
- Teresa Vaughan, vice president, human resources (25 years)
- Nathan Kerr, vice president, branch leader, and affordable housing practice lead (23 years)
- Kris McCue, property and casualty director of systems and training (20 years)
Where we are today
In recent years, significant focus areas for our company have included continued strong organic growth through sales, talent recruitment and development, increasing service capacity, and investing in new technologies and infrastructure to support our future growth.
Our corporate headquarters remains in Lynchburg, about seven miles from the original office. In 2021, we expanded our headquarters to include an additional building, The Sydnor Building, named in honor of former presidents C. Raine Sydnor and Walker Sydnor. In addition to office space, the building features significant meeting and training space.
While our presence in Lynchburg remains significant, today we proudly employ over 380 employee owners located in nine offices across the Southeast:
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Greensboro, North Carolina
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Greenville, South Carolina
- Knoxville, Tennessee
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Lynchburg, Virginia
- Richmond, Virginia
- Roanoke, Virginia
We currently serve clients in all 50 U.S. states and in 30-plus countries. For 2022, our total premiums were $1.44 billion and revenue was approximately $88.7 million. Scott continues to experience strong, steady year-over-year growth while maintaining a focus on service excellence and innovative business solutions.
Looking ahead
As we look to the future, we remain committed to our unique qualities as a company that have allowed us to experience success and longevity:
Our ESOP. Our employee ownership model has allowed us to remain independent and perpetuate the company. Unlike many other agencies our size that are privately owned or closely held, Scott’s ownership is extremely diverse, and therefore we do not face the same obstacles when owners retire or separate from the company.
Our ESOP will continue to be a differentiator for us, helping us drive our culture forward and allowing us to grow and develop our talent and future leaders.
Our steady organic growth. Our focus on growing our business organically by hiring and developing strong talent rather than seeking M&A opportunities has allowed us to experience strong, steady, and sustainable growth.
Our partnership approach. Our approach of serving our clients as partners, rather than a service provider or vendor, has allowed us to forge strong, long-standing client relationships. We are proud to have a 96% client retention rate and a Net Promoter Score of 91.
As part of this partnership approach, industry specialization will continue to be a focus for us in the coming years. Our teams have vast experience and extensive knowledge in certain industries, markets, and sectors, which allows us to offer specialized consulting and niche risk management services.
Our empowered people. We are proud to have some of the best talent in the industry on our teams. Additionally, our unique culture empowers our people to use their expertise, experience, and passion for service to make a difference for our clients.
Our locations. We are fortunate to be strategically located in thriving markets that are great for business. We expect growth in our existing markets and anticipate potential strategic expansion into new geographic markets where there is talent that aligns with our business model and goals.
You can learn more about Scott Insurance at scottins.com, and we invite you to connect with us on LinkedIn to follow along as we head into our 160th year of service.
The author
Keith Mann is chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Scott Insurance, a Lynchburg, Virginia-based agency that was recognized as the May 1991 Rough Notes Agency of the Month.
