ON THE COVER
Q&A WITH
RITA & JESS MCMULLEN Rita McMullen, CPCU, AFIS, AAI is president of PDM Insurance Agency. Her daughter, Jess McMullen, CPIA, CLCS, is agency partner. Together they oversee the independent agency, which consists of three locations throughout southcentral Pennsylvania and specializes in farm and crop insurance. Q. Rita, tell us about what brought you into the industry and how your career progressed. A. [Rita:] I entered the insurance industry as a high school business co-op student in 1980. As I worked through college, I stayed involved in insurance and decided I wanted it to be a career. I worked in customer service, commercial and personal lines, but I found my real niche in the agricultural insurance world thanks to growing up on a Franklin County, PA dairy farm. I became a producer in 1985 and sold all lines of insurance, and in 2000 I became a partner with PDM Insurance Agency. In 2016 I became the president and 100% owner of PDM with two agency locations in Franklin County. In 2022, I made my daughter, Jessica McMullen, a partner in PDM, and in April 2022, we opened our third location in Biglerville, Adams County, PA. Q. Jess, you have a degree in animal science from Texas A&M University, where you competed on the Equestrian Team. That sounds amazing, but I suspect you didn’t intend to work in insurance. How has the industry “grown on you” over the past 10 years? A. [Jess:] I definitely didn’t intend to work in the industry, but after I graduated and came back to Pennsylvania, I started a job as an equine vet tech and quickly realized that I wasn’t making ends meet financially. My mom suggested that I come work for her. At first I was 8
concerned that my animal science degree would “go to waste” and that I’d be stuck in a stuffy office job, but after giving it more thought, I asked to try things out and see how I liked it. Once I got into the swing of things, I realized that I still had the opportunity to work with farmers and horse people and that made me feel a lot more comfortable because I could relate to them! Ten years later, I’ve gotten a lot more confident in my insurance knowledge and have a lot more experience in understanding business and agricultural risks. Equine and agriculture are still my main focuses, but I have branched out to commercial lines as well. Q. Rita, what was it like for you to have your daughter join you in the agency? A. [Rita:] Jessica had helped me out with some projects at the agency during her breaks from college, but she wasn’t sure that insurance was the career for her. I was so happy when she agreed to try “the job.” She started as an entry-level receptionist and worked her way up through personal lines servicing, to commercial lines and agricultural lines producer. I am so proud to have her join me in the insurance business, and I look forward to the future of our agency with her as a partner.
MARCH 2023