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Middletown's former state senator new CEO for insurance group

MIDDLETOWN —  Scott Nein, a former Middletown state senator and state representative, has been named chief executive of the Ohio Association of Insurance Agents/Independent Insurance Agents of Ohio, the organization said Monday.

The move is something of a return for Nein. It puts him in charge of an organization he first joined as a sales agent for Middletown's Miller Insurance Inc. and returned to in January 2005 as executive vice president. He left the Ohio Senate in January and will be permitted to begin lobbying work with former associates in the General Assembly next month.

"This is absolutely perfect with my background," Nein said Monday.

The move also keeps Nein in the state capital. Though Nein and his family continue to have deep roots in the area — his and his wife Janis's four children graduated from Middletown High School — they will eventually sell their home on Dorset Drive, he said.

"Middletown will always be home for us," Nein said. "And that will never change."

The insurance association — which sometimes calls itself the "Ohio big I" — says it has more than 10,000 independent insurance agents as members. It is part of the national Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America.

Nein said he was brought to the organization earlier this year with the understanding that he would replace current CEO Thomas Hardy, who will retire Jan. 2 and has had the insurance organization's helm since 1980.

"He is a dedicated advocate for independent insurance agents and will serve them well as their new leader here in Ohio," Hardy said of Nein.

A Middletown native who grew up on Gladys Drive, Nein won a Middletown Board of Education seat in 1987 at the age of 36. He was elected 57th District state representative in 1990 and moved on to the Senate five years later to take what had been Barry Levey's seat. He served as chair of the Senate Insurance, Commerce & Labor Committee, among other committee assignments.

As CEO, Nein will answer to a 15-member board.

"A lot of the work is educating legislators on the issues that confront agents and their customers," he said.

While he supported term limits for Ohio legislators, he said Monday that eight years is probably too little time to master Columbus politics. That doesn't mean, however, that he's interested in returning to the House, as he has seen some ex-senators do.

"I don't know that I was ever a good politician," he said.

Others disagree.

"He has a proven record of successful leadership and brings with him great experience as a former legislator and independent insurance agent," said Gerald Roach Jr., president of the association's Executive Committee.

Contact Thomas Gnau at (513) 705-2833, or e-mail him at tgnau@coxohio.com.