View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2010/02/26/107710.htm
The wholesale insurance industry association, American Association of Managing General Agents (AAMGA), has created a Distinguished Chair in Risk Management and Insurance at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.
The chair is being funded by a $1 million gift to Robinson’s Department of Risk Management and Insurance from members and associate members of AAMGA. The gift is believed to be the largest of its kind involving a business school and an insurance trade association.
Through its collaboration with Georgia State, AAMGA’s 400 member companies and their 10,000 employees will have access to research in the field of risk management and insurance, preferred access to Robinson College executive education offerings, the opportunity to recruit Robinson graduates on the Georgia State University campus, and the ability to leverage the latest in educational technology.
According to Wes Duesenberg, Jr., president of Southern Insurance Underwriters, Inc. and chair of AAMGA’s development committee, the move should help AAMGA members to prepare for the future.
“For AAMGA to position itself appropriately for the future we need an entirely new level of thought leadership. Our partnership with Robinson’s highly ranked Risk Management and Insurance Department and its renowned faculty will provide access to the knowledge and instruction needed for our members to excel and our industry to thrive in the 21st century,”

 he said.
Richard D. Phillips, chair of Robinson’s RMI Department, called the new association with AAMGA, “groundbreaking.” Phillips said the exchange of knowledge between the college and a major trade association not only helps AAMGA’s efforts, but also strengthen his faculty’s ability to “teach students about the real world problems they’ll be facing as they pursue their careers in risk and insurance.”
Each year AAMGA conducts training for its members in various U.S. cities through AAMGA University. Robinson faculty will lecture and conduct workshops on such subjects as leadership, communication and teamwork as part of AAMGA’s Leadership Institute.
Jeff Henry, director of Education and Professional Development for AAMGA University, said he believes the move “increases the overall credibility and prestige of AAMGA University.”
The search for the individual who will hold the new AAMGA chair will be launched in March and college officials hope to be able to name the new chair holder later this spring.


The AAMGA is an international trade association for the wholesale insurance community.
Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business has 200 faculty, 8,000 students and 70,000 alumni.