Jarrard (pronounced Jah-Rod) “Rod” Powell Sr. is an insurance and risk management leader focused on building benefit strategies that create real value for employers, unions, and working families. Over the last decade and a half years, he’s helped build and scale a multi-state voluntary benefits organization working primarily in the public sector, partnered with multiple labor unions and business chambers to implement ancillary benefit programs that strengthen member value, and supported social service organizations with self-funded group health programs designed to balance cost control with competitive coverage.

Holding the designations of Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Registered Employee Benefits Consultant (REBC), and Commercial Lines Coverage Specialist (CLCS), Rod is Agency Principal of Encore Insurance Group in Richmond, VA, a risk consulting and insurance brokerage firm specializing in property & casualty, employee benefits, and life insurance solutions for businesses, associations, and individuals.

Rod also serves as an Adjunct Professor in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Risk Management and Insurance program and sits on the boards of the National African American Insurance Association and the Virginia Association of Independent Agents, supporting education initiatives for emerging professionals. He is the author of four books highlighting opportunities, lessor known history, and lessons of leadership in insurance—You Should Get A License, Black Pioneers of the American Insurance Industry, Black Innovators of the American Insurance Industry, and recently Black Visionaries of the American Insurance Industry—He holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration with a Management Concentration from Strayer University and is committed daily to add value to the world in his professional and personal life.