Michael L. Tipsord (born June 20, 1959) is the chairman of the board of State Farm Insurance in

Bloomington, Illinois Bloomington is a city and the county seat of McLean County, Illinois, United States. It is adjacent to the town of Normal, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area. Bloomington ...

. Tipsord replaced

Edward B. Rust Jr. Edward Barry Rust Jr. (born August 3, 1950) was chairman of the board of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Bloomington, Illinois. He is a former President and Chief Executive Officer of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company a ...

as chairman on September 1, 2015. State Farm is the 42nd largest company in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on the

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

and the country’s largest auto and home insurer.

Education

Tipsord was born and raised in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, graduated with a B.S. degree

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

in 1981, from

Illinois Wesleyan University Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockfor ...

in Bloomington, and a J.D. degree in 1984

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

from the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

Career

Tipsord is a registered Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and is a registered attorney in Illinois since November 16, 1984. Tipsord earned the

Chartered Life Underwriter The American College of Financial Services (The American College) is a private online university focused on professional training for financial practitioners and located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. It offers several professional certificati ...

(CLU) designation in 1991 and the

Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) is a professional designation in property-casualty insurance and risk management, administered by The Institutes (AKA American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters). Achieving the ...

(CPCU) in 1995. Tipsord was a private practice attorney before becoming an assistant tax counsel for State Farm in 1988. Tipsord has gone on to hold a number of leadership positions including assistant treasurer in 1998, VP in 2001, senior vice president and

CFO The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...

in 2004,

COO COO or coo may refer to: Business * Certificate of origin, used in international trade * Chief operating officer or chief operations officer, high-ranking corporate official * Concept of operations, used in Systems Engineering Management Process ...

before becoming

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

in 2015. Tipsord’s compensation from State Farm was $24.5 million in 2021. State Farm announced in December 2023 that Tipsord will be retiring as the company's president in 2024.

Other involvements

Tipsord serves as a trustee for the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

think tank, the dean’s advisory board for the

University of Illinois College of Law The University of Illinois College of Law (Illinois Law or UIUC Law) is the law school of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a public university in Champaign, Illinois. It was established in 1897 and offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S. ...

, the board of Navagant Consulting, and has been a featured speaker at the

Wharton School of Business The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

Controversies

Since Tipsord became CEO, State Farm has gone from nearly 70,000 employees to 53,586 employees in 2021. Since 2015, numerous locations have been closed. Five more office centers are slated to close in 2020 and 2021. Also under Tipsord, State Farm has announced their Green Mission to "lead by example" in environmental philanthropy. However,

Ceres Ceres most commonly refers to: * Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid * Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres may also refer to: Places Brazil * Ceres, Goiás, Brazil * Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás ...

found that State Farm invests billions of US dollars to finance fossil fuel companies. Others place State Farm's fossil fuel investments at US $22.4 billion. State Farm has not considered climate change as a factor when investing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tipsord, Michael L. People from Bloomington, Illinois American businesspeople in insurance American chief executives of financial services companies American corporate directors 1950 births Living people Illinois Wesleyan University alumni University of Illinois College of Law alumni State Farm people Businesspeople from Illinois