Bill Westrate, Chair and CEO, American Family Insurance, Chair and CEO, American Family Insurance

Bill Westrate

Chair and CEO

American Family Insurance

Bill oversees the American Family Insurance enterprise of companies. He is actively engaged in the strategy, operations, business development and innovation efforts at the enterprise, and he has a passion for community/social impact and progressing the company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Bill started with American Family in 1996 as an actuarial analyst and later became the division’s actuarial manager, homeowners lines director and risk pricing director. In 2006, he was elected vice president of the Actuarial Division, and two years later he was named vice president of Personal Lines.

Bill became an executive vice president in July 2011, with oversight of the product line divisions: Commercial-Farm/Ranch, Life and Personal Lines. He continued in that role until becoming American Family chief operating officer in January 2014. In 2017, American Family promoted Bill to enterprise president, assuming that role from Chair and CEO Jack Salzwedel. Bill was then named CEO-Elect in 2021 in the organization’s succession plan for Jack’s retirement at the end of that year. In January 2022, he moved into his current position.

Bill earned his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern College in mathematics. He is a fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He serves on the board of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and is the chair of the United Way of Dane County board of directors.

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