ON THE COVER
Q&A with
CHRIS GEBHARD
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Chris Gebhard is President of Hoaster Gebhard & Co., an independent insurance agency and risk management firm based in Lebanon, PA. He also is a Pennsylvania State Senator, representing the 48th District.
Q. What’s the best piece of advice that your father gave you when you took over the agency?
Q. Your father was an independent agent (and former chairman of IA&B). Was it always your plan to follow in his footsteps? If so, what intrigued you about the industry? And if not, what changed your career path?
Q. You first entered the political arena in May 2021, when you won a special election to fill a vacated Pennsylvania Senate seat. What prompted you to run for office? And what did you think of the campaigning process?
A. Despite my father owning an agency, I certainly did not grow up thinking I would be in the insurance industry. In fact, I had little interest when I returned home after graduating from Vanderbilt University. However, that summer, as I was reviewing job opportunities and helping my father with some projects in his office, I met our field representative from the Cincinnati Insurance Company. He asked about my future plans, and when I indicated I didn’t have anything concrete, he encouraged me to apply to be a Commercial Underwriter with them. After a couple interviews, I was hired and packed my bags for Cincinnati, Ohio.
A. If you had asked me on Jan. 1, 2021 if I’d ever hold political office, I surely would have laughed and said no way. I had never been involved in politics, never run for any office, and was not even very active in the local party. However, when my friend Sen. Dave Arnold passed away in early January 2021, something stirred inside of me. It was the height of the pandemic, and I was frustrated with the way the Commonwealth was heading, so I thought it was time to stop complaining and do something to make it better. My wife and I have always held a belief that it’s incumbent on all of us to make our communities a better place, and to me this was a chance to really take that concept to a higher level.
I ended up learning the business from the carrier side and worked for Cincinnati for 3.5 years. At that point my father was working on his perpetuation plan and indicated it was now or never if I wanted to return to the agency. So on Jan. 1, 2000, I packed up and drove home and started with the agency the next day.
As far as campaigning, it actually feels a lot like the sales business, so I took to it naturally. I’m a small-town agent, so a lot of what we do to campaign is what I was doing to promote our business. Attending events, speaking with various community groups, and at times going door to door was all part of our campaign plan last spring.
A. He told me to always put the clients’ interests first. Our industry is absolutely based on relationships and trust, and we must never take either one for granted.
APRIL 2022
