Tom Tuggle, formerly Michigan Retailers Association director of sales, has been promoted to vice president, Retailers Mutual sales & agent relations. With many of his former responsibilities reassigned to a new position, Tuggle is now able to focus all his energies on Retailer Mutual, to build and strengthen its network of independent agents.

Tuggle looks forward to the new challenges and opportunities that come with the change. “Now I can focus 'like a laser,' as Larry Meyer would say, on Retailers Mutual and agent relations,” said Tuggle.

Tuggle's primary focus in the past decade has been building relations with community banks as a means of finding new members and serving current members better. When Retailers Mutual was formed in January 2006, the work of bringing in new policyholders shifted to independent agents rather than MRA's regional marketing reps, and it has been one of Tuggle's many responsibilities to build and maintain this network.

The task became an increasingly larger part of his workload. As Retailers Mutual continues to grow, MRA's leadership decided the role had grown and requires the attention of a full-time person, with Tuggle the obvious choice.
“It's all about building relationships that people can trust, and I've been doing that for many years here with banks.

Now I've got a new area to work in, and I'm excited at the prospect of concentrating on it.”

Tuggle, who came on board at MRA back in 1993 as a regional marketing rep, took on more responsibilities in 1998 as bank development manager, then again as he became director of sales in 2000, overseeing all regional marketing reps and continuing to develop the community bank program.

He and his wife live in Williamston, where they are raising three daughters.