NFCA Board Welcomes Three New and Two Returning Directors

09/18/07

OAK BROOK, IL – The National Fraternal Congress of America (NFCA) welcomed five fraternalists to the NFCA Board of Directors at the 121st NFCA Annual Meeting, September 6-8, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, including three new directors.  Elected to a three-year term each were Joseph E. Gadbois, ACS, Vice President - Corporate Marketing and Fraternal Services, Catholic Family Life Insurance; Jeffrey D. Pirmann, FLMI, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer, Royal Neighbors of America; and Mary Rausch, National President, National Catholic Society of Foresters.  Pirmann also was elected Secretary-Treasurer at the NFCA Board of Directors meeting on September 9, 2007.

Two directors returned to the NFCA Board.  Appointed to one-year terms were Teresa J. Rasmussen, JD, CPA, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans; and Byron L. Carlson, FIC, MBA-CLU, LLIF, Fraternal Director, Modern Woodmen of America.

Joseph E. Gadbois, ACS, is currently Vice President - Corporate Marketing and Fraternal Services for Catholic Family Life Insurance (CFLI), Milwaukee, Wis.  In this position, he oversees branding and image development as well as fraternal operations and chapter network of the nation’s oldest Catholic fraternal benefit society.  He also serves as a Trustee of the Catholic Family Life Education Foundation.  Gadbois was Vice President of Fraternal Services from 1996 to 2006, and before that he was Assistant Vice President of Fraternal Activities of the New England operations of the society in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.  He had been the Vice President of Communications for Union Saint-Jean-Baptiste, prior to its 1991 merger with CFLI.  Gadbois is a past president of the NFCA Fraternal and Communications Sections, and Past Chair of the former Public Relations and Convention Publicity committees.  He also served as past chair of the Marshal Program.  He holds the distinction of being past president of both the Wisconsin and New England Fraternal Congresses.

Jeff Pirmann, FLMI, has held the position of Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer for Royal Neighbors of America since October, 2004.  Pirmann has more than 30 years of financial reporting and management experience for insurance enterprises.  Pirmann has served as an auditor for Ernst and Ernst (now Ernst and Young), corporate accounting manager at Roosevelt National Life Insurance Company, chief financial officer for The Franklin Life Insurance Company, and was responsible for financial condition monitoring of life, property and casualty, and health insurance companies at a state-based insurance regulatory agency.  While working as an insurance regulator, he served as the state’s representative on various National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Committees and working groups, including the Accounting Practices and Procedures working group; the NAIC/AICPA working group and the International Accounting Standards working group.

Mary Rausch is National President of the National Catholic Society of Foresters (NCSF), Mount Prospect, Ill.  During her 47 years of membership, Rausch held the court offices of president, vice president, secretary and junior activity chairperson.  Rausch was also president of the Dubuque Archdiocesan Association.  She was elected to the NCSF board of directors in 1998.  In 2002, she was elected National Treasurer.  During her tenure as treasurer, she oversaw the society’s independent audit and an increase in the society’s reserves.  Rausch was elected National President in 2006.  Active in her community, Rausch has held offices on local, county and regional boards for Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women (ACCW) and the American Legion Auxiliary.  She was elected to the Winneshiek (Iowa) County Extension Council and appointed as Winneshiek Treasurer.  Rausch served as a 4-H leader for over 30 years.  She was the first woman elected to the Winneshiek County Farmers Home Administration Board (FHA).  A member of Iowa Business Professional Women’s Group, she and her husband have owned and operated a successful independent business for over 40 years.  Rausch also serves as a director on the Illinois Fraternal Congress.

Teresa (Terry) J. Rasmussen, JD, CPA, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, oversees Thrivent’s law, compliance, business risk management and government-relations functions.  In addition, she manages all Thrivent board meetings.  Prior to joining Thrivent in 2005, Rasmussen served as vice president and general counsel of IDS Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of American Express Financial Corporation.  In addition, she held the titles of vice president and managing counsel of asset management, insurance and annuities and the corporate secretary unit.  Prior to that, she served in a variety of legal positions within American Express.  Formerly, Rasmussen was general counsel and executive vice president of Northeast Securities Corporation, a family-owned bank holding company, and as an associate with Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donolly law firm, both based in Minneapolis.  Rasmussen began her legal career in 1984 as part of the United States Attorney General’s honors program where she was a trial attorney in the tax division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.  A native of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, Rasmussen received her bachelor’s degree in accounting from Moorhead State University (now Minnesota State University Moorhead).  After passing her CPA exam in 1981, she earned her juris doctorate degree from the University of North Dakota Law School in Grand Forks in 1984.

Byron Carlson, FIC, MBA-CLU, LLIF, is the Fraternal Director at Modern Woodmen of America, based in Rock Island, Illinois.  Carlson is responsible for developing and promoting fraternal programs and activities for members of Modern Woodmen and also serves as the administrator of the society’s fraternal benefits programs.  He began his career with Modern Woodmen in 1968 and has served in various agency department positions.  He became Manager of Product Research in 1985 and assumed his current position of Fraternal Director in January 1998.  Carlson is a member of the National Association of Fraternal Insurance Counsellors (NAFIC), the American Society of CLU and ChFC, and of the local Life Underwriters.  He’s also a member of the Board of Directors for JOIN HANDS DAY and for Bethany for Children and Families.  Carlson is a former member and past president of the Orion Board of Education, Lion’s Club and Fall Festival Committee and is past chairperson of the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA) Quality Business Committee.  He also served on the Black Hawk Area Special Education Governing Board, East Moline, Illinois, and is a past member of the Western Illinois University Alumni Council.

About the NFCA
The 121-year-old NFCA unites 75 not-for-profit fraternal benefit societies operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Canada.  The association represents 10 million fraternalists in 37,000 local chapters, making it one of America’s largest member-volunteer networks.  Fraternal benefit societies provide their members with leadership, social, educational, spiritual, patriotic, scholarship, financial and volunteer-service opportunities.  Combined, the NFCA’s member-societies maintain more than $329 billion of life insurance-in-force and, in 2006 alone, contributed almost $410 million to charitable and fraternal programs, and volunteered nearly 95 million hours for community-service projects.  These statistics demonstrate the commitment that fraternals make to those in need and exemplify the true meaning of the NFCA signature phrase:  Joining Hands to Touch Lives.