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CEO Andy Noga of GuideOne Mutual Insurance Company has been accused of sexual discrimination against Mark Groenheide, who served as Senior Vice President of Specialty for the same company. GuideOne Mutual Insurance Company is an insurance company headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa. It is licensed in all 50 states and serves more than 51,000 commercial policyholders.

Mark Groenheide, the charging party, who is openly bisexual, served as GuideOne’s Senior Vice President of Specialty from October 2019 until his termination on February 15, 2022.

When Mark was hired, he brought with him an extensive book of business and began generating massive revenue for GuideOne, which had previously been focused on church underwriting and had been struggling for some time. It’s reported that GuideOne’s specialty business was virtually non-existent in 2019, and Mark single-handedly built it out into one of the most profitable sectors of the company, generating over $400M in premium during his tenure.

Given his success, he was highly regarded by members of the senior leadership team and the board, including the CEO of GuideOne, Jessica Snyder, the COO, Michelle Glasl, and its general counsel, Andy Noga who frequently lauded his work during Board meetings and other internal and external events.

Although Mark has identified as bisexual for many years, his sexual orientation was not known within the company because he was married to a woman at the time of his hire and he kept his personal life, including his sexual orientation, private in professional settings.

By fall 2021, Mark had come to terms with the fact that his sexual orientation was known within the company and no longer attempted to hide it. Therefore, when one of his clients invited him to a gala for the Log Cabin Republicans, a branch of the Republican Party committed to supporting LGBTQ+ rights, he accepted and attended.

Mr. Noga’s formerly friendly demeanor and rapport with Mark allegedly turned icy at this point, and as Mark and others in the senior leadership team observed, Mr. Noga became progressively more disrespectful and demeaning towards Mark.

At a board meeting at the Des Moines Country Club shortly after Mark returned from the gala, Mr. Noga referred to the event as “you and your fag friends who like Trump” and allegedly called Miami, where Mark often traveled for business, “gay country.”

A couple of weeks later, during a client dinner at Flemings Steak House with Mr. Noga, Ms. Snyder, Ms. Glasl, and their spouses, Mr. Noga allegedly railed against Mark, telling him that his sexuality and morals were not aligned with the company’s founding principles and that his “gay shit” would not be tolerated any longer.