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The story of sexual discrimination at GuideOne Mutual Insurance Company took a new turn recently, with new accusations surfacing against Andy Noga. Guide One has since released Noga from his position as CEO (he's still General Counsel). USA Herald previously covered the story, in which Mark Groenheide, then Senior Vice President of Specialty for the company, accused Noga of discrimination due to his sexual orientation.

Now, another accuser has come forward with their own stories of discrimination and mistreatment at the hands of Andy Noga. 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.

In the previous case, Mark Groenheide, who was openly bisexual, served as GuideOne’s Senior Vice President of specialty from October 2019 until he was terminated on February 15th, 2022. Groenheide’s sexual orientation was not known to the company at the time he was hired on to the GuideOne team, as he was married to a woman and largely kept his private life, including his sexual orientation, private in professional settings.

Groenheide’s sexual orientation was eventually discovered by Noga, whose formerly friendly demeanor and rapport with Mark allegedly turned icy at this point, and as Mark and others in the senior leadership team observed, Noga became progressively more disrespectful and demeaning towards Mark, even resorting to calling him derogatory and highly offensive slurs, such as “faggot”.

It has now come to light that Bruce LaRoche, who was hired by Noga as Vice President & Associate General Counsel at Aspen Insurance (“Aspen”) in April of 2011, also faced similar sexual discrimination in the workplace for his sexual orientation.

LaRoche’s experience mirrors Groenheide’s in a number of ways. During the hiring process and for about a year thereafter, LaRoche did not disclose his identity as a gay man at work, in large part because he suspected Noga had anti-gay prejudices.

During his time working for Aspen, LaRoche allegedly overhead Noga use homophobic slurs, including “faggot,” “pussy” and “sissy” several times in conversations with others. In 2012, during a conversation with Aspen’s then COO, Brian Nolan, he corrected Brian’s assumption that he had a wife and told him that he, in fact, had a husband.

Nolan then proceeded to ask LaRoche if he had any intention to tell Noga, and when he told him that he would, Nolan laughed and stated “Oh…Please let me be there when you tell Andy!” According to LaRoche’s court statement, it was clear to him from Brian’s response (both verbal and physical) that he expected Noga to have a negative response to this information.

Shortly after this interaction, LaRoche informed Noga of his sexual orientation. At this point, Noga’s demeanor allegedly stiffened and his facial expression clearly conveyed that he was “uncomfortable and displeased.” At this point, Noga all but stopped interacting with LaRoche.

Soon thereafter, LaRoche’s former colleague from Aspen showed him an article detailing Mark Groenheide’s allegations that Noga had discriminated against him because of his sexual orientation during his time at GuideOne. LaRoche went on to state that “Although I do not know Groenheide, I felt it was important to go on the record because the homophobic conduct he experienced with Noga was similar to my own experience with Noga.”

Since the original story about Mark Groenheide's experience with homophobia at GuideOne was published, Andy Noga has been released as CEO of the company. USA Herald will continue to follow this story as it progresses.