Marketing senior Taylor Davis, from Hebron, Ky., is well on his way to a stellar career. With December graduation just a few months away, his hard work over the summer has earned top honors with one of the nation's top insurance and investment firms - Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. Northwestern Mutual was founded in 1857, has over $200 billion in assets, $27 billion in revenue and ranks 100 on the 2016 Fortune 500 list with 4.4 million clients.
Through Northwestern Mutual's internship program in their Lexington office, Davis earned his licensing in life, health, disability, annuities and more. Meeting with clients of all ages every day, he helps clients achieve their investment and life goals through full picture financial planning. By this fall, Davis plans to be Series 7 and 66 licensed, which means that he can directly manage investments for his clients.
It's no surprise that Davis is one of Northwestern Mutual's top 75 college interns in the south and qualified for Summer Camp - a special October training meet-up of all of the top college interns. Davis is already on track to achieve his next goal - Winter Camp. According to his Lexington supervisor, Madalyn Collins"...there are no signs of him slowing down in any way. His activity is spectacular for an intern, he's got great presence with clients."
Davis credits his work ethic to his parents, Jim and Jamie Davis, “I was raised by two entrepreneurial EKU alums who revert a lot of their success back to the little southern college town where big things happen."
Tom Martin, Executive Director of CEDET, said, "He worked for me last semester – Taylor was a motivated self-starter who needed little instruction or supervision. He always wanted to know what else he could be doing. And in those downtimes when he could be studying or taking selfies for Snapchat - Taylor was studying. Part of Taylor’s success hinges on the fact that he knows in order to succeed at whatever you want to accomplish in life, it takes effort – and he is in no short supply of that.
Davis first heard of the Northwestern Mutual opportunity from Dr. Karen Hood Hopkins' in a marketing class presentation from company Business Developer, Chris Brice. Dr. Hood said, "Chris Brice from the Louisville office of Northwestern Mutual visited our sales class and discussed leadership and working styles with the students. His presentation helped students really see themselves in successful sales roles. From that discussion, Taylor decided to give it a try as an intern, and everything clicked for him. It’s valuable to have professionals visit the classroom so that students gain that perspective."
Davis continues, “The thing that prepared me so well for this internship was the number of professors at EKU who had successful careers in elite business positions who were then able to teach me the processes, skills and strategies needed. People like Dr. Easterling, two decades in global supply chain, Dr. Hood, 15 years in executive roles, Dr. Boutin, 15 years in corporate marketing, and the list goes on. Most people would think those are good people to learn from throughout 4 years of college, but that was just last semester for me. The training through Northwestern Mutual's college program is world class and client focused. That's where I get my sales language from. My drive, ambition, and assertiveness, that comes from my Father, Jim. My ability to talk to people, my personality, and my wit, that comes from my Grandfather, James Davis. He passed away my sophomore year and as much as it still hurts, I enjoy seeing how his tactics of dealing with, relating to, and developing rapport with people, carry on in my business today."
Now, carving out his own path, Davis said, "I’m really proud to become a second generation EKU alum."
