New leader at Scott Insurance

Leadership is changing at one of Virginia major insurance brokerages.

Walker Sydnor, the president of Lynchburg-based Scott Insurance, will retire at the end of the year after leading the company for 27 years.

He will be succeeded on Jan. 1 by Hutch Mauck, who has headed the firm’s Richmond office since opening it in 1991. The transition concludes a two-year succession process.

Under Mauck’s direction, the Richmond office has become the company’s highest-producing in Virginia. He has served on the Scott board since 2003 and on the executive committee since 2009.

Sydnor has worked for the company for 37 years. Under his tenure as president, Scott Insurance,  a regional company in 1986, grew to become the second-largest independently owned insurance agency/broker in the Southeast and the largest in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

During the past 27 years, the company has opened six offices in three states, expanding into larger commercial markets by developing new services and creating an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), which has led to a 97 percent employee retention rate.

The number of company employees has grown from 30 to more than 240 since 1986.

Founded in 1864, Scott Insurance provides risk services, benefit services, bonds, and financial management. In Virginia, the company has offices in Lynchburg, Roanoke and Richmond.