Nick Turner, NFU Mutual

While the nation’s first female chancellor infuriated farmers by removing their inheritance tax exemption last year, Turner, who has been CEO of NFU Mutual since 2021, managed to ensure his business remains the nation’s leading rural insurer.

One of the key aspects of his strategy for NFU Mutual has been to protect rural lives and livelihoods by sharing expertise and campaigning on issues that matter to farming communities, such as countryside crime and road safety.

Throughout 2024, NFU Mutual under Turner’s leadership gathered feedback from more than 700 members of the public and worked with various partners – including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the British Horse Society, the four main UK farming unions, and the Older Drivers Forum – to create a Code for Countryside Roads to increase knowledge and address the shocking disparity in the number of fatalities on rural roads compared to urban roads.

The Code was launched in December at a parliamentary drop-in event and is available for all road users to download and print.

Turner has also made climate change the highest priority area of focus in NFU Mutual’s Responsible Business Strategy.

In 2024, NFU Mutual published its first standalone Climate Change Report, and its first Climate Transition Plan outlining actions the business has taken, and those it will take, to reach net zero by 2050.

While Reeves may be taking cash away from farmers, Turner, whose career spans more than 38 years, has continued to ensure the insurer gives charitably to causes that matter to rural communities.

NFU Mutual donated £3.25m to local and national charities in 2024 and as part of this, £1.92m went to charities nominated by the insurer’s network of 280 agencies across the UK, allowing them to use their local knowledge to direct the funding to key areas of support.

This year, NFU Mutual is increasing charitable giving to £4m to ensure front-line charities can continue their vital work.

When it comes to Turner’s efforts to make NFU Mutual a great place to work, in 2024 the business yet again received the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award and was in the top percentile of companies completing the Gallup Employee Engagement Survey. 

NFU Mutual has now won the Exceptional Workplace Award for nine consecutive years and is looking to make it a decade in 2025, proving Turner is committed to maintaining a culture where people are empowered, engaged, and believe in the work NFU Mutual does to support its members.

Heck – he even had a booking at Jeremy Clarkson’s pub, The Farmer’s Dog, when I saw him at the Association of British Insurers’ annual conference in February.

That is how much Turner goes above and beyond to show his commitment to the nation’s rural communities. 

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