Laurie Kuzneski
President
Kuzneski Insurance Group
kuzneski.com

In 2013, Laurie Kuzneski made a life-changing decision in her career.

She was running her own business, Miss Laurie’s Gourmet Kitchen, when she and husband, Andy Kuzneski III, bought their family out of Kuzneski Insurance Group, the business founded by Kuzneski’s father-in-law, Andy Kuzneski Jr., in 1966.

For five years, Kuzneski worked in both businesses before deciding to make the insurance group in Indiana, Pa., her focus.

“I started Miss Laurie’s because I wanted to help women get back into the workforce by giving them schedule flexibility and someday, child care,” she says. “I was at a crossroads with my role as Miss Laurie and my role at KIG. Knowing my motivation for starting Miss Laurie’s, my husband showed me how I could help more women if I built this much more established business. He was absolutely right.”

In the last decade, Kuzneski has held many roles within the insurance business, starting with marketing, then moving on to operations, human resources, finances and growth. In February, she was named president of the company.

“My current focus is on growing our team in a very thoughtful way, making sure we have the right people in the right seats — using their superpowers and working smarter,” she says. “Then I want to grow the business by taking really good care of our clients.”

Empathetic, constantly learning and someone who looks for peoples’ strengths, Kuzneski says she is always looking for ways to help others, especially women.

“We all need to reevaluate how we deal with our employees because their wants and needs have changed,” she says. “Add to that the technology available to us needs to be embraced and utilized to augment what our people are doing.”

Some of her favorite moments of her career are investing in women-led companies, having her oldest daughter join her in business and the day her husband handed the reins of his family’s longtime business over to her.

Kuzneski also is very active in her community, serving as vice chair of the Council of Trustees at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce, where she is slated to be first female chair in December. She also serves on the board of directors for the Indiana Regional Medical Center, Punxsutawney Area Hospital, the Tri-County Workforce Investment Board for Indiana, Armstrong and Butler counties and the Indiana County Development Corporation.

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