Ed Rust

Ed Rust is Chairman and CEO of State Farm Insurance. He was paid $10.2 million in 2010.

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council
State Farm is on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Corporate ("Private Enterprise") Board and has a representative on the Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force.

Background
Rust is the vice-chair of Business Roundtable, "an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with nearly $6 trillion in annual revenues and more than 13 million employees," where he is the former chairman of the Education Initiative and the co-chairman of the Business Coalition for Student Achievement, an organization "coordinated by Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce," focused on education and very supportive of the No Child Left Behind Act.

He is on the boards of America’s Promise Alliance, a membership organization consisting of corporations, nonprofits, religious groups and advocacy groups, also focused on education, co-founded by Colin L. Powell in 1997; the James B. Hunt, Jr., Institute for Educational Leadership, an agency of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill founded by James B. Hunt, Jr., former North Carolina governor, that holds invitation-only annual symposia bringing together state governors and "experts in policy and practice" to discuss education reform; and Achieve, Inc., that brings together state governors and corporate representatives focused on "education reform."

He is former chairman of the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF), an organization "composed of Fortune 500 CEOs, prominent college and university presidents, and other leaders" (for example, the chairman of BHEF is William H. Swanson, chairman and CEO of Raytheon, the world's fifth largest defense manufacturer) that "addresses issues fundamental to our global competitiveness." He served on the National (Glenn) Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, which was established in March 1999 "to improve the quality of teaching in mathematics and science at all grades nationwide" and made its report in September 2000, and the No Child Left Behind Commission (co-chaired by former Wisconsin Governor and ALEC alumnus Tommy Thompson), which made its mixed progress report in February 2007.

He is past chairman of The Financial Services Roundtable, a banking and financial service provider advocacy group; the National Alliance of Business, a business organization which merged with the National Center for Educational Accountability in 2002 to "ensure. . . businesses and business-led coalitions throughout the country are provided the information and resources they need to expand their involvement in education reform. . ."; and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an organization wholly supported by auto insurers that focuses on "reducing deaths, injuries, and property damage that result from crashes on the nation's roads."

He is a trustee of The Conference Board, a business membership and research association; the Committee for Economic Development, corporate-led organization focused on public policy; and Illinois Wesleyan University.