The Iowa Association of Business and Industry has joined a coalition of 20 statewide chambers of commerce and employer organizations from around the country in an alliance to add their voices to the federal health-care reform debate. The group, Employers for Quality Health Care, said it opposes an employer mandate, noting that most employers who can afford to provide health coverage already do so because it attracts and retains quality employees, and also opposes government-run coverage that it says would shift millions of Americans off their existing private plans. In addition to legislative outreach, the coalition has launched a social media campaign to inform employers and employees about the federal health-care-reform effort. Follow the coalition online at

www.employersforqualityhealthcare.org

Wealth coaching firm Syverson Strege & Co. has entered into a strategic business alliance with Woody Brenton, a nationally recognized business and financial adviser and former banking executive. Brenton’s activities at Syverson Strege will include advising closely held and family-owned businesses on issues relating to ownership and management succession planning, and assisting nonprofit organizations with organizational guidance, board strategy and investment policy statement reviews. Over the past 25 years, Brenton served as a key executive of Brenton Bank of Iowa, in the roles of president, chief commercial banking officer and president of Brenton Mortgages. He has also held executive positions with both Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. and Marine Midland Bank in New York City.

Terry Lillis, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Principal Financial Group Inc., will present at the KBW 2009 Insurance Conference on Sept. 10 at 7 a.m. Iowa time in New York. The presentation will provide insight on the company’s strategy to drive sustained growth and performance going forward. A live webcast of the presentation will be available on Principal’s Investor Relations Web site www.principal.com/investor. The webcast replay will be available for one week.

Wells Fargo & Co. CEO John Stumpf said Tuesday that the San Francisco-based financial services giant plans to repay “shortly” a government investment made in the company during last fall’s financial crisis, the San Francisco Business Times reported. Wells Fargo will repay the money in a way that will protect current shareholders, Stumpf said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “We are now earning capital so quickly, organically, we don’t want to dilute our existing shareholders,” he said. Wells Fargo accepted an investment of $25 billion under the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. Ten other banks have already repaid the TARP money they received.