It’s always nice to get your career off to a fast start. And when Mellon Bank N.A. plucked Tom Godlasky from graduate school to help sort out the bank’s dealings with New York City as it teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, that was a fast start.

“I wasn’t just wet behind the ears,” Godlasky said. “It was a waterfall.”

Several jobs and a couple of cities later, Godlasky is a polished veteran of the insurance industry. In an apparently silk-smooth transition, the 50-year-old Pennsylvania native took over from Roger Brooks at the end of 2005 as chairman and chief executive officer of AmerUs Group Co. He already held the job of president.

Nice outcome, considering that he didn’t plan to get into the insurance business at all. The young Godlasky intended to become a city manager.

He received a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning from Indiana University of Pennsylvania – where his father was a faculty member — and received a master’s in public administration from the University of Pittsburgh. He graduated from Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.

But through all of that, he never met a business expert quite like Brooks.

By 1994, Godlasky had worked at Mellon Bank and Federated Investors Inc., both in Pittsburgh, and at Capital Holding Corp. – which changed its name to Providian Corp. – in Louisville. And his career goal had changed: He wanted to become the chief investment officer of a corporation.

When a corporate headhunter contacted him that year about an opportunity in Des Moines, where Central Life Assurance Co. and American Mutual Life Insurance Co. were merging, Godlasky said no. Then he changed his mind without adjusting his excitement level. “I came here with no expectations whatsoever,” he said. “I knew Des Moines was cold and that Roger had been the president [of Central Life] since he was 36, and now he was 58. So I thought, ‘There’s a guy who’s set in his ways.’”

Godlasky met with Brooks and later, as he got ready to catch the return flight to Louisville, talked to his wife on the phone. “She said, ‘what did you talk about?’ and I said ‘stuff.’”

In a three-hour conversation, “we talked very little about business,” Godlasky said. “Roger knew I had the technical skills, but that’s just the ante to get you into the game. He wants to know about the person.”

“There were several candidates we talked to,” Brooks said, “and Tom was clearly the superior candidate. He met our list of qualities that we would look for in that particular job; some of it is intellectual, some is outlook, some is personal energy level. There are a myriad of attributes we look for.”

Godlasky told Brooks that he would want to take on a larger role than just chief investment officer. Brooks told him he wanted to transform the company, and that was the kind of person he was looking for.

Godlasky came on board in 1995 and collected a variety of experience over the next few years. “We functioned as the joint CFO for a while,” Brooks said, “and I put him in charge of information technology for a while, gave him experience in working with distribution. I moved him around; he wore several hats at different times.”

Godlasky was named president of the company – now AmerUs Group Co. – and a member of the board of directors in 2003. In February 2005, it was announced that he would succeed Brooks as CEO.

“He’s a better pure manager than I was,” Brooks said in listing his successor’s strengths. “He has a very strong understanding of the economics of the business, including the investment area, and with $25 billion in assets, that’s a very important thing to understand. He has the willingness to do hard things, to set high standards, to take responsibility when things don’t go right.”

Now that he’s at the controls, Godlasky finds himself in charge of a company that posted record operating income in 2005. Sales revenues were down for fixed life insurance products compared with 2004, but he hastens to point out that “it was the most profitable year we’ve had in the life segment.”

Godlasky said AmerUs is the No. 1 seller of indexed life products. “We have a 60 percent share of a fairly rapidly growing marketplace,” he said.

The company recorded $1.11 billion in investment income for 2005 compared with $1.04 billion in 2004.

And in a new business segment, “we started a third-party asset management thrust last year,” Godlasky said. “We already have over $300 million in assets under management.”

AmerUs has acquired other companies in recent years, and Godlasky said, “we will continue to look for appropriate acquisitions that can be accretive in 12 to 18 months.”

AmerUs also is mentioned occasionally as a candidate for acquisition by other companies, but Godlasky brushes that possibility aside. “In a consolidating industry, we’re going to pop up on radar screens,” he said, “but our philosophy is to operate so we can continue independently.”

The company also has been named in several lawsuits alleging that its agents have acted improperly in selling equity-indexed annuities to elderly customers. A.M. Best Co., which analyzes the insurance industry, said in a recent positive report on AmerUs’ preferred stock that “AmerUs’ exposure to market conduct issues related to alleged improper annuity product and sales practices in the senior citizen marketplace” partially offsets the positive factors.

“As you become more successful, you become a target,” Godlasky said of the lawsuits. “When our name pops up, the first thing I do is make sure whether there’s any validity to the charge. I think some of the lawsuits are without merit.”

He said AmerUs will continue to review its practices, but said, “there’s nothing systemic in our operations [that needs to be changed]. The process and procedures that are in place are sound.”

Away from the office, Godlasky has taken an active role in the United Way of Central Iowa, where he now serves as chairman of the board. “I’ve been very fortunate, and I believe you should give back to the community,” he said. “It’s amazing how charitable this community is. Last year’s campaign raised $20 million, and that’s amazing for a community of this size.”

Godlasky and his wife, Lisa, are empty-nesters in West Des Moines now that their only child has gone off to college at the University of Notre Dame. They bought their home for $585,000 when they moved here, and it’s now assessed at more than $700,000.

They also have a membership in the Pelican Isle Yacht Club in Naples, Fla. – but no yacht. Instead, Godlasky says, it’s a good place to fish for redfish, snook and sheepshead, and he’s trying to climb that ladder of achievement, too. He’s trying to learn how to fly-fish.