.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} About 20 years ago, as Larry Zimpleman’s career with Principal Financial Group Inc. was just kicking into high gear, he realized he needed an activity to keep himself in shape as his schedule kept him on the road for days at a time.

In his mid-30s at the time and working his way up through the company’s pension department, Zimpleman reasoned in his analytical style that running was the ideal choice.

“I thought, ‘What’s an activity that doesn’t take a lot of gear, you can do it by yourself if you need to, and you can do it at any time of day or night?'” said Zimpleman. “At that time, I wasn’t really keen on running, but I decided it was important to have some level of activity.”

Seven years later, Zimpleman competed in his first marathon, and at age 45 qualified to run in the Boston Marathon with a full eight minutes to spare. And just as he sets clear standards and high goals for himself, Principal’s new chief executive believes in a collaborative coaching style as he sets a competitive pace.

On May 1, at the age of 56, the Williamsburg native added CEO to his title of president, succeeding J. Barry Griswell to become the 14th chief executive in the company’s 129-year history.

As Zimpleman rose through the ranks to become president of Principal’s Retirement and Investment Services in 2003, he has leveraged his business acumen to represent the company’s public policy interests in Washington, D.C., and has traveled extensively overseas to lead Principal’s expansion of retirement products into international markets.

“My style is a little bit more like Dave Drury’s, a little bit less like Barry’s,” Zimpleman said, seated in the second-floor office that Griswell recently vacated. “But it’s also unique in its own way. Dave was a very intellectual, careful and controlled person. Barry is a very outgoing person, just an easy person to be around. I’m somewhere in between those two. I think everybody’s got to do it their own way, and where you make a mistake is where you try to execute a style that doesn’t really reflect your own way of doing things.”

Clear expectations

“He’s not a Barry Griswell,” said Terry Slinde, a longtime friend and former neighbor of Zimpleman’s. “He’s much more reflective. If Barry was a trumpet in the orchestra, Larry is the French horn, kind of rich and contributing to the total sound.”

Slinde, an executive coach and former Lutheran pastor, said he thinks his friend is “really almost embarrassed about the attention he gets” since becoming Principal’s CEO.

“He’s still the same old Larry,” Slinde said. “He’s more concerned about growing his company and his people than he is about his own reputation.”

Zimpleman said he tries to set clear expectations for people and then get out of their way. “I always try to ask the right question at the right time, (to consider) maybe a different way of thinking about something,” he said.

Zimpleman joined Principal as an actuarial intern in 1971 while still a student at Drake University. His desk in the pension department was just one floor above his current office in the Corporate One building at 711 High St., next to the cafeteria and an employee break room. Though it was just one floor away, the work environment then was much different than it is today.

“People would go there after lunch to play cards and smoke, and for the rest of the afternoon the smoke would just roll through our office,” he recalled. By the mid-1980s, the company would make a controversial decision to ban smoking inside its offices, and last year it lobbied for the statewide smoking ban.

“The smoking ban was a big issue for us because wellness is an important business for us,” Zimpleman said. “But at the end of the day, making Iowa a leader in health and wellness is a part of a way to continue to make Iowa a great place to live and work. We look for those kinds of issues that continue to position Des Moines and Iowa as a leader, and we’re going to continue to get involved in those kinds of issues going forward.”

Uncanny ability

While he was still a student intern, Zimpleman had the opportunity to meet a number of Principal’s senior executives, a program that continues today.

“I was young and I really didn’t necessarily know what I was getting in for, but I could tell from my interactions with these executives that this was a pretty special place,” he said. “These were very smart, talented people, and I could envision that they could be in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles or whatever. They just happened to be in Des Moines. So that was kind of appealing to me, the opportunity to be around some really smart people and do it here in Des Moines, which was a place I was comfortable with.”

For much of the past 20 years, Zimpleman has served as a voice for both Principal and the financial services industry on pension and retirement issues, often providing testimony to congressional committees. In 2002 and 2006, he was elected to serve as a delegate to the National Summit on Retirement Savings in Washington, D.C.

Merle Pederson, Principal’s vice president and counsel for government relations, said Zimpleman has a good understanding of the important role lawmakers play in the industry.

“He’s got an uncanny ability to take very complex financial issues and boil them down to their most simple essence, in a common-sense Iowa way, that even casual observers will understand,” he said. “And that’s really important, especially when you’re talking to external audiences.”

From an internal perspective, “employees here know him and trust him,” Pederson said. “His transition has been pretty seamless. Obviously, we’ve had a pretty extraordinary string of CEOs. I have every confidence that Larry is going to continue that string of quality.”

A global context

Zimpleman has traveled overseas extensively to lead Principal’s efforts to extend its retirement business globally, but he didn’t get his first passport until he was 45.

“And then to find yourself going to Australia 12 times in a year, that was a pretty radical change,” he said.

After looking over about 40 countries, Principal narrowed the field down to six before putting people on the ground in four.

“The idea of operating in a global context, meeting other global business executives, understanding not just their point of view but the unique cultural elements of markets as diverse as Australia, China, Brazil and India, that was just a lot to absorb in a fairly short period of time.”

Asked if Principal is changing its assumptions about future growth due to the worsening economy, Zimpleman said the basic realities of its businesses remain the same, and that the diversity of those businesses has enabled Principal to continue to perform well.

“Take our U.S. retirement business,” he said. “The reality is we have a generation of people who are going to have to provide for their own retirement. No economic environment’s going to change that. Our challenge is to figure out what’s the most effective way for 77 million Baby Boomers to invest and save so they can live a comfortable and secure retirement. That’s something that’s going to go on for decades.”

Zimpleman said his predecessor deserves “tremendous credit” for Principal’s stature as a highly regarded company.

“I want us to continue to be known as a retirement leader,” he said. “My passion and vision as well is to allow us to take that to a leadership level outside the United States.” Time is limited to pursue those opportunities, he said.

“Can Principal be successful while this window is open to create businesses that have incredible long-term success? I think the answer is yes. I get very excited about some of the opportunities that are in front of us over the next three, five, seven years.”