An Eastern Mennonite University graduate is among 10 up-and-coming, young business leaders in the Shenandoah Valley. Jonathan Coddington, of LD&B Insurance and Financial Services in Harrisonburg, was featured in the November 2017 “10 Under 40” issue of the Shenandoah Valley Business Journal.
Coddington came to LD&B by way of connections he made as a business student on an EMU-sponsored trip to the Mennonite Economic Development Associates convention in Chicago in 2001. A subsequent EMU-arranged internship in the local hospital system pointed him to insurance work, which he began doing at LD&B more than 15 years ago.
Now Coddington manages LD&B’s employee benefits division, which in the last five years has grown from five to 14 employees. Along with his co-worker Carl Litwiller, Coddington developed a self-insurance consortium that now covers more than 70 companies and 6,000 people across the U.S.
“We all have bills to pay, but to be able to pay bills while helping others is pretty cool,” he said. “Watching both clients and LD&B grow and thrive has been very satisfying. I’d like to think I play a small part in their success.”
Being a manager requires balancing the needs of clients and work teammates – and work and home life – but Coddington uses as guiding principles advice he has received from parents, coaches, teachers and mentors: “Get involved in your community, as they will appreciate and reward you for it. Give freely without expectation of return. Do what others are not willing to do. Work hard. Take time to learn each day – read a book, ask a mentor for advice, step outside your comfort zone – so you can grow.”
These are things “we’ve all heard before,” he said, but they are “still relevant.”
Coddington and his wife Christine – they got to know each other on that same 2001 trip to Chicago – have four children and live in Rockingham County.