Retired James Speed Jr. won’t retire from working in his community

James Speed Jr. poses before Antioch Baptist Church’s annual Black History month celebration. Speed was the President of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company for more than a decade and is recently retired. (Staff photo by Bradley Saacks)


When James Speed Jr. was growing up in Oxford, there were only a few people in his neighborhood who wore neckties to work every day.

As Speed recalls it, only teachers, preachers and morticians wore a necktie to work — a status symbol that Speed and his friends wanted to achieve.

“And then there was a NC Mutual Life salesperson who worked in the area, wearing a necktie every day,” Speed said.

James Speed Jr. waits outside Antioch Baptist Church on Feb. 28. Speed was recognized at the church’s annual Black History month celebration for his distinguished career in accounting and his work in the community. (Staff photo by Bradley Saacks)

James Speed Jr. waits outside Antioch Baptist Church on Feb. 28. Speed was recognized at the church’s annual Black History month celebration for his distinguished career in accounting and his work in the community. (Staff photo by Bradley Saacks)

“We of course wanted to know how we could wear a necktie to work every day. And the salesperson, he told us that we needed to get an education.”

Speed heeded the advice, accumulating an undergraduate degree from North Carolina Central University along with a master’s degree in business administration from Atlanta University. And after stints at accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP and Hardee’s Food Systems Inc., he rose to the top of the company that helped inspire him to get an advanced education and wear a necktie to work everyday: North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company.

The 62-year-old Speed announced he would step down as president and CEO of the largest and oldest African-American insurance agency in the country in September 2015 after more than a decade atop the company.

He was honored at Antioch Baptist Church’s annual Black History Month celebration, along with several others, for his career and continuing support of the community on the evening of Feb. 28.

“He’s such a phenomenal leader for the African-American community,” Rev. Michael Page said following the ceremony at 1415 Holloway Street.

“James Speed is someone who deeply cares about the community.”

Many of Antioch’s ministry leaders, including Kelsey Lodge and James Tabron, took time acknowledging the resolve on the honorees. One of the themes of the ceremony was the trailblazing ways of black leaders like Speed.

“So many are still subjected to racism, sexism, classism … but it is important to remember those and to thank those who have stepped up before,” Tabron said to the congregation.

Sitting in the front row at Antioch Baptist Church, James Speed Jr. and the other Black History month celebration honorees listen to a speech. Speed is a native of Oxford and went to undergraduate at North Carolina Central University. (Staff photo by Bradley Saacks)

Sitting in the front row at Antioch Baptist Church, James Speed Jr. and the other Black History month celebration honorees listen to a speech. Speed is a native of Oxford and went to undergraduate at North Carolina Central University. (Staff photo by Bradley Saacks)

And Speed certainly stepped up. Preserving a historically black insurance agency was not an easy thing to do, he said, especially during the 2008 housing crisis and the recession that followed it.

But with technology advances, improved efficiency and outsourcing, Speed helped North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company cut the company’s overhead costs by more than 60 percent. Company earnings reports show that in the 2014 fiscal year, the nearly 118-year-old insurance company turned a profit of more than $300,000 after having a multi-million dollar loss the year before.

“The question I always asked myself was how do we remain relevant to the current times,” Speed said.

The company diversified its offerings, Speed said, investing in funeral home services across the country and restructuring the way it sold its insurance packages.

“The increased diversity of our product offerings coincided with shifts in the insurance and financial services sectors and kept us relevant,” North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company Chairman Elliot Hall said in a release the day Speed’s retirement was announced.“This is due in large part to James’ willingness to bring innovative ideas and talent to the company while significantly reducing our cost structure.”

Lodge, one of the Antioch leaders who spoke at the Black History Month celebration, noted the “pathway” Speed and the other honorees had created for other ambitious African-Americans.

Speed has been extremely active in his hometown community in Oxford and at his undergraduate alma mater.

From 2011 to 2015, Speed’s company brought in more than 40 North Carolina Central business school students on internships, and Speed is proud to report that all of the program’s participants have either obtained jobs in the financial world or enrolled in grad school.

“One of the things we really wanted them to be able to say is that they had a true hands-on experience,” Speed said.

Through his childhood church in Oxford, Speed has also started a scholarship for Oxford high school students looking to go to college.

Despite the fact he is now retired, Speed knows his work in the community is far from over.

“We have to find ways to keep giving back … when I think back to Oxford, I think about the people that poured their lives into you to see you succeed,” Speed said, reminiscing.

“We must continue to work to help young African-Americans grow,” Speed said.

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