Nationwide honors innovators behind 55 patents … and counting

Nationwide honors innovators behind 55 patents … and counting

"Invention is the most important product of man's creative brain," wrote Nikola Tesla, the renowned American inventor, electrical engineer and futurist. "The ultimate purpose is the complete mastery over the material world, the harnessing of human nature to human needs."

Nationwide, a Fortune 100 insurance and financial services mutual, may not be the first company that jumps to mind when thinking of inventions, but Nationwide employees are regularly inventing and patenting novel solutions - from technology that dramatically speeds up the time to develop bundled insurance quotes to financial modeling tools that help people plan for retirement.

Recently, Nationwide Chief Technology Officer Jim Fowler and Nationwide Chief Customer, Strategy and Innovation Officer Mike Mahaffey recognized 39 Nationwide inventors at the inaugural Nationwide Patent Award Ceremony who hold a combined 55 patents and 21 patents pending from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

"Nationwide is on a journey to push the boundaries of what it means to be a protection company," Mahaffey said at the patent ceremony. "What that means is that we've really spun the flywheel in terms of new ways of doing things, new processes, new products, new technologies and all of the things that we can do to live into our customer-driven mission and vision to protect people, businesses and futures with extraordinary care."