David Noble

The Valley High School and Drake University alumnus was chief executive at the Statesman Group insurer for 16 years. That company was bought in 1994, and Noble left it to found American Equity a year later. He then served as chairman, CEO, president and treasurer of his company simultaneously until Jan. 1, 2009. He retired from full-time work in July 2016 and continued to serve as executive chairman of the company's board of directors until his death. The David J. Noble American Equity Center business space was dedicated at Drake University in 2015. Despite Noble's reputation for perfectionism, his daughter Cindy Bento said previously that her dad was more soft-hearted than people realized, inspiring his deep concern for the people the insurance industry safeguards and serves.