Walter R. Bateman II, CPCU, ARM is the retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Harleysville Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HGIC), Harleysville Mutual Insurance Company and its multiple subsidiary companies. Mr. Bateman joined Harleysville in 1987 as Senior Vice President of Field Operations. Prior to that he held a similar position at General Accident Insurance in Philadelphia and a variety of management positions at the Utica Mutual Insurance Company in New Hartford, New York where he started as a trainee in 1974.

Harleysville Group is a publicly traded insurance holding company which under Mr. Bateman generated (on a consolidated basis) $1.2 billion of direct written premiums (revenue) and employed 2,200 people, at which time it ranked within the top 50 property casualty underwriters in the U.S.

Mr. Bateman is a 1971 graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and a 1973 graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University with a Masters of Business Administration. He has earned two of the insurance industry’s most widely recognized professional designations: the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Risk Management (ARM) degrees from the American Institutes for CPCU/IIA in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Mr. Bateman served honorably as a United States Naval officer and is a Viet Nam veteran.

Mr. Bateman currently serves:

• In a management advisory capacity to the Chairman and CEO of Quaker Chemical Corporation (NYSE:KWR), Conshohocken, Pa., a global provider of process chemicals, chemical specialties, services, and technical expertise to a wide range of industries;
• As a speaker and seminar leader for the Public Relations Student Society of America (New York, N.Y.);
• On the Board of Directors of the Insurance Society of Philadelphia.

Mr. Bateman is a retired member of the Harleysville National Bank Corporation (NASDAQ:HNBC) where he chaired the Audit Committee. As well, Mr. Bateman has served:

• On the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of the Insurance Services Office (ISO) (Jersey City, N.J.);
• As Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Investment Committee Chair of the American Institutes for CPCU/IIA (Malvern, Pa.);
• On the Board of Directors and as Investment Committee Chair of the Property Casualty Insurance Association of America (PCIAA), a leading trade association for U.S. property casualty insurers (Des Plaines, Ill.);
• As a member of the North American Advisory Board of the Sapiens International Corporation (NASDAQ:SPNS), an insurance technology solutions provider (Cary, N.C.);
• As President of the North Penn United Way (Montgomery County, Pa.) and their 1996 Campaign Chairperson;
• As a member of the Board of Trustees of the Montgomery County Community College Foundation (Blue Bell, Pa.);
• On the Board of Directors of the Indian Creek Foundation for Developmentally Disabled Adults (Harleysville, Pa.);
• On the Board of Directors of New Hope – Solebury School District (Pa.);
• As a speaker and panel member for Corporate Board Member Magazine (Brentwood, TN).

He and his wife Jill reside in Solebury, Pennsylvania; Cape Canaveral, Florida; and Fripp Island, South Carolina. They have two children: Jennifer Kim and Walter R. III and a grandson, Canyon Andrei.

Natalie Neczypor is in Business Development for ParenteBeard LLC where she is responsible for new business generation in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.  ParenteBeard is the Mid Atlantic’s leading regional certified public accounting and business advisory firm with over 1,200 employees serving middle market and small business clients across the region.  The 170 partner firm maintains 27 offices located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Delaware and Texas. The firm is ranked among the Top 20 firms in the USA and is an independent member of Baker Tilly International.

Prior to this role, Natalie served as a Marketing Executive for the Pittsburgh, Upstate New York and West Virginia Offices of Ernst & Young LLP.  She specialized in marketing and public relations strategy focusing on Ernst & Young’s Transactions Advisory Services Practice and media relations for 13 offices in our sub-area and regionally manages Entrepreneur Of The Year.  Natalie served as the 2002-2003 PRSSA National President and the 2001-2002 PRSSA National Vice President of Regional Activities.  She now services PRSSA as the Professional Advisor to the Rowan University AJF PRSSA Chapter located in Southern New Jersey.

A graduate of Rowan University with a BS in Business/Management Information Systems and a BA in Communications/Public Relations, Natalie continues her education pursuing an MBA focused on Marketing at the Katz School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh.  Her career includes working as a general manager for a NY-Style comedy club showcasing talent such as DL Hughley, Jim Breuer and David Brenner, managing promotions at WBEB Radio (B101.1) of Philadelphia and leading as a regional sales manager for Automatic Data Processing (ADP) winning multiple national sales and sales management awards.

Currently Natalie serves as the youngest member of the Rowan University Alumni Relations Board and the Professional Advisor to the award winning Rowan University Anthony J. Fulginiti Chapter of PRSSA.  She guest lectures for multiple colleges and universities surrounding Pittsburgh including: Penn State University, Duquesne University, Shippensburg University, University of Southern Mississippi, Point Park University, Chatham University and La Roche College.  Natalie was a presenter at the 2009 PRSSA Leadership Rally and the 2009 PRSSA National Conference, served as a PR Campaigns Judge at Kent State University and served as a National Judge for the PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition and Teahan Awards.  She served as Chairman of the 3 Rivers Venture Fair Logistics Committee, volunteered for the Pittsburgh G20 Summit as a media expert welcoming US Press and Associated Press and maintains memberships with PRSA, American Marketing Association, Union League of Philadelphia and Duquesne Club of Pittsburgh.