Merchants Promotes Women Surety Leaders

April 28, 2020

The Board of Directors recently appointed Therese Wielage as Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and Stacey Cale as Vice President of Human Resources. Stacey will now join Therese and other Merchants leaders on the Executive Committee.

“These appointments of Therese and Stacey will strengthen our company’s ability to pursue our vision, mission and purpose with the values we have established in The Merchants Commitment,” says President Larry Taylor.

Therese Wielage joined Merchants in 2008 as Vice President of Marketing and has contributed significantly to Merchants growth in the past twelve years. Therese is a leader in the Des Moines community and has led Merchants to be known in the surety industry. She currently serves as the Chair of the Communications Advisory Committee of SFAA, a position she has held for several years.

Therese’s responsibilities will expand in this new role including taking the lead on various projects as well as leading the expansion of Merchants’ external and internal communications. Therese has also been appointed Vice President of the Merchants Bonding Company Foundation and she will have more responsibilities in the Foundation’s strategies going forward.

Stacey Cale joined Merchants in 2018 and in a short time has had a positive impact on Merchants’ strategic associate growth initiatives. Stacey will actively influence the organizational development for Merchants’ programs, helping our leadership and management competencies grow while supporting programs to benefit associates’ career paths.  She will work with our leaders on associate communication, development and performance management goals to promote a first class work culture for associates. 

Stacey has served on the Diversity & Human Resources Committee of SFAA for the past two years and is actively involved in several other Human Resources leadership groups.

Merchants Bonding Company is a proud participant of Iowa’s EPIC Corporate Challenge, promoting women leaders at all levels to reap the benefits that, research proves, comes from tapping into diversity.