Ask Carol Voorhees where artificial intelligence fits into NJM’s future, and she doesn’t start with automation. She starts with a boundary. The company is leaning into AI for back-end work — billing, claims processing, the repetitive tasks nobody misses — but Voorhees has drawn a hard line around the part of the business she says actually defines NJM: the phone call.
“It’s always going to be human in the middle for us,” Voorhees told BINJE. “We’re not looking to offload our service, our value proposition to computers and to robots.”
That instinct — modernize everything except the relationship with the policyholder — runs through most of what’s changed, and hasn’t changed, at NJM since Voorhees became the company’s tenth CEO in the summer of 2025.
Here’s a closer look at NJM:
10. NJM has operated in New Jersey for 113 years
The company was founded on a mission it still points to today: policyholders first, structured around service rather than shareholder return.
9. Employee retention runs high
NJM counts many employees with more than 25 years of service, something Voorhees attributes to the company’s culture — first-name basis across the org chart, from entry-level staff to the CEO.
8. NJM still runs out of just three offices
Despite expanding into new states, NJM’s physical footprint hasn’t grown. The company operates out of three New Jersey offices — West Trenton, Hammonton and Parsippany, leaning on digital capabilities to service its broader map without opening outposts in the new markets.
7. NJM gives back — to policyholders and communities alike
The company is known for its year-end policyholder dividend, a rebate check that’s become something of a local tradition. NJM also runs an employee matching program for charitable donations, paired with organized volunteer efforts across the communities it serves.
6. NJM leans on campy advertising to stand out in a crowded field
Outspent by national insurers with far bigger budgets, NJM built its campaigns — first “No Jingles or Mascots,” now Insuranoia — around being memorably different rather than competing dollar-for-dollar on media buys.
5. NJM’s current strategic plan focuses on depth over expansion
Rather than entering new states, the company is focused on strengthening its position in the states it’s already in.
4. NJM operates in seven states — but not with the same products everywhere
The company writes personal-lines insurance in five states, including New Jersey, Ohio and Connecticut, and commercial coverage — historically centered on workers’ compensation and commercial auto — in six. The broader footprint, encompassing New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Ohio, Delaware and Maryland, took shape under Voorhees’s predecessor, Mitch Livingston.
3. NJM operates as a mutual company
It has no stockholders — only policyholders — a structure Voorhees says shapes every major decision the company makes, from expansion to claims handling.
2. Voorhees started in an entry-level IT role, without a college degree
Voorhees joined NJM in 1996 as a systems analyst and earned her degree years later, with the company’s support — a B.S. in organizational leadership from Thomas Edison State University and a master’s in insurance management from Boston University.
1. Voorhees is NJM’s tenth CEO — and its first woman to hold the job
The board elected her President & CEO in July 2025, after she spent 29 years working her way up through the company.
