Council Member Berne Barton
Born at Naples Community Hospital and raised downtown, Berne has spent most of his life invested in Naples (starting with service as track captain at Naples High and leading now to serving on City Council). After graduating from Naples High School, Berne attended Auburn University, earning his bachelor's degree in Operations Management.
Since then, he has spent over three decades in the insurance industry, starting in 1993 at Northwestern Mutual. He excelled in life, disability, and retirement planning, and was then recruited by The Guardian to open an office in Naples in 1998. He was a successful agent with the Guardian and Alliance Financial Group until he expanded his services to include property and casualty insurance planning in 2008. He then started his own agency, Arnold and Barton Insurance Group, and helped build it into a thriving business serving the greater Naples area. In 2023, he sold the company to NSI Insurance Group, the largest independent insurance firm in Florida.
Berne now holds the position of Vice President and Southwest Florida Business Leader for NSI Insurance Group. As a founding partner of Arnold & Barton Insurance and now as a Vice President of NSI Insurance Group, Berne has honed his skills as a highly effective agent and communicator. These traits have allowed him to forge strong relationships with his clients, reflecting his dependability and commitment to excellence.
Recently in our community, Berne and his wife helped spearhead fundraising efforts for victims in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.
Berne is celebrating 29 years of marriage with his wife Audra, a school teacher at Collier County Public Schools for 28 years and a 1999 Golden Apple recipient. They raised their two children, Rebecca and Jackson, in Naples. Both graduated from Naples High School before attending college and currently working in nonprofit fundraising and civil engineering, respectively.
