The 10th in a series of 12 PBN articles focusing on the backgrounds, challenges and successes of some of the area’s most influential and interesting business women. The series began Sept. 12.
When John Brown, Moses Brown and Samuel Slater, among others, organized the Providence Mutual Fire Insurance Co. in 1800, it’s doubtful they envisioned that one day, a woman would be in charge of their company.
Yet 200 years later, in October of 2000, Sandra Glaser Parrillo, CPCU, was elected as its president and CEO. She was the first woman to take the helm of the fourth oldest mutual insurance company in the nation.
Based in Warwick, Providence Mutual serves eight states (all of New England, plus New Jersey and New York), with 70 employees, 300 independent agents and 70,000 policies.
Under Parrillo’s leadership, the company has gone from $28 million in premiums collected in 2000 to $65 million at the end of 2007. She’s quick to credit her board of directors and staff for the improvement.
But there’s no doubt that Parrillo’s own passion for the insurance business, and her ability to climb the corporate ladder without fretting over gender bias, have helped in her own success and that of her company.
“I hope to give encouragement to women coming into this business,” she said. “There are tremendous opportunities in insurance. You look at the industry and you realize insurance touches every one of us. There’s tremendous satisfaction in pursuing a career in insurance.”
When she was in school, studying for dual bachelor’s degrees at Rhode Island College, she had no idea what she would do with her life but knew she enjoyed “anything to do with mathematics.”
She began working at Providence Mutual as an intern 31 years ago, hired by an “old-school” gentleman “who never thought I would stick around,” but later became one of her strongest advocates. After she graduated from college in 1978, magna cum laude with separate bachelor’s degrees in business management and mathematics, a job opened up in underwriting and she took it.
She soon found that she loved the insurance business. In an interview last week, she spoke of how curious she was back then about the way companies in general operate and how people live. Her work for Providence Mutual gave her the chance to investigate all sorts of businesses, “from top to bottom,” and to help people when they were in need. She could use her analytical skills to fashion solutions to problems.
She served in several underwriting and management positions, and was named vice president and secretary of the company in 1995. Four years later, the board elected her senior vice president of underwriting and marketing and, a year later, president and CEO.
Parrillo finds that working for a mutual insurance company, where every policyholder is a member and there are no stockholders to answer to, a significant advantage in today’s competitive atmosphere. “It allows us to take a very long-term perspective, we’re not beholden to quarterly earning reports or the stock market,” she said. “We can operate in a way we think is appropriate.”
Her employees can attest to some of the advantages. Providence Mutual was named one of the best places to work by Providence Business News last year, a recognition based in part on confidential surveys that employees complete. (READ MORE)
In addition to increasing the amount of the premiums the company collects annually, Parrillo is proud of the work she has done to make the company as “completely open and transparent” as possible, and she enjoys helping people understand what insurance is all about. “I know that not everyone finds insurance as fascinating as I do,” she said with a self-deprecating smile.
Parrillo likes to explain insurance as a “financial bodyguard.” A famous person, for instance, will pay a bodyguard for protection, even if the bodyguard is not required to do much of anything on a particular day. The famous “don’t demand their money back” saying they didn’t get anything: “Yes, they did get something,” Parrillo said. “They received protection for a certain period of time.”
Parrillo does not feel she has encountered much, if any, gender bias during her journey to the top at Providence Mutual. “If there ever was a glass ceiling, it’s gone,” she said, calling her colleagues “very welcoming and very gender-neutral.” She doesn’t remember hearing any sexist comments, but when discussing the subject said, “You can’t let it bother you. I was never a bra-burning feminist, but it worked for me.”
She does acknowledge that a woman “has to work a little bit harder, you have to build your credibility.” She continued her education so she would have the professional credentials to prove she is capable, earning the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation in 1986, a master’s in business administration with high honors from the University of Rhode Island in 1992, and the designation of Certified Insurance Counselor in 2000.
Parrillo, 51, was born and raised in Providence. She and her husband, Richard, live in North Smithfield with their two children, Marissa, 15, and RJ, 11. Avid skiers, they often spend weekends in New Hampshire where, Sandra Parrillo reported, “the mountains where we ski have about 18 feet of snow.”
Her son RJ is a cancer survivor, having been diagnosed when he was 6. In her office, his mother has a framed photo of him receiving a certificate from Gov. Donald L. Carcieri during childhood cancer awareness month a few years ago. “He’s a healthy and normal boy in every way today,” she said. “We’re all stronger in my family because of it.” •
To read about other Business Women, in the rest of the PBN series, click here.
Great article on determination and career development in a competitive field. Sandra is certainly a trailblazer and will be an excellent mentor for other women regardless of industry. Hopefully it will take less time for the newer generations of working women to reach these goals. -- D. Barge