Editors’ Note

In his role as COO, Peter Carpenter is responsible for managing all day-to-day aspects of Alliant Insurance Services’ operations. Carpenter has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry and joined Alliant in 2008 when it acquired ClearPoint, a Seattle-based employee benefits consulting firm that he co-founded and where he served as CEO. Prior to founding ClearPoint, Carpenter served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for a large regional insurance brokerage firm and as a group representative for Sun Life Insurance Company. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where he majored in government and Spanish.

Will you provide an overview of your role and areas of focus?

My role at Alliant Insurance Services is Chief Operating Officer. I oversee many of Alliant’s day-to-day operations and focus on creating an entrepreneurial, diverse, collaborative, and innovative environment. Corporate areas in my purview include legal, operations risk management and administration, HR, DE&I, and marketing.

What do you tell potential hires about the career opportunities that Alliant offers and what attracts them to the organization?

We believe in recruiting the best people in the business, giving them what they need to thrive, and then getting out of the way. Our flat management structure eliminates layers of bureaucracy. It provides our people plenty of room to make their own decisions for delivering superior service to clients without the burden of corporate mandates or meddling. When our clients and employees win, Alliant wins, and with the company’s continued high-growth trajectory, we plan to keep winning together year after year.

Our exponential growth and privately held status are a building block to creating career growth for employees on the service and operations side of the business. At Alliant, there are more opportunities to achieve career growth because we foster independence, ambition, and creative thinking. If they see an opportunity and want to take it on, it’s theirs, and they are rewarded for success.

Our connected, collaborative culture may be one of the most significant resources we have to offer. We can foster and scale good ideas with our deep and versatile bench. Alliant has deep resources, like technology and sales tools, the strength of specialty expertise across many verticals, finance functions, and significant access to capital.

And perhaps most importantly, our employees make up the majority of Alliant’s ownership. Ownership is critical, as employees are fully dedicated to client service and deeply invested in the company’s health, which makes our culture and growth highly sustainable.

Alliant is home to some of the industry’s top talent. What characteristics define an Alliant employee, and what makes them unique?

Alliant employees are unique in their levels of creativity and desire to solve our clients’ most complex problems. They proactively look for opportunities and bring different perspectives to make our clients successful.

We are entrepreneurial, collaborative, and innovative – and we only bring people on board if they live these values. We gear everything toward ensuring client success, so our employees must want more for their clients, not just hand them an out-of-the-box solution. Top talent also wants the freedom to go the extra mile for their clients without layers of bureaucracy, and they are equally rewarded for their success.

How critical is it for Alliant to build a diverse and inclusive workforce to bring diverse perspectives and experiences to the table when making business decisions?

The collective strength of the people who work here defines us, and we believe that diversity and inclusion are at the heart of what makes us successful. Our employees have a broad array of backgrounds and life experiences and bring unique perspectives on our business strategy and overall corporate culture. Different views are crucial to innovation and superior client service. We need to be able to solve our clients’ individual and complex problems in a constantly changing environment. The responsibility starts at the top, but requires everyone’s full and collective effort.

With the support and engagement of Alliant employees, our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program helps to strengthen our business and our culture by promoting inclusiveness across all levels of our organization and within the insurance industry at large. At the heart of the program is a commitment to education, collaboration, and understanding. Our goal is to create an environment where employees with unique backgrounds and experiences can do great work together and set a course forward.

Do you feel that the insurance industry has done an effective job of telling its story and highlighting the innovation taking place in the industry to the next generation entering the workforce?

No, but we are getting better at it. The industry is at a time of rapid growth and immense change across operations, service, technology, and data and analytics. It’s an exciting time for people who thrive on solving complex client challenges and want to build something great for the future.