Editors’ Note

Greg Zimmer assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer on April 1, 2024 and is responsible for implementing the strategic direction of the firm. He also is responsible for corporate operations and all mergers and acquisitions activity. Prior to joining Alliant in 1998, Zimmer and his partners built a significant financial services firm that ultimately was sold to GMAC, where he served as Senior Vice President. His career also includes corporate finance and venture capital experience while serving as Vice President at Security Pacific, which ultimately merged with Bank of America. Zimmer holds a bachelor’s degree in economics/systems science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a master’s degree from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA.

Firm Brief

Alliant Insurance Services (alliant.com) is one of the nation’s leading distributors of diversified insurance products and services. Operating through a national network of offices, Alliant offers a comprehensive portfolio of services to clients.

How do you define Alliant’s culture and how critical is maintaining culture as Alliant continues to grow in size and scale?

Alliant has a high-performance culture that is built on putting people first. We are highly collaborative and focused on consistently raising the standard of excellence for service and results. We are dedicated to recruiting, acquiring, and retaining the top talent in the industry, and allow our employees to share in the company’s success through equity ownership. This helps to keep walls, divisions, and silos from forming within the organization and enables us to retain our entrepreneurial spirit while we continue to grow and expand.

Alliant achieved record growth in 2023 and continues to lead in the industry. What have been the keys to the company’s success?

It all starts with having the best people, then supporting those people with superior products, superior resources, and superior infrastructure while creating an environment that allows them to operate decisively and effectively for their clients in any market climate. Acquisitions are also a core component of our ongoing success, and we approach them in a highly strategic manner. We’re not making acquisitions to become bigger – we’re making acquisitions to become better. Every business we acquire brings something new to our organization, which helps us to diversify our service offerings and compete at the highest level.

Do you see ongoing expansion opportunities for Alliant into new business categories?

Absolutely. We’re continually looking for new opportunities to expand our reach and grow our footprint. This is best illustrated by our emergence as a leader in the consumer market, where we’ve gone from having a small presence to becoming an industry leader over the past five years. We now hold a significant market share in the nonstandard auto market, Medicare, and ACA, three categories where we were previously not active. And in late 2023, we launched Alliant Consumer Group, a dedicated platform that houses Alliant’s portfolio of consumer-facing operations. This is all driven by bringing on great people with a track record of success and an appetite for strategic growth.

Alliant’s core values are entrepreneurialism, service, and strength. Will you discuss how these values are engrained in the company’s mission?

Alliant’s long-standing culture of entrepreneurialism is driven by giving our people the freedom to perform at the highest level possible. We maintain a flat organizational structure that is not overly rigid or bureaucratic, so there are fewer barriers to finding the best possible solutions for our clients. This leads to outstanding service and the ability to always operate with our clients’ best interests in mind. By placing service at the forefront, we’re able to cultivate and maintain a strong, stable organization that consistently produces great results. When you lead with people, the result is long-term strength and durability.

How challenging is it to differentiate in the industry and how do you describe the Alliant advantage?

Alliant was built, from day one, on differentiating from our competitors. One of the hallmarks of this differentiation is our collaboration. We have very large positions in certain industry verticals; however, all of our team members work together, sharing resources and experience to benefit the client. This allows us to draw from our collective strength to gain a significant competitive advantage. We also use our size to our advantage, leveraging the aggregate volume of all of our clients to drive a better deal, even in the most competitive of markets. This leads to better service, better pricing, and a better client experience.

Alliant has a reputation for being home to the industry’s top talent. What are the keys characteristics you look for when bringing new talent into the company?

We look for people who have demonstrated a strong track record of success, whether in insurance or any other field. We want people who are curious, results-oriented, and pillars in their community. We understand that top talent migrates to where they can be successful, so we’ve created an environment that attracts high performers and provides the resources and support needed for them to thrive.

What do you see as Alliant’s responsibility to the communities it serves and to be a force for good in society?

We are highly invested in supporting our communities at the grassroots level. We believe we can make the biggest impact by supporting local charities and encouraging our employees to play a direct role with those charities through volunteer time off (VTO). We encourage our employees to find causes that they are engaged in and passionate about, then provide vital resources and connections to support them, including a corporate matching program.

We have also made a significant engagement in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) and have a dedicated team that is focused on forming partnerships with like-minded organizations and supporting our internal employee resource groups (ERGs). We launched the Alliant Insurance Foundation in 2023, a charitable, nonprofit organization focused on expanding access to career opportunities in insurance for underrepresented individuals.

Will you discuss your views on effective leadership and how you approach your management style?

We believe that great people don’t need to be micromanaged. We work hard to identify visionary leaders and work with them collaboratively to help them achieve their goals, as opposed to a more bureaucratic structure where they feel restricted in their ability to lead and grow the businesses they are responsible for. We give our leaders great responsibility and hold them accountable for their results.

You joined Alliant in 1998. What has made the experience so special for you?

The greatest reward has been watching our business grow and evolve over the years, expanding from a regional operation with a few hundred employees to a national leader with a team of more than 11,000. This has had a positive impact on so many lives, both professionally and personally, and it’s a direct result of the incredible team we’ve built here at Alliant.