Tracy Bowden, Tracy Bowden, Managing Director, Alliant Agencies

Did you have a farm?
My dad is a farmer and a rancher. Wheat and cattle are two of the main things he has. Believe it or not, the power companies have built four big windmills on his property.  Progress!

Those things are huge.
I’m told they cost about $2.5 million apiece to build.

How big was the farm where you grew up?
Where I grew up was only about five acres. It was right outside of town. We raised calves and lambs there. We always had something crazy. We had a buffalo one time. Her name was Miss Texas. I got her for my birthday when I was 10 years old.

That sounds like a fun childhood.
It was very, very interesting. And then I went to the University of Texas in Austin for both undergraduate and law school.

Did you practice law?
I practiced law for eight years at Thompson Coe Cousins & Irons in Dallas. I worked for David Irons, the first insurance commissioner in Texas. He and Richard Geiger were very involved in all aspects of the insurance business in Texas, particularly on the M&A and regulatory side. They were two of the finest people I have ever met. David was a classic. He drank scotch at lunch, wore a three-piece suit, and was very serious about the insurance business.

How did you get into the insurance business?
TIG Insurance was a client of ours at the law firm. It was a spinoff of Transamerica Insurance Group’s property and casualty insurance business that moved its corporate office to Texas. I went to work for Bill Huff when TIG moved its corporate office to Dallas. He had been the Iowa insurance commissioner, and I think he was the youngest person ever to be the president of the NAIC. He was a brilliant insurance man and always believed in doing the right thing in every circumstance.

Tell me a little about your business.
I am responsible for three MGAs within the Alliant Insurance Services organization. CAU writes condominium association business; Deep South writes transportation business; SIU writes earthquake DIC business. We underwrite about $400 million of premium in our organization and have about 200 employees. We have offices across the United States, and we have roughly 20,000 insureds.

What’s kept you in the industry for 30 years?
The business has changed a lot over the last 30 years in terms of products and regulation but also in terms of sophistication. MGAs are interesting businesses, and something is always changing. I wish more young people would become interested in the insurance business.

I hear that a lot.
My children are at an age where they’re starting careers, and I talk to them a lot about the insurance business. But it’s not the first industry that comes to mind as they think about career opportunities.

What do you like to do when you’re not working?
I have four children. That keeps me busy. We love to travel. We love to go to big cities—New York, London, Rome.

You’re also involved with the National Charity League.
It’s a mother-daughter charity and a great organization. My daughters and I spend a lot of time working at various charities. Our favorite place to volunteer is Center of Hope, a homeless shelter for women in downtown Dallas.

What do you think your daughters have gotten out of it?
They have a much more compassionate view of the world. They understand in a very real way that you’ve got to have a way to make a living, that education is important.

What is something your co-workers would be surprised to learn about you?
They would probably be surprised to learn that I wanted to be a ballerina, because I’m kind of klutzy. They would probably find that very amusing. Right now I have a black eye.

What happened?
I fell down some stairs when my hands were full.

What gives you your leader’s edge?
Focus. We focus up and down the chain on what makes us better than our competition. That includes getting more data than everybody else and looking at it more frequently.