Like so many others, Bobbie Perrigo, the newly installed president of Tarrant County Insurance Professionals, fell into the insurance industry a bit by accident. Her first career choice was flight attendant.
Perrigo left Old Dominion University where she was beginning studies in psychology to work for TWA in reservations. While awaiting her scheduled interview to move from desk duty to the skies, 9/11 happened, and Perrigo’s career goals changed.
By 2002, Perrigo landed a job in the corporate office of USAA, where she learned personal lines coverage. A year later, she moved from her home state of Virginia to Texas, and she made the decision to remain in the insurance field. Perrigo was office manager for Yancy Insurance Agency in Arlington from 2003 to 2009. During her work with Yancy she transitioned from personal lines to commercial lines.
Meanwhile, Perrigo resumed college studies part-time at the University of Texas at Arlington, eventually earning a degree in social work, with a minor in psychology. Perrigo said her course work was more geared to the business side, where she could apply her knowledge to human resources, which was included in her duties at Yancy. She completed her college studies in 2011.
In 2010, USG Insurance Services recruited Perrigo to work on the broker side of the business. While at USG, she met Jodi Berger who was active in the Tarrant County Insurance Professionals. When Berger became president of the FIWT local association in 2012, Perrigo joined TCIP.
Berger introduced Perrigo to active TCIP membership by appointing her scholarship chairwoman almost immediately. Since then, Perrigo served as a director, secretary, vice president, president-elect, and now president.
While at USG, Perrigo was a producer and broker for commercial lines, and developed a keen interest in professional liability. In 2020, Perrigo joined MarketScout, where she has served as a senior broker, with a specialty in professional and executive liability. Now that she has been with MarketScout nearly two years, she considers landing there and fitting into the professional liability program there to be a great milestone in her career.
Perrigo is a deputized underwriter with Lloyd’s of London and currently pursuing the RPLU designation. She is also active in the Professional Liability Underwriting Society.
TCIP’s installation of officers was held on Nov. 17 at Pulido’s Mexican Restaurant, the site of the association’s regular luncheons on the third Wednesday of the month. Sue Finke, fresh from her own installation as president of FIWT, officiated her first as she plans visits to locals throughout Texas. TCIP has about 25 active members, said Perrigo, even though the FIWT website roster for the association shows fewer. Many Dallas/Fort Worth area FIWT members are members of more than one local, she said, as there are three FIWT locals in the area. In fact, President-Elect Sheryl Watkins, Insurica, is listed as a member of Metroplex Insurance Professionals, even though she holds dual memberships. Dallas Association of Insurance Professionals is the third local nearby.
Perrigo’s plans for the year include restoring the sense of community of the members with real, live get-togethers. For two years, she said, our community service has been mostly donations of funds, without active participation. She foresees some outdoor events in the near future, a music event with animals in the spring as a fundraiser for Animal Hope, a pet adoption center in Fort Worth, and a reappearance of the TCIP’s annual miniature golf tournament in the summer to benefit the Center for Transforming Lives in Tarrant County, which supports women and children’s safety, education and job preparation needs.
Each year, said Perrigo, TCIP awards a $500 one-semester scholarship to a college student enrolled in business studies, with an opportunity to renew the scholarship for a second semester.
“The pandemic has had an effect on our members and on underwriters and our carriers,” said Perrigo. “It has affected our friendships and relationships.” Insurance is a relationship business, Perrigo added. It’s a challenge to turn around the pandemic isolation in the workplace and in the professional associations. She tries to stay in touch with agents she does business with on a weekly basis.
Perrigo is joined by other officers President-elect Watkins; Vice President Destinie Kindle, CRC Group; Secretary Debbie Hamilton, Frost Insurance, and Treasurer Karen Ashton, Specialty Insurance Managers. The 2021-2022 directors include Jodi Berger, USG Insurance Services; Cynthia Pinson, retired, and Mary Chapa, Marsh-Wortham.
In her spare time, Perrigo is active with teen programs at the Sagamore Baptist Church in Fort Worth. She said it is so important to provide role models for teens to keep them on the right path.
Perrigo and her daughter Sophia live in Mansfield, with two rescues, a cat and a pup.
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