Randall Talbot

Randy Talbot had put so much into Safeco Life that he wasn’t about to let its 1,200 employees fall prey to an outside company.

Talbot had been president at the Talbot Financial Agency when, in 1998, he was asked to head up Safeco Life. While at Talbot, he served as a broker of Safeco Life products and was an adviser to the then-CEO of Safeco. Knowing the company so well, Talbot guided Safeco Life to new heights. Although the deflated economy took its toll on Safeco as a whole, its subsidiary, Safeco Life, continued to make money. But the new executive team decided to focus on the property and casualty businesses, and put Safeco Life up for sale in 2003. Potential buyers began eyeing Safeco Life, ready to strip it for parts. Unwilling to give in, Talbot mounted a campaign to save Safeco Life. Thing was, he had just 45 days to do it.

After an initial struggle, Talbot found a small group of investors, including Berkshire Hathaway, to provide the needed funds to purchase Safeco Life. On Aug. 4, 2004, the company became independent, was renamed Symetra Financial and moved to Bellevue.

As Symetra’s president and CEO, Talbot, who left Symetra in June, worked to simplify the firm’s offerings and the language of the insurance it provided. He sought an initial public offering in 2007 but a nasty economic climate put the kibosh on that. Still a believer in fighting for a good cause, Talbot sought an IPO again and, on Jan. 21 of this year, succeeded, raising $282 million. As he rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, Talbot witnessed Symetra’s IPO become the second largest in the U.S. so far in 2010.

Finalists:

Dan Price

CEO, co-founder, Gravity Payments (Seattle)

Dan Price felt the little guys were getting ripped off and wanted to do something about it. Price, CEO and co-founder of Gravity Payments, noticed how credit card processors took advantage of smaller companies with hidden fees and substandard service.

From this market, Price was able to build a strong customer base, offering small-business owners credit card processing services at about half the cost of competitors, ending hidden fees and maintaining total transparency in pricing and business practices. That policy, an approach he refused to alter when advised to do so by industry experts and financial analysts, has served him well even during economic uncertainty. Gravity Payments was hit hard by the recession, but instead of laying off staff, Price took a pay cut, lived off his savings and started cold-calling restaurants and other businesses open between 6 and 10 p.m. The honest work has kept an honest company in business today.

Mary-Lou Misrahy

President, CEO, Physicians Insurance: A Mutual Company (Seattle)

Washington state’s insurance commissioner, Mike Kreidler, was about to pull the plug on Physicians Insurance after he discovered that the company’s filings that year were unacceptable. The fines would be huge and damaging.

Enter Mary-Lou Misrahy, who joined the company the following year. She hired new executives to manage a turnaround plan and created a compliance team for oversight. She mobilized staff to bring the firm into accord with state guidelines and built a new trusting and open relationship with regulators.

Since then, the firm has generated an underwriting profit annually while premiums for most doctors have decreased by 24 percent.

Misrahy also installed an incentive pay program to inspire staff to take ownership of their work. And she increased the marketability of Physicians Insurance by putting more specific and convenient information on the company website.

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