Headquarters:
Petaluma, CA
Year founded:
1993
Number of employees:
30
Phone:
415 475 4300
Email:
info@ppibcorp.com
Website:
ppibcorp.com
LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/company/ppib-insurance
“Every portfolio manager or advisor has fewer clients than the industry standard, so we can devote more time to each client and deliver a level of service and precision that is well above average”
David Poliquin,
BGY Wealth Management
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Award Winner
PPIB - PROFESSIONAL PROGRAM INSURANCE BROKERAGE
Susan Etter
President
Karen Sergent
Director of Underwriting and Sales
Colleen Ryan
Director of Business Development
Leadership
Susan Etter is President of Professional Program Insurance Brokerage (PPIB). She joined the company in 2010 and was instrumental in helping it more than triple in size before her promotion to president in 2021. Known for her creative vision and underwriting acuity, Etter specializes in curating distinctive insurance programs in close collaboration with London market carriers, shaping coverage for niche industries that mainstream insurers routinely overlook.
Etter is a frequent voice in the specialty insurance space and brings a direct, human approach to an industry not always known for either – a leadership style that continues to define PPIB’s growth today.
President
Susan Etter
Karen Sergent brings over 15 years of insurance industry leadership to her work at PPIB, with deep expertise in professional liability, property and casualty, and niche markets like the beauty industry. Throughout her career, Sergent has led teams, optimized underwriting processes, and driven business growth through tailored insurance solutions and exceptional client service.
Sergent holds a Master of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from San Diego State University, which shapes her approach to strategic decision-making, team development, and operational efficiency. She is passionate about fostering innovation and collaboration to drive long-term success in the specialty insurance space.
Director of Underwriting and Sales
Karen Sergent
Colleen Ryan is Director of Business Development at PPIB. She has worked nearly every side of the P&C insurance industry – retail agency, wholesale program, home office carrier, and field roles – spending many years with a leading admitted multi-state carrier, ending her tenure as territory director of Hawaii, followed by over a decade managing broker relationships for a surplus lines carrier focused on wind-exposed business. That foundation shapes her creative approach today, working closely with brokers to design non-admitted solutions for hard-to-place, niche risks that traditional markets often turn away.
Director of Business Development
Colleen Ryan
SPECIAL REPORT
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Bio
Carla Carpenter
Director of Operations
Carla Carpenter serves as Director of Operations at PPIB. With a wide range of experience across the entertainment, sports, education, and insurance sectors, she brings strong leadership skills along with the flexibility, agility, patience, and collaborative spirit needed to work effectively across diverse teams. Today, she leads the transformation of PPIB’s infrastructure, evolving the systems, teams, and processes required to grow from a small, nimble brokerage into an organization built to support a large corporate parent. She manages this transformation with remarkable grace, balancing the demands of scale with the culture that makes PPIB unique.
Co-President, Ryan Specialty National Programs
Carla Carpenter
Jennifer Fifer
Senior VP, Programs
Jennifer Fifer is senior vice president of programs at RPS, where she leads initiatives focused on delegated authority, program business, and commercial underwriting. With more than 25 years of insurance industry experience, she has extensive expertise in developing high-performing insurance programs, strengthening underwriting governance, and building long-term partnerships among carriers, MGAs, and distribution partners.
Fifer holds the CPCU and AIC professional designations and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Away from the office, she enjoys spending time with her husband and their three sons. Their free time is often spent at football games, on the lake, or traveling together.
Senior VP, Programs
Jennifer Fifer
PROFESSIONAL PROGRAM INSURANCE BROKERAGE (PPIB) is a specialty insurance program manager built around a simple idea: niche industries deserve insurance partners who actually understand their businesses.
Rather than trying to be all things to all markets, PPIB has focused its expertise on program areas that are often overlooked or poorly served by traditional carriers: medispa and aesthetics, pyrotechnics, tattoo and body art, smoke shops, and other specialty lines where risk, regulation, and client needs demand a more tailored approach.
What makes PPIB’s program management approach distinct is how it’s built – in close collaboration with the brokers who know these industries best.
PPIB works alongside brokers to shape coverage, appetite, and pricing around the realities of each niche, rather than asking brokers to fit their clients into a generic mold. That partnership means programs evolve as the industries themselves do – informed by what brokers are seeing in the field.
Today, that collaborative approach has grown into a robust suite of programs – including agritainment, podcasters, and standalone sexual abuse and molestation coverage – each built hand-in-hand with the brokers who place that business every day. As new niche categories emerge, that same spirit of partnership continues to shape how PPIB grows.
“We excel at communicating complex strategies in a clear, transparent manner, empowering clients to make informed decisions while maintaining confidence in the discretionary process.”
David Poliquin,
BGY Wealth Management
Laurie Schoch
Senior VP, Property
Kiera Cope
Lead Actuary
Diana Criscione
Head of Operations
Sarah M Stewart
Associate Vice President,
Leasing and Call Centre Operations
Laurie Schoch is senior vice president of RPS Property Facilities, bringing more than 30 years of E&S and commercial property underwriting experience. Since joining RPS in 2025, she has overseen seven property programs and helped shape underwriting strategy for scalable, delegated authority solutions.
Schoch’s background includes leadership roles at Aspen Insurance Group, XL Insurance and Great American, with deep expertise in facultative placements, catastrophe-exposed risks, and technical underwriting. Known for her industry insight and collaborative approach, she is also passionate about mentoring emerging underwriters and developing solutions that meet evolving marketplace needs.
Senior VP, Property
Laurie Schoch
Kiera Cope is an accomplished insurance actuary and Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, with 30 years of experience in property and casualty risk analysis, underwriting strategy, and actuarial disciplines. She built RPS’s actuarial team and processes to deliver enhanced insights that support profitable program growth, strategic decision-making, and stronger risk management outcomes.
Cope’s team supports existing programs and new expansions through deliverables including M&A due diligence, rate filings, profitability reviews, segmentation analyses, and underwriting tool enhancements. She also volunteers with the CAS Ratemaking Working Group, contributing to technical white papers on emerging and standard ratemaking topics.
Lead Actuary
Kiera Cope
Diana Criscione leads operational systems design and execution for nearly 50 RPS specialty insurance programs. With more than 25 years of experience across insurance operations, technology, and process improvement, she helps streamline workflows, strengthen underwriting practices, and support business growth.
Before joining RPS Programs, Criscione spent 14 years with Gallagher in program operations and business systems leadership roles and previously founded a database company serving clients across industries. She is also a dedicated mother of three and has served as a Girl Scout troop leader for 17 years.
Head of Operations
Diana Criscione
Sarah M Stewart has more than 15 years of strategic leasing and customer care experience in residential property management. She is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Centurion’s national leasing platforms, residential lead generation, and overall customer experience excellence through operation of the company’s internal customer service department.
Associate Vice President, Leasing and Call Centre Operations
Sarah M Stewart
Director of Operations
A DIVISION OF SPG INSURANCE SOLUTIONS