Pamela Ellen Davis
Founder, President and CEO, Nonprofits Insurance Alliance Group
Pamela E. Davis is believed to be the only woman to ever have founded an insurance company in the US. She is founder, president and CEO of a group of nonprofit insurers known as the Nonprofits Insurance Alliance Group. Included in this group are the Nonprofits Insurance Alliance of California (NIAC) and Alliance of Nonprofits for Insurance, Risk Retention Group (ANI) as well as a captive insurance company and a nonprofit service company. She began in 1989 with a $1 million loan, and now these companies all hold A.M. Best ratings of A (Excellent) VIII and insure more18,000 501(c)(3) nonprofits for property/casualty insurance. In 1996, she was instrumental in getting federal law changed to enable charitable risk pools to be granted 501(c)(3) status. Also, in 1997 and 2014, she successfully shepherded two bills through the California Legislature to benefit nonprofits in that state. During 1997, NIAC and Ms. Davis were featured in a PBS documentary, part of the Visionaries series. In 2004 she received the first ever Award for Policy Innovation from The Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley. She was named one of the nation’s 15 BEST BOSSES by Fortune Small Business and Winning Workplaces in 2005. In 2006, Ms. Davis was named by Business Insurance as one of the 80 “Women to Watch” in the commercial insurance industry. In 2017 she was named one of the “Elite Women” by Insurance Business America. She holds a BA with highest honors in Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.