Biography
Prior to retirement in April 2019, Peter Pelizza served in the insurance industry for 40 years. Starting his career at Sentry Insurance, Pelizza was consistently recognized as a leader in sales and sales management roles and setting company records, many of which still stand today. Ultimately, he was appointed as chief operating officer of Dairyland Insurance Company and president of Dairyland County Mutual of Texas. Having absolute management responsibilities for Dairyland’s $600m + nonstandard automobile and preferred motorcycle business prepared him for his next opportunity at Rural Mutual Insurance Company.
Pelizza served at Rural Mutual for more than 14 years as CEO and executive vice president. Surrounding himself with trusted talent, Pelizza successfully led Rural to record accomplishments. Through product innovation, distribution changes, organizational realignment, and operating disciplines, an urgency was created that paved the way for AM Best to increase Rural’s rating from a B+ (good) company to an A+ (superior) company quicker than any upgrade to A+ on record. As one of the few single-state A+ companies, Rural was able to log 62 consecutive quarters of surplus growth, increasing its policyholder reserve fund from $37 million to more than $325 million. Premium increased from $100 million to more than $225 million, and assets increased from $125 million to more than $550 million. Expense ratio was reduced from more tan 40 percent to less than 30 percent. Surrounding these organizational successes, Rural was recognized as a Best Places to Work by Madison magazine during the final three years of Pelizza’s tenure.
Pelizza served on the board of directors of two nonstandard insurance companies. He serves as president-elect for his local Country Club board and serves several insurance and financial services companies as a consultant. Pelizza and his wife enjoy working with many local nonprofit organizations in their free time.