2025 Business Hall of Fame: Tricia Griffith

As a child in Illinois, Tricia Griffith wanted to be a talk show host.

The last thing the future Progressive CEO wanted to do was work in insurance.

“There were two things I didn’t want to do: My mother was a waitress, and my father sold insurance door to door. So I didn’t want to be a waitress, and I didn’t want to go into insurance,” she explains.

But after graduating from Illinois State University and working in retail for about six months, she was looking for something different. Progressive was hiring a claims rep, and for $19,200 — “It would pay my rent and pay my student loans,” she says — she moved to Indianapolis in 1988 and started work for a company her mother thought made soup. (She thought it was Progresso.)

“I was going to pay off my loans and see what I wanted to do with my life,” she says. “Maybe about nine months into my job, I really fell in love with our core values and the people I worked with. I fell in love with learning something new every day.”

She came to Cleveland in 1999, and in 2016, she was named chief executive officer. Progressive has grown from an auto insurer for high-risk drivers to a company that’s not only the second-largest auto insurer in the United States but also sells other vehicle insurance and has offerings in home insurance, renters’ insurance and small business. It's gone from writing $20 billion in policies when she took over as CEO to $75 billion today.

A lot of that growth has come because technology has enhanced the company’s selling point of transparency. But a lot of it is a reflection of the company’s — and Griffith’s — core values.

“We have 70,000 employees, and I want to feel like they’re taken care of here, and heard and seen and safe. We have 37 million policyholders, and I want them to know we’re taking care of them.

“I try to think of all the different constituents in balance, but I start with our employees. If they’re taken care of, they take care of the customers, and they stay with us.”

As employment brand director, Mari Pumarejo reported directly to Griffith, who was the chief human resources officer at the time.

“It was the joy of a lifetime,” says Pumarejo, now the company’s chief marketing officer.

Pumarejo said she made a presentation to Griffith, who loved it and encouraged her to present it to the company CEO — by herself.

“She said, ‘You can do it yourself. I’ve seen it already,’” Pumarejo recalls. “That’s what she does — she helps you elevate your game.”

Griffith has worked all around the company, including claims, human resources and customer relationship management. She’s even forklift certified, a holdover from her days working in retail.

“If you need a tub moved, I’m your girl,” she jokes. “I’ve had nearly every job here, so I understand what they’re all trying to achieve,” she adds. “And if I understand that deeply, I can support them.”

And it’s not just lip service, Pumarejo says.

“She’s so authentic,” she says. “She meets with all the new hires. She eats lunch in the cafeteria on Fridays.”

The image of the workaholic CEO is ingrained in a lot of people’s minds, but Griffith finds a work-life balance and encourages other employees to do the same.

“My expectations are high, and I really want them to produce, but I also want them to have a life outside of this job,” she says. 

Pumarejo notes that a Gallup survey has shown Progressive to be in the top five in the country for job satisfaction, and that comes from the top down.

“Tricia asks us to be vocal about taking care of ourselves and our families, to lead by example,” she says. “If we take care of our people, they take care of the business.”  

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