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2015 Women to Watch: Carrie Barr

Posted On: Dec. 6, 2015 12:00 AM CST

2015 Women to Watch: Carrie Barr

Carrie Barr

Senior vice president and chief operating officer

ISO Claims Partners

Philadelphia

Age: 35

For Carrie Barr, there was a clear choice: Get a job or go home.

After graduating from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and marketing in 2002, her parents gave her 45 days to find a job and pay her own way. She attended a pharmaceutical fair and met representatives from a unit of Concentra Inc., which would later be acquired by Coventry Health Care Inc., and decided to follow in her father's sales footsteps by taking a sales assistant job.

“I kind of fell into insurance, but I'm glad that I did,” Ms. Barr said. “I fell in love with the industry.”

In 2010, she became an account executive with Medicare compliance firm Crowe Paradis Services Corp., which was sold that December to Verisk Analytics Inc. and eventually rebranded as ISO Claims Partners. Based in Philadelphia, her ascension at ISO has been quick, moving up to second in command in five years.

“You need to find a company that rewards hard work and results,” Ms. Barr said. “Finding a company that was a true meritocracy was a blessing.”

Donna Greiner, president of Babb Absence Management Services, a unit of Babb Inc., in Pittsburgh, said she has known Ms. Barr since her Concentra/Coventry days and is not surprised by her quick rise, pointing to her smarts and intense focus on providing quality customer service.

“She's extremely reliable,” she said. “If you contact her, she's immediately responsive. Even now that she's moved up, she's taken that work ethic up with her. She still stays in touch with the clients to make sure we're getting what we need from her team. She's a very friendly and committed individual.”

Ms. Barr made her way up the ranks while rearing her son, now 4, with a major assist from her mother, a traveling nanny during her son's first few years, and now-retired father, who cares for him after preschool. That kind of support meant Ms. Barr “never had to say no to any opportunities,” she said.

She has big plans for ISO, hoping to turn it into a $100 million business by expanding outside of the Medicare sector into other claims areas and developing and retaining talented employees.

“I hope I'm here until the day I retire,” Ms. Barr said. “I want to make it a huge company.”


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