The experience behind SPARK Partners
Stu Thompson led The Builders Group through more than 700% growth in annual premium. The numbers are not the main reason we built SPARK Partners around him.
By John Sherk, Co-Founder
My co-founder, Stu Thompson, became administrator of The Builders Group, a Minnesota self-insured group, in 2002.
At the time, TBG had no investment portfolio. By the time Stu retired in January 2026, annual premium had grown more than 700% and the group had built an eight-figure investment portfolio.
Those numbers are impressive, but they are not the primary reason we are building SPARK Partners around Stu's experience.
Over more than two decades of leading TBG, Stu encountered the full range of challenges that come with operating a SIG: board relationships, regulatory concerns, underwriting and claims decisions, investments, safety, service providers, leadership development, and succession.
Some of those lessons came from good decisions. Others came from difficult situations that could not have been anticipated. Very few of them could have been learned from a textbook.
SPARK Partners is being created so that other SIG leaders do not have to learn every lesson alone. Stu's experience will provide the foundation, and the experience of participating SIG leaders will expand it.