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b'The Barbour Group, LLC
20 Liberty Street, Ste. 2D
Westminster, MD 21157

Karen Barbour
Founder and President
The Barbour Group, LLC

Karen Barbour, President

Karen Barbour, founder and president of The Barbour Group, LLC is a veteran of the surety bonding industry, starting her career in surety as a home office bond underwriter in 1985, where she is well known as an innovator and expert within the industry. 2012 has been a landmark year in an illustrious career for Karen, with accolades including induction into the 2012 MBE (Minority Business Enterprise) Hall of Fame, acknowledging high-achieving entrepreneurs at the pinnacle of their careers, as well as earning Enterprising Women Magazine\\u2019s endorsement as one of the 2012 Enterprising Women of the Year, an outstanding honor and achievement, and was recently named by SMARTCEO as one of the TOP 100 Best Run Companies in Maryland as well as named by the Daily Record as one of Maryland\\u2019s TOP 100 Women. Her two most prestigious awards prior to 2012 are the Ernst & Young Winning Women Entrepreneurial Program (2009 inductee), an elite business network that raises the national visibility of high-potential entrepreneurs and their companies, enabling phenomenal business growth, and the US SBA Small Business Person of the Year for MD (2008), for her efforts in raising the bond thresholds for the SBA in the American Recovery Reinvestment Act\\u2014the first surety professional to win this prestigious award.

Recognized throughout the surety industry for her leadership, Barbour complements her surety bonding experience with a solid background in the construction industry, along with a strong track record in surety underwriting. During her early years in the construction industry, Karen developed a keen insight into the needs and challenges that construction executives face. This insight, coupled with her strong understanding of the industry and a dynamic leadership style, led to launching her own agency as an obvious progression in her career.

She established The Barbour Group in 2002 as an independent insurance agency focused on construction bonding and commercial insurance. To date, Karen has led the company to being licensed nationally, from Alaska to Puerto Rico, where the agency handles the surety needs of a wide range of construction clientele, from startups to medium-sized companies ($50MM - $100MM) to large firms with more than $100MM in annual gross revenue, as well as Fortune 1000 companies that need localized surety bonding in the Mid-Atlantic region. Now THE voice for small businesses, the company delivers solutions and strategic advice to bonding clients while also helping them grow. A true innovator in the industry, The Barbour Group has achieved multiple certifications and award recognitions since its launch, and has seen consecutive double digit annual sales growth.

Prior to starting her agency, Barbour was a partner of Barbour Construction Corp. (trading as Specialized Metals) for 10 years. The company performed work throughout the Mid-Atlantic region as a steel erection and metal fabrication subcontractor. During this time, a prominent undertaking for Barbour Construction Corporation was expertly executing on a landmark project to restore a portion of the steel work and install fabrication metal casements to house the glass membrane to protect the top two inside levels of the Washington Monument.

Barbour has also held leadership roles at two leading Washington Metro agencies where she established and nurtured relationships with key strategic partners and industry leaders, and represented each firm at trade associations and organizations. During this time, she helped found the General Council for Construction within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Baltimore Office), which facilitated roundtable discussions regarding federal construction. The roundtable discussions led to the adoption of a two-step process for procuring work for Washington, DC schools.

Barbour\\u2019s accomplishments as a surety underwriter included producing an underwriting profit by controlling risk acceptance, declination and cancellation of all surety bond products; developing and maintaining strong agency and broker relationships; and effectively marketing company products and services through the agent/broker community and related industry contacts.

Throughout her career, Barbour has been active in key construction trade associations to help address business issues impacting the industry. Currently, Barbour serves as co-chair for the Governor\\u2019s Commission on Small Business (MD), Vice Chair of the Advisory Board for the Small Business Development Center (MD), and as a board member for the Carroll County (MD) Economic Development Corporation.

Barbour is a former president of the Mid-Atlantic Surety Association, and is proud to have served on the board of the American Subcontractors Association of Baltimore, and on the Board of Governors for Washington Building Congress.

Barbour has received numerous awards and distinctions for her contributions to the success of contractors in the building industry. In addition to her numerous 2012 achievements and accolades listed above, Barbour was selected as the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce\\u2019s 2011 Small Business Person of the Year. Baltimore SmartCEO Magazine awarded Barbour a 2010 Future50 Award, and Karen became the first surety professional to win be recognized as The Daily Record\\u2019s 2010 Innovator of the Year Award, an award that recognizes passion for change.

Barbour co-founded Party for a Cure to support the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and help fight neuromuscular diseases. The event has raised nearly $200,000 to support local health care services such as clinical care, support groups, research, repair of medical equipment, and a week-long summer camp for children ages 6 to 17. During the annual MDA telethon over Labor Weekend, The Barbour Group was proud to be recognized as Maryland MDA\\u2019s \\u201cShining Star\\u201d award recipient.

Barbour\\u2019s agency has also won many accolades, including a four-time (2011, 2010, 2009, and 2008) ranking on Inc. Magazine\\u2019s Inc. 500/5,000 List, which recognizes The Barbour Group as \\u201cone of the 5,000 fastest- growing private companies in the U.S.\\u201d The company is also a three-time recipient of Maryland\\u2019s Top 100 Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) Award.

Barbour holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola College of Maryland and a Master\\u2019s in Business Administration from the University of Baltimore (with induction into Sigma Iota Epsilon, the University\\u2019s honorary management fraternity). In 2010, she earned certification as an Associate in Fidelity and Surety Bonding (ASFB) from the American Institute for Chartered Maryland Property Casualty Underwriters.'