The NASBP & SFAA Surety Industry Awards recognize surety professionals and local surety associations for promoting the value and protections of contract surety bonds in construction to non-surety audiences and for advocating on behalf of the surety industry to obligees, legislators, and others to advance surety industry interests.

Winners of the Tiger Trust Award, Gold Award, Silver Award and Advocacy Award were recently announced. The winners will be recognized at the 2026 NASBP Annual Meeting & Expo and the 2026 SFAA Annual Meeting.

 

The Tiger Trust Award

The Tiger Trust Award is given to an individual who persuades private owners or lenders to require contract surety bonds on their projects. This year the Tiger Trust was awarded to Tammy Wheeler of Liberty Mutual Surety. Wheeler succeeded in persuading a home owners association to require a performance bond for a road repair project. She shared with residents and the association board the importance of a performance bond to protect the HOAs funds and ensure project completion. Congratulations Tammy!

 

Local Surety Association Awards

 

The Gold Award is given to Local Surety Associations (LSAs) that conduct at least ten public relations and educational activities in a calendar year that promote the use of contract surety bonds in construction to non-surety, non-insurance, or non-lawyer audiences. Two LSAs were honored this year:

Florida Surety Association presented to contractors and public officials on the basics of bonding. They also presented to multiple contractor groups about the importance and benefits of performance and payment bonds. There were also presentations to CPAs and contractors on prequalification, bonding capacity, and more.

 

The Surety Association of Ohio made educational presentations about the value of surety bonding, current trends in surety, and about the contractor questionnaire, among other topics. See the Contractor Questionnaire in the Producer’s Tool Kit. 

 

 

The Silver Award is given to Local Surety Associations (LSAs) that conduct at least five public relations and educational activities in a calendar year that promote the use of contract surety bonds in construction to non-surety, non-insurance, or non-lawyer audiences. One LSA was honored this year:

The Surety Association of San Diego made “Surety Bonding 101” presentations to small construction-related business owners. They also presented about the importance of surety bonding to electrical contractors, project engineers, and others.

 

 

The Advocacy Award recognizes LSAs that conduct significant activities advocating for suretyship, other than public relations or educational activities, such as fighting legislative efforts to waive bonds or increase bond thresholds or advocating for reasonable bond forms. One LSA was honored this year:

Florida Surety Association met with multiple legislators on Legislative Day in February 2025. The Association wrote letters to governmental entities regarding member concerns and worked with public officials to address problematic contract, bond form, and warranty language.

 

 

No submissions were received for the Platinum Award this year.

The judges for the Surety Industry Awards this year were:

From NASBP:

• Chris Downey (Downey & Co.)
• Sheila Thompson (Rosenberg & Parker of Canada)
• Mark McCallum (NASBP)

From SFAA:

• John Guglielmo (Intact Insurance)
• Ryan Work (SFAA)

 

Congratulations to all the winners! Now is the time to be thinking about submissions for Surety Industry Awards in 2027!