Marcia Benshoof: IMA president has her game on for the customer and the greater good.

• Author: Ryckman, Lisa
• Position: ATHENA FINALIST

On most workdays, there's no place Marcia Benshoof would rather be than at her IMA office in downtown Denver. But this is no ordinary workday.

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It's opening day for the Colorado Rockies.

"I love baseball," says Benshoof, who can see Coors Field from her sixth-floor office, which doesn't make missing the game any easier.

But the 52-year-old exec has a job to do, and it happens to be one she finds both rewarding and challenging. As president of IMA of Colorado, an insurance, asset and risk management provider, Benshoof works to foster a culture of community service and camaraderie for her nearly 200 employees.

"We love each other," she says. "You can feel it."

A lot of that love comes from the top down, says IMA public relations manager Meme Moore, who nominated Benshoof for the Athena Award.

"Marcia's an inspirational leader," Moore says. "She knows everybody's name; she's an open door kind of person. She's not up in some ivory tower - she's down with the troops. She really knows how to connect with people."

Some of that ability might be traced back to Benshoof's degrees in psychology and counseling from the University of Northern Colorado, and her time in nursing school. Thirty years ago, that foundation made her an ideal pioneer for an emerging marketplace called "case management," guiding patient care and acting as an advocate.

It's a sensibility that has governed her business career.

"People who know me would say that the customer is in every conversation, whether they're in the room or not," Benshoof says. "I'm a vigilante about keeping the customer there."

She says she taught herself about acquisition, startup and turnaround and was eventually hired to help Pinnacol Assurance get back on its feet. Benshoof served as Pinnacol's chief business officer for 11 years, overseeing all aspects of underwriting, safety and claims service for the company's 58,000 customers.

For Benshoof, part of Pinnacol's success came from...