Providence Risk and Insurance Services
By Michelle Vasquez | Photography By David Teran
Diana Craft: A Business Built on Belief
Long before Diana Craft became a business owner, her parents showed her what entrepreneurship looked like. Her family owned an insurance agency, giving Craft an early introduction to an industry that would become her life’s work. While attending college, she took a part-time job in insurance, eventually moving into a full-time position on the brokerage side where she fed her curiosity and kept learning.
Life teaches us many lessons, and when Craft found herself navigating a divorce while raising two young boys, she made lemonade out of lemons. She wanted a career that would allow her to support her family while spending time with her children. At the same time, she saw an opportunity in the marketplace that was not being addressed.
Traditional workers’ compensation insurance wasn’t always available to employers, and Craft believed there was a better way to help companies care for employees injured on the job. “I just thought we could do it better,” she says. And so, Providence Risk & Insurance Services was formed and is 30 years strong.
As a third-party administrator, Providence works with Texas employers that don’t purchase traditional workers’ compensation insurance, helping them administer occupational injury benefit programs. The goal, Craft says, is straightforward: help an injured employee get treatment more quickly, see qualified physicians, and achieve a better outcome.
Her business reflected a philosophy that has been a constant throughout Craft’s career: People matter. That philosophy also influenced how she began to scale the company, particularly as opportunities came quickly. One of her most difficult lessons as an entrepreneur was recognizing when growth could become too much and having to tell prospective clients that her team didn’t have the bandwidth to take on their business.
For a salesperson accustomed to saying yes, it wasn’t easy. But Craft understood that making promises her company couldn’t keep would ultimately hurt the people depending on Providence, and she learned that growth couldn’t depend on her alone. “There isn’t one thing that we have done as a company that was achieved by just one of us,” she says.
Today, Providence has nearly 100 employees, many of whom have been with Craft for more than 20 years. Two who were there when she started the company remain with her today. Craft credits that longevity in part to creating an environment where employees know they are valued and where people come together for one another beyond the work they do each day.
Craft has built Providence by believing in people, but her own journey has also been shaped by people willing to believe in her. She started the company with $25,000 borrowed from her father, which she repaid with interest, and as Providence grew, she reached another pivotal moment when she was ready to purchase property and build a home for the business. When her financial institution at the time was reluctant to finance the project, Bank of America recognized the potential in her vision.
For an entrepreneur who had built her company by knowing when to take a chance on an idea, Bank of America’s willingness to support her vision when another bank would not made an impression that has lasted. “Ultimately, Bank of America said yes, and they’ve never disappointed me,” Craft says. “Every time, they have been there.” That support became the beginning of a relationship that has continued as Providence has grown and its financial needs have evolved.
Whether it is an employee, a client, or a partner willing to believe in what comes next, Craft’s story is a reminder that business works best when you never lose sight of the people at the center of it.
For an entrepreneur who had built her company by knowing when to take a chance on an idea, Bank of America’s willingness to support her vision when another bank would not made an impression that has lasted. “Ultimately, Bank of America said yes, and they’ve never disappointed me,” Craft says. “Every time, they have been there.” That support became the beginning of a relationship that has continued as Providence has grown and its financial needs have evolved.
