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Strategic Advisor·Insurance Brokerage

Paul Sparks

Board Director; Executive Chairman at The Baldwin Group; CAC Group

Denver, CO

PS
LinkedIn
Why they matter

Sparks built CAC Group from scratch into a $1B-plus exit and now sits on Baldwin's board, giving him insider visibility into specialty brokerage M&A and integration priorities.

Background

Paul Sparks is Executive Chairman of CAC Group, the specialty and middle-market insurance brokerage he founded in 2019 and grew to a #35 national ranking (Business Insurance, 2025) with organic revenue compounding near 30% annually. He brings over 30 years of underwriting and brokerage experience, including senior roles at McGriff, Seibels & Williams (where he founded the financial services division), Aon, and Chubb, with a specialty in executive liability and complex/non-traditional risk placement.

Notable deals

  • 2019
    Founded CAC Group, growing it into a top-35 national specialty/middle-market insurance brokerage with ~30% organic revenue CAGR before its sale to The Baldwin Group
  • 2026
    CAC Group merged with The Baldwin Group in a $1.026B transaction ($438M cash + 23.2M Baldwin shares, plus up to $250M earnout), creating the largest majority colleague-owned publicly-traded U.S. insurance broker; Sparks joined Baldwin's board on close
  • 2025
    Led CAC Group's CEO succession, elevating Erin Lynch to CEO and Mike Rice to Vice Chairman while Sparks remained Executive Chairman, positioning the firm for its subsequent merger
  • ·
    At McGriff, Seibels & Williams, founded and led the financial services division, contributing to negotiated insurance recoveries exceeding $2 billion for clients

Call-prep brief

Background

  • Executive Chairman and founder (2019) of CAC Group, a specialty/middle-market insurance brokerage that grew to a top-35 national ranking with ~30% organic revenue CAGR
  • 30+ years in insurance: senior roles at Aon and Chubb, and built/led the financial services division at McGriff, Seibels & Williams, contributing to insurance recoveries exceeding $2B
  • BBA in Finance, Georgia State University; sits on GSU's Risk Management Foundation board

Current focus

  • Just closed CAC's $1.026B merger into The Baldwin Group (Q1 2026 close) and joined Baldwin's board of directors effective January 1, 2026
  • Recently stepped back from CEO duties at CAC (handed to Erin Lynch, Jan 2025) to focus on chairman/board-level strategy

What they care about

  • Specialty and complex-risk coverage design (executive liability, professional liability, transaction liability, IP, credit enhancement)
  • Scaling entrepreneurial brokerages while preserving culture through ownership/equity structures (CAC is majority colleague-owned)
  • Healthcare and financial services verticals

Potential sensitivities

  • Now a sitting board member of a public company (Baldwin/BWIN) — may be constrained by fiduciary/insider-trading rules on forward-looking commentary about Baldwin or CAC
  • Recently transitioned out of CEO role; frame questions around strategy/chairman perspective, not day-to-day operations he no longer owns

Questions to ask

  1. What made CAC an attractive combination partner for Baldwin versus staying independent or pursuing PE ownership?
  2. How did the colleague-ownership model shape CAC's growth and retention, and how is that translating into the merged entity?
  3. Where does he see the next wave of consolidation in specialty/middle-market brokerage, and what gaps remain unfilled?

Outreach draft

Subject
Question on CAC's path to the Baldwin merger
Hi Paul, Congratulations on CAC Group's merger with The Baldwin Group and your new board seat — quite a milestone from founding CAC in 2019 to a $1B+ combination. I'm [Name] with [Firm], and we're studying consolidation dynamics in specialty and middle-market insurance brokerage. Your experience building CAC organically and then navigating a public-company merger is exactly the perspective we'd value. Would you have 20 minutes in the next couple of weeks for a call? We'd love to hear your read on where brokerage consolidation goes next and what separated CAC as a combination target. Thanks for considering it, [Name]

Linked companies

Sources