Our Mission
For twenty-five years, I have represented contractors for their surety bond needs. To do so effectively, I cultivated relationships with surety underwriters and honed my communication skills, both oral and written, in order to present my clients to the surety marketplace in the best possible light. As a result, I now have established a reputation in the surety industry for being able to provide top level surety services to my contractor clients, while maintaining the trust and friendship of many key underwriters who help me get the approvals my clients need.
I started this surety-focused insurance brokerage to allow me to continue my surety career for as long as I am able to do so. I am blessed with a wonderful assistant, Dianna Guzman, with whom I have worked since 2006. She is very personable, and is highly-regarded by our clients and our surety underwriters. We hope to have other friends join us as we continue to grow internally, and see this company become a significant force in the surety industry.
Surety will never be a “boutique” department at Shea Surety & Insurance Services.
Jim Shea
Founder
Our Team
James B. Shea, CPA
Jim was raised and still resides in Redwood City, and considers himself to be a proud alumnus of Sequoia High School and the University of California at Berkeley. Jim began his professional career in public accounting with Touche Ross and Company, and later worked for the regional firm of S.J. Gallina & Company. With his accounting background, Jim was able to quickly learn the craft of surety underwriting with Chubb & Sons, and has worked the last twenty plus years as a surety bond producer with various brokerages in the Bay Area. He greatly enjoys helping contractors achieve their goals by arranging their bonding relationships, and has seen some clients grow from acorns to majestic oak trees. Jim’s greatest treasure is his wife, Cecilia, and their three children, all of whom are now young adults. When not helping his clients with their bonding needs, Jim enjoys playing golf. What a shock….a bond guy who plays golf!
Dianna Guzman
Dianna Guzman was born and raised in San Jose, CA. She attended Santa Clara University, but then decided to follow her passion for music, and graduated in 2000 from Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Her pursuit of a career in music (singer-songwriter) led her from Boston to Portland, OR, then to Nashville, TN, and finally back to the Bay Area, where she started a rock band, and continues to play shows. Spurred by practicality (specifically the thought: “any musician attempting to live in the Bay Area needs a day job”), she began working for Leavitt Pacific Insurance Brokers 2006. Leavitt Pacific trained her in the Insurance Industry, and introduced her to Jim Shea and the surety industry in early 2007. She found surety to be a great fit for her personality, and began to view it as more than just a “Day Job”. This close-knit and very social industry is one in which the broker develops sincere and lasting relationships with both the underwriter as well as the client. In the summer of 2011, she jumped at the opportunity be employed by Jim Shea as he started his company, Shea Surety & Insurance Services. When out of the office, Dianna spends as much time as possible with her husband, Adam (also a musician), and their beautiful son, Logan (mini-musician-in-training), and still tries to find free moments to write new songs.
Note from Jim: Dianna is the best assistant with whom I have had the pleasure to work. She is so personable and sharp, she is a natural for this business. I have had the desire to start my own surety practice for years, but, it was not until Dianna came along that I actually felt I could do so. She is capable of handling just about any situation that might arise when I am away from the office. Our clients and underwriters all find her to be extremely competent and a genuinely warm person. She can also sing like a rock star!
