After Helping Grow an SBA Program to Nearly $7 Billion, Peter Gibbs Bet He Could Do More on His Own
Five years after launching Foundation Surety with his wife, Gibbs says the company has helped more than 900 businesses get bonded. An SDA connection has now brought that work to Cook County.
When Peter Gibbs retired from the U.S. Small Business Administration in 2021, he left behind a program that looked dramatically different from the one he had inherited.
And the numbers are staggering.
Gibbs, a U.S. Army veteran, spent 32 years at the SBA, including his final 18 years in the Office of Surety Guarantees. When he started working with the program, he said it was generating about $750,000 in activity.
By the time he left, it was approaching $7 billion.
And Gibbs still thought he could do more.
“I just felt like, even though the program was successful, if I retired and started our own company, that we could have a greater impact,” Gibbs said.
So he and his wife, Nikeya, started Foundation Surety & Insurance Solutions. Nikeya is its chief operating officer. Five years later, Gibbs says the company has helped more than 900 clients get bonded.
“This is crazy. I have to pinch myself sometimes,” Gibbs said, reflecting on the company’s growth.
Now, a connection made by the Southland Development Authority’s (SDA) Illinois APEX Accelerator has brought that experience to Cook County, where officials are working to prepare more small and emerging contractors for public-sector opportunities.
In Gibbs’ history, it’s another chapter in a career spent trying to remove a deceptively simple obstacle. As he explained, a small business can be capable of doing the work, find the opportunity and still lose it because it can’t get a bond.
Gibbs saw that problem up close during his years at the SBA.
Peter Gibbs, center, president and CEO of Foundation Surety & Insurance Solutions, speaks with Chris Cooks, left, of the Southland Development Authority’s Illinois APEX Accelerator, during the National APEX Accelerator Alliance conference in Orlando.
Changing the System From Inside
Surety bonds are commonly required on larger public contracts to provide financial assurance that a contractor will perform the work and meet its obligations. But smaller contractors can struggle to qualify.
The SBA’s Surety Bond Guarantee Program was designed to help address that gap. Gibbs believed the program itself had to become easier to use.
One issue was speed.
“As an entrepreneur, as a construction company, you may get an opportunity today,” Gibbs said. “You have to get the bond tomorrow.”
Waiting more than 20 days for an application to move through government didn't fit that reality.
Gibbs pushed to speed up and standardize the process, embraced technology and traveled around the country meeting directly with surety companies and agencies.
He wanted to know why they weren't using the SBA program - and what government could do differently.
“Now the industry had someone who was the head of a program who was listening to their concerns and their issues,” Gibbs said.
Slowly, he said, perceptions began to change.
“The industry started saying, ‘Well, maybe the SBA is not a bad option for us.’”
Peter Gibbs, president and CEO of Foundation Surety & Insurance Solutions, and his wife and business partner, Nikeya, pose together at a Foundation Surety exhibit during an industry event.
Starting Over After 32 Years
Retirement gave Gibbs a chance to approach the same mission from the other side.
Foundation Surety works with businesses having difficulty obtaining bonds, with roughly 80 to 90 percent of its clients coming from construction.
Gibbs and his team look at experience, finances, existing workload and business operations to determine what a contractor is ready to take on.
The philosophy is “responsible growth.”
“We want you to start small and grow gradually as a company,” Gibbs said.
His own appetite for starting over may have something to do with a life spent taking on demanding assignments.
Alongside his SBA career, Gibbs served 27 years in the U.S. Army, primarily as a reservist and logistics officer. He reached the rank of lieutenant colonel and deployed twice.
He also met Nikeya during a deployment to Kuwait in 2006. She was an Army captain.
In 2023, Gibbs was inducted into the National ROTC Hall of Fame.
A Connection Reaches Cook County
Foundation’s work eventually brought Gibbs into the orbit of Chris Cooks and the SDA’s Illinois APEX Accelerator.
After Foundation conducted a webinar with Cooks, he connected Gibbs with Cook County.
The introduction turned into a roughly two-hour presentation attended by about 30 to 40 people.
Participating businesses also had an opportunity to obtain a “bondability letter.” Gibbs said businesses that provided several additional items could receive a letter indicating bondability for single projects up to $250,000 and $750,000 in aggregate.
“One of the biggest things as a contractor is to be able to say that I’m a bondable company,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs believes Cook County’s effort to educate contractors before they pursue larger opportunities can strengthen the pool of small and emerging businesses capable of competing for county work.
Months after Cooks made the introduction, he and Gibbs crossed paths again at the National APEX Accelerator Alliance conference in Orlando.
“Chris is a connector,” Gibbs said. “He connects a lot of people, but he doesn’t really know if they really connected.”
Gibbs finally had an update.
“You recommended us to Cook County,” he recalled telling Cooks, “and something actually happened.”
It was a small connection compared with the billions of dollars that passed through the SBA program Gibbs once helped lead.
But five years after leaving government, those connections are exactly why he keeps doing the work.
Foundation has now conducted webinars for more than 20 APEX Accelerators around the country. And after helping more than 900 businesses get bonded, Gibbs is still finding new ones that are ready for their next opportunity - that is, of course, if they can clear the barriers standing in front of them.
About the Southland Development Authority
The Southland Development Authority, a not-for-profit economic development organization, is committed to driving equitable and sustainable economic growth in the South Suburbs of Chicago. Through innovative programs, strategic partnerships, and impactful direct investments, the SDA is building a vibrant, inclusive economy that drives wealth growth for individuals, businesses, and municipalities. Combined with the benefits of the South Suburban Land Bank and the Monarch Fund, the SDA serves as a model for regional development.
