Q&A: Allied Solutions CEO worked his way up over 35 years

You can hardly go anywhere in Carmel without seeing the name Allied Solutions.

The financial services company’s name is newly attached to the Center for the Performing Arts and has for some time been linked with more than a dozen community events. For CEO Pete Hilger, being involved in the community is a prerequisite for doing business.

Thirty-five years ago, following a career as a cryptologist in the U.S. Air Force and a stint owning a struggling business, Hilger joined the company his mother, Melissa Eldredge, founded in 1978 and worked his way to the top.

Today, Allied Solutions LLC has 1,900 employees with about 850 people working at its headquarters in Carmel’s Midtown district. The company also has offices in Johnson City, Tennessee; St. Paul, Minnesota; Dakota Dunes, South Dakota; and Plano, Texas.

“We provide financial services products to banks, credit unions, finance companies,” Hilger said. “We’re one of many things. We’re a third-party administrator. We’re a distribution company. We’re a technology company, and we’re a general agency. And then we’re also a third-party marketer.”

Hilger talked with IBJ about his career path, why he thinks Carmel is an attractive place for companies, his thoughts on corporate involvement in the community, and his love of the arts and sports.

Could you tell me about your path to becoming the CEO at Allied Solutions?

It’s a long journey. I was fortunate now that I look back on it to start a family very, very early. I joined the military and started a company that shredded confidential documentation here in Indianapolis. And at one point, my mother, who had founded this company—back then, it was called Eldredge Lender Services—said they needed to have a service person. The company we started wasn’t doing real well. I had little ones and a wife, so I thought I needed something more stable. And, so, back in 1989, I started.

I became a salesperson. As I grew within the company and knew more and more facets, I became head of marketing and then head of sales, then an executive, then the president. And then I went from president to chief marketing officer to CEO of the company. I’ve been the CEO here for about nine years now, and I’m getting ready to celebrate my 35th year.

Allied Solutions was the first company to establish a headquarters in Midtown when you moved to your building in 2018. What has it been like watching the district grow around you?

Exciting and frustrating at the same time. [Frustrating when] I see another dump truck get in my way or an entrance or a roadblock that you can’t come up and down. But we look at it out of a lens of the long run, and it’s just vibrant. It’s exciting. I think about my team that’s here with all the arts that they have right literally out the back door of our office. You can walk all the way down to the Palladium. You have all the different arts you can experience, and to then see us grow with the city.

Allied Solutions is one of about 150 companies that have headquarters in Carmel. Why do companies want to be here?

I think it’s the direction of the city. It’s very vibrant. You can feel a good vibe here. People are coming here. I don’t know any of the statistics from a Census standpoint, but I can just tell based on all these buildings that they have the amount of housing, condos, apartments, homes. I think their biggest challenge is making sure they keep it affordable. That’s going to be a big challenge for all of us, but it is a recruiting mecca for us. I have people that just moved here from Vancouver, Canada; Minnesota; Illinois.

When they come here and they see what this community has to offer, I think that’s a great opportunity for companies to sell the value proposition versus just salary. So, it’s your entire lifestyle. I think it’s a great recruiting thing.

What are your goals for Allied Solutions in the next five years?

Well, obviously, grow as a company. Grow our revenue, grow our earnings. We have a goal to be a billion-dollar-revenue-generating company with $200 million of net income after tax earnings by 2030. That’s our stretch goal. That’s our vision.

Allied Solutions has a three-year corporate partnership deal with Carmel to sponsor more than a dozen of Carmel’s annual events, and in September, Allied Solutions and the Center for the Performing Arts announced a naming-rights partnership. Why is it important to you for Allied Solutions to be visible in the community?

First of all, I think it’s our stewardship being in a community to be able to support it, and things become contagious. So, if other companies see what you as a company are doing and committed to this community, they’re seeing the community evolve and grow. I think that creates a little bit of energy where other people cooperate.

And Carmel is fabulous. When you think about the arts and you think about all the entertainment that you can have here, how can you not support it? When you think about the dollars that the Palladium and the Center generate for this community, it is very large compared to the investment that they make to make it successful.

One time, I was asked, “Are you concerned about the time and the amount of money that’s being spent in the arts?” I said, “Well, does it really matter if the return is seven, eight, nine times that investment?” It’s really put the city on a national and international scope.

How did you transfer what you learned in the military to your corporate career?

What the military showed me was discipline and focus. I’m a huge patriot. But I think [more] important than all of that is caring about people of all types; it doesn’t make any difference. And trusting and being loyal to those people that represent you. And I think that if you knew about our culture here, you can really see all those attributes reflected within our organization. I think they’re reflected within this community.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time? Where are your favorite places to travel?

I love music. I love going to plays. I lived in downtown Chicago for a while, and they have a pretty good artsy play area that has a lot of good entertainment. Nothing better than going out with my wife and just spending an evening. You go into the Palladium here, the top talent that they have is phenomenal.

I really enjoy traveling. A lot of that traveling lets me experience more arts that are out there. Probably the one thing I don’t do enough that’s going to be a great hobby when I retire is spend time with my wife. We like sports a lot. Big hockey fans, big football fans.

The most romantic place I’ve traveled to was Portofino, Italy. My wife and I keep going back there. Unfortunately, as our world grows, that small uniqueness of it is becoming more and more popular. So, I would say Italy has been of my favorites, and then I also love Porto, Portugal.

I actually live in Florida. I have an apartment [in Carmel] at the Railyard. I try to stay here. About every couple [of] weekends, I get back home. We have season tickets for the [NHL’s Tampa Bay] Lightning. My wife is rabid. I mean, she’s just a crazy hockey fan. We have season tickets to the [NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers]. My sporting events become my date nights or date days with my wife.•