Call Her Maestro

Jenny Charles
Senior Broker
Aon, St. Louis

Jenny Charles is a master at getting the right people together in a room and orchestrating business relationships and deals that wouldn’t happen if each party was singing their own tune.

Says one source, “Jenny orchestrated a meeting between one of her clients and a major firm. It was a win-win for everyone involved.

“The client got an introduction to a company that could write maybe nine lines for them. The credit people in the room got to know her client and become more comfortable with them and left with a better understanding of their needs.”

The result: Charles’ client received preferential consideration and ultimately better credit terms, and the company got to write a whole lot of coverage.

Another client said, “Jenny is extremely knowledgeable, which I feel is built by her experience and dedication. She’s also very customer focused. She makes herself available at a moment’s notice. Even though she is [an] Aon employee, she acts like an ‘arm’ for us and projects our high values.”

“We have tremendous confidence in Jenny, which is key,” said one managing director who sang Charles’ praises.

He added, “Jenny managed the placement of our 2017 umbrella program where she brought a new and creative structure with individual company primary umbrellas and a shared excess, which resulted in tremendous balance sheet protection in addition to year-over-year savings.”

In the Driver’s Seat

Greg Myers
Executive Managing Director
Beecher Carlson, New York

“If you are in the auto insurance industry, you know Greg Myers,” said one client, a director of risk management. “And if you don’t know him, you should.

“Greg has tremendous knowledge, and he works closely with those of us in the risk area of the auto business. He thinks out-of-the-box and has alternative solutions” she added.

One of Myers’ ideas was designed to help manufacturers. “Greg came up with the idea to have a group of manufacturers come together and pool resources across the industry. And he got us

all talking about risk management and sharing information.”

A recent risk solution involved a German original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

The goal was to convert its private label customer insurance program to a self-insured program, which meant leaping over hurdles such as controlling risks, meeting sales goals and developing a product that satisfied the vehicle purchaser and dealers.

Greg got in the driver’s seat and took off! He became part of the client’s risk management team and performed a consulting study. Then he led his client through the program design, program structure, the development of a national sales team and the formation of the captive insurance company and obligor company.

Additionally, Greg led the expansion of cyber and media liability coverage for one OEM and the marketing of cyber liability coverage for yet another OEM.

Look for Myers at RIMS where he’ll once again lead industry discussions.

Manufacturing Cyber Coverage

Carrie Yang, ARM
Assistant Vice President
Aon, Chicago

Bringing property and casualty components into cyber coverage for the manufacturing industry — who knew? Carrie Yang, of course.

“Carrie’s industry knowledge is impressive,” said Lynn Haigler, director, insurance and risk financing, BJC Healthcare.

“We didn’t know a lot about cyber risk and liability, and Carrie has been instrumental in educating us.”

For traditional manufacturing companies, cyber data breach exposure is not where the big risk lives. Instead, property damage, general liability and products liability resulting from cyber incidents are what keeps these risk managers up at night.

But typical cyber policies on the market explicitly exclude property damage and bodily injury, which makes cyber policies less attractive to manufacturers. Yang knew they needed it, and  her team set out to make sure they got it.

Aon’s team developed a new program — entirely manuscript — to address uncovered exposures. Yang and a specially formed Aon team spent a year developing the form, which incorporates property and casualty components into cyber. Yang played a key role in drafting the policy and broking the placement, making Aon a leader in this coverage.

Craig Coluzza, insurance risk manager, AIG, said, “Carrie and I worked on manuscript policy language for weeks. It was difficult enough to create this language, but then she had to negotiate the acceptance of this broad policy language with several insurance carriers.

“I was pleasantly surprised that Carrie was able to maintain the majority of our original policy language after intense negotiations with carriers.”

Guiding His Team and Clients

Bruce Ludwig
Managing Director
Marsh, Chicago

Following a successful outcome of a defensive and offensive RFP, Bruce Ludwig aligned his team to deconstruct a fragmented global liability program and aggressively market to new global carriers. They delivered better coverage at pricing nearly 75 percent below the incumbent terms.

Utilizing Ludwig’s highly consultative approach to client service, the team worked to align the program with other global coverages, ensuring consistency and streamlined administration.

“Bruce is very responsive,” said Marc Brinkschulte, director, corporate risk and insurance management, Robert Bosch, LLC. “You can always reach out to him and get a quick response. He is very familiar with and very interested in a broad spectrum of issues across the automotive and technology industries.”

Ludwig blends a technical knowledge of complex global insurance programs with an intense focus on aligning the client and Marsh service teams to achieve and deliver stretch objectives. Understanding what good and great results look like leads to a thoughtful discussion of what a stretch outcome could possibly be.

Ludwig has 35 years’ experience in the industry and has been an underwriter, product line broker and client executive for the last 22 years. Most of his clients utilize captives as a foundational core of their risk financing strategy and as such, Ludwig helps align clients’ captives into the program efficiently.

Plan More, Worry Less

Kathy Weaver, CIC, CRM
Managing Director
Aon, Southfield, Mich.

Hope for the best and plan for the worst. It is good advice in any industry, but Kathy Weaver is helping clients apply it in the automotive space.

One such example: Weaver was asked by client Delphi to provide an in-depth review of their Mexico facilities from an asset valuation and business interruption perspective.

They found that a critical component of Delphi manufacturers was made at only one location, which meant that a loss or business interruption at that one location could potentially be detrimental to the company as a whole.

“Kathy’s best strength is her customer service. She listens to what I’m looking for and provides well thought out solutions on how to address the particular issue at hand,” said Brian Eichenlaub, Delphi’s treasurer, America, and director of risk management finance.

Weaver and her team also guided another client, a global automotive supplier, through a move abroad.

They helped the client address named insured wording in their policies as well as manage their insurance once the leadership team relocated.

More recently, Weaver and her team assisted the same client with a business interruption analysis post fire loss at one of their Mexico locations.

They procured a $1 million advance, and at press time, they were working to finalize the remaining payment with the adjustor.

The complete list of 2018 Power Broker® winners can be found here.