Your First Call

Terence Bohan
Senior Broker
Aon, San Francisco

Carriers want to know that a company is mitigating its risk. Terence Bohan knows this, and he makes sure his clients do, too. Bohan uses his industry knowledge, including his perspective from his former role on the carrier side, to guide his clients through renewals, claims or just about anything they need.

Bohan and his Aon team devised a unique risk management solution for Boyd Gaming Corporation while trying to lower rates that had increased after Hurricane Katrina losses.

They split the Boyd portfolio into two separate programs: One program would encompass all the assets in Nevada, while the other program would cover the remainder of the Boyd assets throughout the Gulf Coast and central United States.

This strategy enabled the risk manager to maintain key relationships, especially in London, but introduced competition that helped drive savings to the tune of 25 percent.

Bob Berglund, vice president, benefits and insurance, said, “The mitigation is attributable to Terence.”

Another client, Lauren Young, managing director, chief risk officer, and chief compliance officer, PCCP, LLC, gave Bohan the highest recommendation.

“When we suffered damage during Hurricane Harvey and had questions about our coverage, it was clear that the fastest way to get an answer was to call Terence,” Young said.

“He knew our policy in and out and was helpful in explaining everything clearly.”

The Strength of the Bulkhead

Ryan Davidge
Vice President
Aon, Pembroke, Bermuda

Aon’s VP of Property Ryan Davidge is like a bulkhead. The sailors among us know that the bulkhead strengthens the boat. Located below deck, it’s not visible to all, but those in the thick of things understand that this element of the ship helps keep them safe.

“Ryan always has his client’s best interests at heart, and he has a depth and breadth of industry knowledge that is well-respected in our circle,” said one client.

Davidge was tapped by the organizer and sponsor of the 35th America’s Cup to be its local broker in Bermuda.

The temporary “event village” had specific insurance requirements —property, marine D&O, P&I, WC, hull, cargo, AD&D and liability to name a few. But no one person was in charge of procuring all the insurance. For Davidge, this meant a lot of last-minute calls.

The sponsor struck up a sponsorship and coverage deal with a local insurer. But both the insurer and the race sponsor soon realized that they needed an intermediary.

Davidge stepped in and never looked back. He pulled together a number of insurance lines, including property, marine liability, D&O and workers’ comp. Transportation issues, for instance Bermuda’s location 640 miles off the coast of North Carolina, made logistics and coverage considerations complex and demanding.

So successful was Davidge’s handling of the Bermuda event’s insurance needs that his colleagues in New Zealand called him to advise on how to handle the next America’s Cup event.

Mr. Go-To

Gerald Levine, CPCU
Managing Director
Beecher Carlson, Waterford, Conn.

When asked about what he finds exceptional about Gerald Levine’s work, Andrew Lee, vice president, architecture and construction, The Lam Group, responded, “Do you have a day and a half for me to tell you?”

On the top of Lee’s list is the tremendous savings Levine helped him achieve with a recent package.

“Gerry was able to negotiate coverage for us and the contractor together, so we saved a lot of money and reduced our risk,” Lee said.

“He is our 100 percent, trusted go-to person. We don’t sign anything until it has gone by Gerry’s desk.”

Lee also described a property loss on a building that was just about to open. “Gerry put a package together quickly to get it resolved, and he even managed getting people in for some of the repairs, so we were not taken advantage of,” Lee said.

Thayer Thompson, general counsel and VP-commercial, Virgin Hotels North America, said that when their partners meet Gerry and see what he does for Virgin, they sometimes switch to him for their brokerage needs.

“Gerry Levine is an absolutely amazing broker. We’ve worked with him for five or six years, and he is simply the best. Some of our partners have hired him as well.

“I can’t imagine a better advocate on insurance for our business than Gerry. He is incredibly responsive, 24/7, very knowledgeable and very proactive. He has a great team.” 

Risk Never Sleeps

Christian Ryan
Managing Director
Marsh, Dallas

Christian Ryan’s client philosophy is simple; colleagues and clients first — 24/7 — and never forget that clients’ risks can’t wait and don’t sleep. This philosophy has served him well, and more importantly, it’s served his clients best.

When a large gaming client merged with another large gaming company, Ryan and his team reviewed both risk programs and made recommendations for the structure of the merged programs.

Company size and different risk philosophies, including different retentions, limits and overall structures, made combining their coverage challenging, but Ryan’s team was able to recommend a program while also reducing millions of dollars of costs and volatility.

Another client, Sam Makani, director, portfolio strategy and reporting, Solid Rock Group, experienced Ryan’s expertise firsthand.

“Christian is very familiar and experienced with the various options for property insurance for hotels — both big and small. He has a breadth of knowledge with a depth of industry contacts to align clients’ interests with the proper carriers.

“He and his team have provided guidance on various property and supplemental policies for our portfolio, including earthquake, wind and cyber insurance,” Makani said.

Additionally, Ryan and his London team crafted Marsh’s exclusive PRIME Hospitality and Gaming property facility, including manuscript language around booking cancellations, broader loss of attraction language and other ancillary but important features. 

Over the Moon

Ronald Sung
Assistant Vice President
Aon, Chicago

Ronald Sung postponed his honeymoon so he could attend a strategic client meeting last year. Not a dentist appointment or a ballgame — his honeymoon. If that’s not dedication and exemplary customer service, we’ll never know what is.

“Ron acts with the customer in mind,” said hospitality risk manager Michael Dougherty.

“Ron provided several different solutions to restructure our professional/cyber liability product this past year and some of the options were drastically different than what was done in the past,” Dougherty said.

“Ron walked us through each of the solutions and explained the unique advantage of each option. He not only helps clients find the right product, but he further helps by working to adapt the product, so it can be a closer solution for his clients.”

And this was simply one example.

“Ron has been excellent,” said another client. “I talk to him at least once a week and he goes above and beyond for us. He’s very collaborative. He’ll walk me through things and he’ll make presentations to our carriers,” she said.

Sung worked with that client on a confidential program that will help cell phone carriers place emergency 911 calls more accurately.

“We had a lot of details to think about and a lot of risk to identify,” said the client. “We couldn’t do this without Ron.”