Kenneth Branigan, Senior Vice President, Marsh One of Kenneth Branigan’s recent challenges included devising a new approach to CAT risks for a client with more than 1,000 North American locations. Many are vulnerable to windstorm, flood and earthquake (WF&E), and 2017 saw three outlets suffer storm damage. At renewal, Branigan’s team negotiated a global marine… View Article

Jonathan Ball, Managing Director, Marsh “We started putting our general, umbrella and excess liability into a captive in 2017,” said one manager of risk and insurance. “It should not have been difficult but our carrier really struggled with how to handle the paper. “We talked to them about it months in advance and every time… View Article

Larry Bowlus, Senior Vice President, Aon Professional liability insurance veteran Larry Bowlus is a broker his clients have come to rely on. His positive traits are numerous, but they include the fact he is a great listener who is also skilled at communicating with various internal constituents. “I didn’t have an insurance background coming into… View Article

Maron Impagliazzo, Vice President, EPIC Despite the legalization of recreational marijuana in California, growers and distributors have a hard time building their businesses, because few insurers want to take on their commercial auto exposure. The potential for theft combined with federal prohibition of cannabis makes transporting the goods a risk endeavor. But Maron Impagliazzo and… View Article

Zach Brown, Partner, Orion Risk Management By all accounts, Zach Brown is a force to be reckoned with. Brown has been a part of the insurance industry only three short years. But in that time, he has established himself and cemented a reputation as a next-level broker — one who will move mountains to help… View Article

Humbled by his own experiences with homelessness, this P&C broker knows what it’s like to face a challenge. So he works for solutions instead.

With already burgeoning careers, the 2018 Power Broker® Rising Stars share the key components to their success.

These Risk & Insurance Power Broker® winners and finalists are emerging leaders of the brokerage industry.

From the frozen Arctic to the inferno of a high net worth divorce, Power Brokers go to extremes to find solutions for their clients.

Top Negotiator Ruiz Foods saw collateral obligations under its workers’ comp coverage continue to climb and its out-of-pocket costs increase to unsustainable levels. “Bruce Droz and his team worked to decrease the amount that carriers required us to maintain in standby letters of credit by more than $1 million,” said Bill Wheeler, corporate controller. “Bruce… View Article

Helping Clients Soar It seems like everywhere you look, businesses are finding more ways to use drones — also known as unmanned aircraft systems. It follows that the insurance industry needs to keep pace. But it wasn’t, as brokers and clients alike observed. Getting coverage meant a time-consuming process, restrictive policy language, low liability limits… View Article

Call Her Maestro 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… View Article

No Problem Too Big Earthquakes on campus? No problem. Remote flights? No problem. High premiums? No problem. With Charmaine Davis, clients know the words “no problem” aren’t lip service. Davis’ “no problem” solutions are the result of hard work, industry knowledge and connections; understanding client needs; and leveraging the marketplace to her clients’ advantage. “When… View Article

A Joint Venture Pioneer In a pioneering effort, Marsh’s Danette Beck borrowed a practice from engineering and brought it to the construction sector. “We work often through joint ventures, and we don’t construct low-risk projects,” said the risk manager at one client. “Our incumbent carriers were not giving us competitive terms, and that was making… View Article

Negotiating in the Nick of Time “We recently switched our broker of record to JLT primarily due to Rob,” said a treasury official at one client. “He had some great ideas on how to improve our insurance program. One specific item he proposed and we implemented was adding our terrorism coverage back into our property… View Article

A Partner to Weather All Storms Beecher Carlson’s Susan Garrard supported a client through a complex transaction involving the purchase of a lease interest in a portfolio of power projects from a bankrupt company. “A material chunk of the portfolio is in a part of the country seriously affected by the hurricanes this year,” explained… View Article

Dedicated to Creating Coverage Clients applaud Cristin Bullen for improving their environmental coverages and designing protection for singularly difficult risks. “Cristin was an invaluable resource in underwriting a custom and comprehensive PLL policy,” which covered a recent acquisition that involved spinning off a contaminated site to a third party, one client noted. The client needed… View Article

Nontraditional Insurance for Nontraditional Workers The U.S. Woman’s Chamber of Commerce was looking for health insurance and related education for traditionally uninsured parties, including part-time workers and small women-owned businesses, said Fred Karutz, a third-party consultant. Together, he and Jennifer Akhter developed solutions. “Jenn drove creation of the multichannel health care coverage and education campaign,”… View Article

Eagle-Eye View on Insurance It’s no surprise drones would eventually find their way into the entertainment business. “There’s this wave of drones,” said Lindsay Vetter, senior business affairs manager, VSA Partners Inc. “One of our productions decided to use footage from a drone, but I didn’t have the time to look it all over.” Vetter… View Article

The Right Words A great broker is not only well-versed in finding the right insurance but can also eloquently explain various coverages and solutions to clients outside the field — no easy task, to be sure. Such is the case of Kristina Marcigliano. “Kristina makes the complicated world of insurance easy to understand when she… View Article