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Managing Director
National Complex Casualty Practice
Aon
New York

As a 2006 Power Broker^TM, Anthony DeFelice could have possibly won the award in more categories than Automotive. The same holds true for this year's competition. DeFelice continued to be a steady and exceptional broker for intricate casualty issues for clients in the automotive industry, and beyond.

And he continues to stand out. Here's proof: A director of insurance at an exceptionally large automaker was probably the most popular reference in any Power Broker^TM category, being named on at least four brokers applications. But when asked whom he recommended as a Power Broker^TM--without hearing the names of the four--the director recommended only one person from this list--DeFelice.

This same director had recommended DeFelice last year for the same reasons--"another excellent job" on their liability placement.

Another client, this one at one of the largest diagnostic labs in the country, is worth listening to on an explanation of DeFelice's varied success. "He does pricing better than anybody else we used," the risk manager says.

She continues praising DeFelice for his ability to bring people together--TPAs, insurers and other vendors--and pushing them to innovate. As for his creativity, she says, "We're used to him coming up with ideas."

And DeFelice has one trait that can do a broker good no matter what industry he works with--"huge integrity."

"They're aren't a lot of people out there like that," she says.

Managing Director
Aon
Southfield, Mich.

Carol Williams was a 2006 Power Broker^TM and has been a member of the Aon Excellence Round Table five of the past six years.

An expert in the automotive supplier industry, she has spent her entire career working with Fortune 500 accounts. She leads the relationship management teams at Aon Michigan, which handle all automotive accounts, such as Lear Corporation, Borg Warner, TI Automotive, Delphi, TRW and others.

In the past year, a large Tier-1 auto supplier wanted to broaden its current product liability program, hoping to obtain a form of "batch" coverage currently unavailable in the traditional form. Through extensive discussions with the client and by fine-tuning its needs and policy language and running various claim scenarios, Williams and her team worked with the global marketplace to develop and offer a restructured program.

She and her team also found an alternative for a Tier-1 supplier with significant operations in Europe. The goal: to bifurcate its global liability program, utilizing the German markets to provide broader coverage than the U.S. counterparts and to capitalize on a marketplace with a different view of products exposure.

On the new client front, Carol combined her and her team's Detroit-based automotive experience with local service for a U.K.-domiciled automotive client. By structuring this trans-Atlantic team, Williams was able to provide the best of Aon's brokerage resources to a client with significant operations in both the United Kingdom and the United States.

Senior Director
Aon
Southfield, Mich.

Joseph Callanan has 17 years experience brokering for Fortune 500 automotive accounts. You name the big American automaker, and he's at one time or another worked with them. So it's no surprise that in the past year he had the skills to develop and service complex risk financing programs for some of the industry's top OEMs.

The market for this segment was softening--if a company could differentiate itself as a good risk with an attractive loss history. Callanan helped his clients do just that, and score lower premiums and broader coverage.

Perhaps, however, his most singular achievement from last year was work he did for an insurance company subsidiary of a major automaker. As a consultant, Callanan helped them with a serious issue they confronted with the liability and physical damage cover for their dealer rental program. The insurance company had been provided this cover to the automaker's dealers on its own paper, for when the dealers loan out cars to customers when they, say, bring in their own car for repairs.

Last year, though, a certain regulatory issue arose, and the insurer was scrambling to find a fronting company to help them write the cover. Callanan raced to the scene, and helped them get "exactly what we wanted," says the client--an insurance company with capability to write in all 50 states, at about the same rates and terms.

"I would have nothing but praise for Joe and his team," the client says.

Senior Vice President
Marsh
Los Angeles

From her office in Los Angeles, Marshann G. Varley spreads the wealth of her knowledge about Detroit and Tokyo. Perhaps her talent is best described by a senior executive at a major automaker when he relates her impact on his program in only the one year she's worked on his account. Before her arrival, the executive was facing a tough choice between leaving Marsh for another brokerage house or changing Marsh account execs. He chose the latter, "the best decision" he could have made, he says.

"I couldn't be more in her court," he adds.

Her level of experience and knowledge allows him and his colleagues to feel "confident," and she proves them right by delivering "extremely good results" in adverse conditions. He is "tough" when it comes to expectations, he says, but he is nothing but astonished by how fast she picked up on his business. He especially appreciates her superior grasp of how insurance is done in Asia. "She uses that understanding to her advantage," he says.

A risk manager for another name-brand automaker appreciates her focused understanding of his organization.

"Her biggest asset is understanding our organization, understanding our values, our culture, what will work and what won't work," he says.

Varley also gets props from a risk manager at an American manufacturer for her industry involvement. She has helped him resurrect a risk management counsel of OEMs and suppliers, an idea that "had died on the vine" 10 years ago. "She's trying to actively expand risk management," he says.

Managing Director
Automotive Industry Practice Leader
Marsh Inc.
Detroit

A Power Broker^TM in this sector last year, Meredith Elvidge parlayed her 20 years of industry experience into another high-performance year in 2006, advancing in the bargain to Marsh's global managing director and automotive industry leader.

In 2006, two major operational changes for automotive companies were addressed by her practice. With an estimated 100 plant closings each month in North America, the practice organized client forums to delve into the workers' compensation and physical risks of plant closures and come up with proactive solutions.

The second challenge for Elvidge involved "lean" manufacturing, which has replaced mass production for almost half of all manufacturers. Lean concepts have provided significant financial benefits and helped companies become more competitive. Still, many times, the changes have hidden costs in the form of increased supply-chain interruption risk and increased workers' compensation costs.

Elvidge and her team reviewed the techniques and benefits of considering risks in the "leaned-out" supply chain and how to prevent, respond and recover from interruption events. In addition, they explained why workers' comp risks may increase as lean processes are implemented and what employers can do to reduce or manage these risks and the resulting costs.

In her tenure, Elvidge has serviced clients in everything from casualty brokering to automotive client account management roles. In 1999, she formed Marsh's automotive industry practice group to identify the crucial risk management issues challenging the automotive sector.