Newsletter Sign-up

Senior Vice President
ABD Insurance and Financial Services
San Francisco

Janice B. Kellogg knows Silicon Valley. With 30 years of experience providing program design for emerging technology companies, she knows how quickly a growing company's risk profile can change and how important it is to stay ahead of those changes. Clients respect her expertise in the technology industry and rely on her for problem-solving. "She's definitely one of the best in the technology industry," one technology risk manager says. "Jan is the best I've ever worked with."

Kellogg has been with the company since 1997, and the challenge is to stay one step ahead of her clients for which she develops solutions and designs enhancements to address their unique exposures.

Once a teacher, she brings an educator's perspective to insurance. She has helped technology professionals understand global corporate risks and their choices regarding insurance protection. Kellogg's experience goes back to the early days of Silicon Valley. She was previously a broker at Marx, Lewis & Ruth; a partner in Bruntz, Fenchel, Barry & Kellogg; a founder of Compro Insurance Services; and a broker at Minet Insurance Services. She wins praise for the customer-focused approach of her team. "They're good problem-solving business partners," the risk manager says. "They work with me to solve business problems, not just to write insurance."

Assistant Vice President
Aon
Denver

Clients expect Aon's John Paul Graziano to take the extra steps needed to address their needs. In just three years at the brokerage, Graziano has made his mark with technology clients as a go-to person in Aon's Denver office, someone who is able to solve thorny problems while focusing on service.

"He's bright. He's detail focused, big-picture focused," a technology risk manager says. "He's my day-to-day, go-to person."

Clients rely on Graziano to solve complex issues. In 2006, Graziano and his team were faced with revamping a client's excess executive liability coverage. He untangled a confusing knot of multiple policies for each excess layer, where there was no certainty about which carrier was the lead insurer. He reviewed the primary form and made recommendations for improving the contract. In the excess program, Graziano designated lead insurers for each layer so that there would be only one policy for each layer, rather than three or four as existed previously.

On top of all that, Graziano and his team were able to have policies issued within 75 days. In the past the client had gone nearly to the eve of the renewal date without having all policies issued.

"He's a rising star," the technology risk manager says. "He's one of the best people I've ever worked with."

Like many college graduates, John Paul Graziano had the ambition, talent and determination to make a name for himself in his first career. He came blazing out of Georgetown University's gates, his eyes on the finish line--Wall Street, where he landed a job at JP Morgan as an investment banking analyst in New York City. "It is a very demanding, aggressive and all-consuming type of employment," he says. "After two years of dedication, I personally felt that I had maximized my opportunities in investment banking and wanted to go in a different direction, something with more of a client focus, something that really enabled someone at a young age but with a developed skill set to really get in front of those CFOs and treasurers."

One career with this immediate access to senior management was insurance brokering. Aon was a logical choice because it had been one option for a college internship, and there was a "natural courtship" between him and leaders of the group, Graziano says. He had years ago established a relationship with them through his brother, Paul M. Graziano, a managing director in Aon's National Industry and Product Group. The financial services group out of Denver was J.P.'s starting point.

Graziano took to brokerage quickly and has enjoyed early success, but after four years he is still focused on constant self-improvement. "Insurance is not traditionally thought of as one of the more dynamic industries, but I think we all strive in our own way to make it more dynamic in terms of risk solutions," he says.

Managing Director
Marsh
San Jose, Calif.

Joshua Jiang has helped many Silicon Valley companies grow into technology leaders, along the way earning a reputation as one of the most knowledgeable and client-focused brokers in technology. "There's one broker who does it all," says a technology risk manager. "There's one who has impressed me very much in his ability to get things done, and that's Josh Jiang." Jiang helps to develop innovative programs for clients whose risk profiles are constantly changing due to organic growth, as well as mergers and acquisitions.

He has worked with clients during major acquisitions on due diligence, directors' and officers' issues, and integrating insurance programs. Jiang, who has served as a senior advisor for major Asian technology clients, helped one Asian client put in place a comprehensive enterprise risk management program.

A 2006 Power Broker^TM, Jiang started with Johnson & Higgins in Los Angeles before it was acquired by Marsh. He's developed innovative directors' and officers' programs that have saved clients millions of dollars, created a custom errors-and-omissions policy for a big software firm, and worked to lower business-interruption premiums by educating the markets about the exposures faced by software and Internet companies.

Clients appreciate his dedication to customer service. "On customer service, he's one of the best," the risk manager says.

National Practice Leader
CyberRisk Services
Arthur J. Gallagher
Chicago

Michael Lamprecht has built a reputation as one who delivers solutions tailored to the needs of rapidly changing technology companies. "He works 24 hours a day," one technology risk manager says. Lamprecht, who started with Gallagher in 1996 and wrote one of the first cyber risk policies, wins praise for his ability to start afresh when it comes to a client's insurance program.

"He says, 'Let's start out with a blank sheet of paper,' " the risk manager says. "He understands the forms. He understands the products very well, but he'll say, 'Let's see what the business objectives are.' "

A perennial top producer, Lamprecht starts with a comprehensive analysis to identify, quantify and transfer technology risks, and to obtain unique coverages that are tailored to a client's exposures. That kind of analysis has paid off for clients.

One risk manager says that Lamprecht, named a Power Broker^TM in 2006, went over a policy that had been in place for 20 years and identified dozens of changes that improved coverage. "His knowledge of the industry (risks) is superior to our own. When it comes to the exposures, he knows the industry better than we do," another risk manager says. "As far as professional liability, Lamprecht is the leader on the broker side."

Senior Vice President
Managing Director
Enterprise and Risk Finance Practice
Willis
Boston

While he built his brokerage experience in the energy sector, Steven Saporito has won accolades in the technology sphere for his approach to risk financing.

"In terms of creativity," one technology risk manager says of Saporito and his team, "and coming up with business and leading-edge solutions, they're really thought leaders."

In his current position, Saporito has led development of a process to quantify low-frequency, high-severity risks to enable clients to measure exposures that previously were difficult to assess because of inadequate historical data. These assessments allow risk managers to engage in much more objective assessment of risk-financing structures.

Saporito has 30 years of experience in the brokerage industry. He started out with Alexander & Alexander in Boston before becoming country manager for Saudi Arabia, where he focused on petrochemical risks. Later, he became an Asia regional manager before serving in the firm's Global Business Unit.

Saporito then jumped to Willis as a managing director, responsible for large retail account business development in Asia. He followed that with a stint at Richard Oliver International in London and as strategic relationship manager for Zurich Financial Services, before moving into his current position with Willis.

Principal
Integro
San Francisco

Exposures evolve rapidly in the technology space, and Ted Doolittle focused early on helping clients obtain technology errors-and-omissions and cyberliability coverage. This attention to client needs has won him high marks for his knowledge of the industry, customer service and creativity.

"They really met every expectation ... in terms of support, response time, documentation, getting us the best language in the policies to give us the best possible coverage," one technology risk manager says of Doolittle and his colleagues. "They blew everybody else away in terms of getting the best coverage for the best price." Doolittle offers clients not only expertise in technology errors and omissions, but also the perspective gained from having helped to tailor coverage to match high-tech company needs.

Before coming to Integro in 2005, Doolittle was at Carpenter Moore Insurance Services. During the technology boom years, he found the marketplace limited in terms of capacity and available policy forms to address technology errors-and-omissions coverage. That provided him with the opportunity to draft unique coverage for his clients. Clients appreciate not only his industry knowledge, but also his dedication to customer service. "You call them, and they call you back within 15 minutes," the risk manager says.