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Managing Director
National Property Leader
Aon
New York

While telecommunications companies must manage a host of technology risks, they still share the more familiar exposures facing brick-and-mortar companies, such as property.

Al Tobin has won accolades in the telecommunications industry for handling these property exposures, along with praise from his other clients with similarly heavy property portfolios, such as hospitality clients and their hurricane-damaged properties.

"Al's at the top of his game," says one telecommunications risk manager. "We had a bit of a tough renewal, and Al was on the phone to me everyday. He pushed hard for what we wanted, and he got it."

Tobin started out as an underwriter with AIG at American International Underwriters before becoming a property broker at Alexander & Alexander. He later served as Northeast Regional Property Manager for Hobbs Group/Arkwright.

Since hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Tobin has been working for his hospitality industry clients to address the extensive pressure on capacity and limits available for windstorm coverage, as well as higher prices.

According to one vice president of risk management at a hospitality REIT, if he had to pick only one broker to work his account, it would be Tobin.

Managing Director
Financial Services Group
Aon
Philadelphia

With 21 years of experience in the directors' and officers' and professional liability spheres, John Connolly is recognized for his expertise in executive risk. Within the telecommunications industry, risk managers give Connolly and his team top marks for industry knowledge, creativity and customer service.

"They're very, very knowledgeable, very responsive," says one telecommunications risk manager, who describes himself as a very demanding client. That kind of reaction springs from Connolly's devotion to developing both industry and product expertise, as well as increasing specialization to meet rapidly changing customer needs.

Connolly comes by his expertise through years of insurance industry experience in Britain and the United States. He started out with Hogg Robinson Insurance Brokers in London before becoming a manager for executive risk for Chubb in London and Philadelphia. Over the last four years, Connolly has run the Philadelphia and Mid-Atlantic office for Aon Financial Services Group. In that time, the office has seen major growth in clients. Besides working with telecommunications clients, Connolly also has managed an increasing specialization in the pharmaceutical and life-sciences arena. That team is serving as a model for developing industry- and product-focused groups within the Aon Financial Services Group.

Area Senior Vice President
Technology Practice Director
Arthur J. Gallagher
San Francisco

Technology clients have not only come to expect results from Joseph B. Inge, they also like his approach to building relationships with customers and carriers.

"We're extremely pleased with the results," says a risk manager at a telecommunications equipment company. "They came on board as our broker a year ago, and the results we've achieved have been savings of almost seven figures. (They) increased our coverage and established better relationships with our carriers."

Inge works to build open and candid relationships with his clients that foster creative problem-solving between his team and its customers.

"They take a somewhat different approach. They try to establish a three-way partnership with the broker, the client and the insurance company," the risk manager says. "They've been a great success for us."

Clients have come to depend on the expertise of Inge and his team in understanding their risk exposures, but they also appreciate his candor.

"The great thing about Joe is that, if he doesn't have the answer, he finds someone to help within his company, or within the insurance industry in general," the risk manager says. "He's not afraid to say, 'I don't know,' which is refreshing."

Co-National Managing Director
Professional Risk Solutions
Aon
Chicago

With a background as the CEO of a network design software company, Kevin Kalinich knows the coverage needs of telecommunications companies.

"He's very, very good. He knows the issues and his background is in telecoms, so that helps," says one telecommunications risk manager.

As a broker, Kalinich has focused on taking a proactive approach to the new exposures being created in the telecommunications industry by the rapid convergence of voice, data and video through wired, wireless and Internet-based networks. While telecommunications companies are constantly developing new and innovative products and services, Kalinich has been able to keep ahead of his clients' coverage needs by putting his practical industry experience to work.

"(Kalinich) is very knowledgeable, very responsive," says a risk manager at a telecom equipment company, who adds that he had changed brokers several times in recent years. "To get a '10' from me is truly a '10.' " In addition to his experience at the software company, Kalinich also holds a law degree and spent 12 years as outside general counsel to technology and telecommunications organizations before coming to Aon six years ago.

It's not often that you find a man who, with little support from his peers, can take a leap of faith into a new career and not once turn back to look at the life he left behind.

Kevin Kalinich is one such man¿but, actually, he's taken a leap twice. The first occurred after he had been a partner in a law firm for 13 years, specializing in telecommunications and technology, and one of his biggest clients asked him to be CEO of a new software company. "That was my Internet dot-com, get-rich-quick scheme," he says.

The leap ended in a belly flop, but the negative experience prepared him for his next leap. Aon recruited Kalinich from the software company to kick off its telecommunications and technology group.

"Most people told me I was completely nuts to go from a partner in a law firm to go into insurance," Kalinich says. At first, he thought those people might be right. "We stumbled around for a year and a half before we started making an impact."

Six years later, Kalinich is thrilled he never turned back. New risks entered into the technology market just as he and the group came off its learning curve. The needs of the marketplace just so happened to align perfectly with his experience.

"We picked up one company after another after another, companies that Aon didn't have anything to do with before," he says. The companies included T-Mobile, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo! and Lycos, just to name a few. "Now we almost pick and choose which are the best opportunities," he adds.

The dot-com debacle made him better at "playing devil's advocate to calculate what can go wrong" and his legal background taught him to go over every client's contracts with a fine-tooth comb, an attention to detail that's helped him prevent gaps in coverage and demand better network-risk coverage from carriers. He's even hired four former attorneys for the group since its inception.

So, does Kalinich miss law? "Not for two minutes," he says.

Managing Director
Marsh
St. Louis

The telecommunications industry is rapidly changing, not only through the adoption and convergence of new technologies, but also with a raft of mergers and acquisitions that have significantly altered the competitive landscape.

Rick Mayfield has won praise for his ability to help clients keep track of and mitigate their rapidly evolving exposures, as well as his proactive approach to customer service.

"He's done a good job, coming in and attending to our needs," says one telecommunications risk manager. "Not only does he know the people within the firm, he also knows the people within the industry."

Mayfield focuses on helping clients work through the coverage issues that arise in a rapidly changing industry, including the need to combine a welter of insurance programs from acquired companies into one overall corporate program.

He also has helped clients to deal with rapidly changing loss profiles, identify and remedy inconsistencies in retention levels and limits of liability, and reconcile differing risk management philosophies.

Mayfield has assisted his clients in deciding whether to take higher retentions in order to reduce costs, and in developing a unified approach to solving legacy claims issues.

Executive Vice President
Lockton
Dallas

Developing coverage for telecommunications companies is about technology exposures, sure, but other areas also require attention, such as property--where companies may have huge investments subject to everyday risks, such as weather, and catastrophic exposures, such as hurricanes.

Lockton's Stephen Levene works to make sure that he and his team provide results-oriented consultative service in property and business interruption for his clients.

"Steve's a mover and a shaker, and they've done a good job," says one telecommunications risk manager.

Levene and his team have faced many challenges over the past year, but perhaps none more pressing than helping clients--in telecom, hospitality and elsewhere--deal with major property and business-interruption claims stemming from the widespread destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

On top of that, Levene has been focused on developing creative solutions and fostering relationships with insurance carriers that allow for the most competitive premium renewals possible after the hurricanes of 2005.

"He's aggressive," the risk manager says. "It's a smaller firm, and they're more competitive."