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Managing Director
Aon
Chicago

This managing director for Aon was able to take a client in 2007 somewhere they had never been before: into an airspace where more than four dozen management liability policies landed on the client's desk more than a month ahead of deadline.

That kind of thing had never happened to the client before. This was accomplished by strategic planning with the carriers, and some careful analysis and delicate amendments of the agreements prior to signing the contracts.

Adams is a second-generation American whose parents spoke broken English. As a result of her parents' language limitations, Adams was forced to solve many of her family's challenges on her own, which she said has enabled her to become much more of a problem-solver, a skill she said she brings to bear for her clients.

A DePaul University graduate, Adams started in the insurance industry as an administrative assistant as she worked her way through college.

After seven years as a vice president with Tri-City Brokerage, Adams has spent the last 13 years with Aon. In addition to being named a Risk & Insurance Power Broker^TM, Adams is a 2007 National Union Broker of the Year. She received the award from National Union president John Doyle in September.

Managing Principal
Integro
New York

As New York-based Integro, formed in the wake of the brokerage bid-rigging scandals of four years ago, moves to increase its involvement in various lines of coverage across the United States and abroad, Ed Nicholls is emerging as a key part of that strategy in the aviation field.

As well he should. He brings to Integro the benefits of 14 years' experience with Aon Aviation, an involvement which peaked with him holding the position of executive vice president. Before Aon, Nicholls was the chief operating officer for Frank B. Hall & Co., the insurance brokerage that Aon acquired in 1994 in a 1990s buying binge.

As Integro's point man on aviation, Nicholls has established practices in New York and London, focusing primarily on general aviation operations and aviation and aerospace manufacturers.

As a result, it's no surprise that the practice has grown from two clients to more than 50. Included in the stable are international airlines, flight training services, and passenger and cargo aviation consultants.

For his part, Nicholls said he has always encouraged forming direct relationships between aviation underwriters and clients, and insisted that that superior way of communicating has led to lower costs for clients.

Managing Director
Marsh
New York

As a former English major, Mary Ann Curnan started her adult life thinking lofty thoughts, but as an insurance broker her mind, and presumably her income, has really soared into orbit.

The managing director with Marsh specializes in an area of aviation that is well beyond the relatively rarified air that many aviation specialists reside in. She worked hard in 2007, finding coverage for satellite launch and in-orbit risk in 2007 as she struggled to convince carriers that her client deserved to be priced based on its risk profile rather than on market cycles.

By putting aside her own ego and admitting that the limits of her knowledge were quite earthbound, Curnan was able to put together a galaxy of Marsh colleagues from Bermuda, London, Luxembourg, New York and Paris who helped completely revamp the way her client viewed in-orbit risk.

The result was a solution that quantified acceptable levels of risk to be retained by the client, and the subsequent execution of a series of transactions that helped the client spin off the remaining risk.

Curnan, chairwoman of Marsh's global space practice, has been with the company for 33 years. A graduate of St. Francis College of Brooklyn, she also helps teach handicapped players tennis in her time off.

Senior Vice President
National Complex Casualty Practice
Aon
New York

In the aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the major U.S. airlines have needed heroes of their own to battle perceptions by credit officers and underwriters that the financial conditions of their companies are too perilous to bank on. At least one major U.S. airline has found such a hero this year in Stephen Hackenburg.

With an exhaustive attention to research and detail, Hackenburg mined insurance company filings on behalf of his client to overcome underwriting challenges resulting from state-specific regulation.

The result was that Hackenburg was able to assist an airline company that was in major turn-around mode by providing a low-cost program at renewal time. That program provided collateral relief that freed up assets to support the client's goals of increased working capital and debt reduction, as well as funding pension and other post-retirement benefits.

"If he didn't know our expectations, he asked and probed and made sure he was doing what we wanted him to and that we had the right message for our underwriters," said the insurance buyer for that major airline. "He gave us feedback on what to expect in the conversation and what the market was yielding. I think he did a great job."

His role in the National Complex Casualty Practice also makes Hackenburg's expertise invaluable to clients in other industries, such as hospitality.