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Senior Vice President
Marsh
Los Angeles

If there is one area of workers' compensation that has undergone a huge amount of change in the past few years, it's what's been happening with the California system now based on the law that came into effect two years ago.

The new law presents employers with significant chances to reduce their workers' comp losses if they take advantage of a variety of important initiatives.

Ann Stephenson is one of Marsh's key experts on California workers' comp and during the past year has been especially active with self-insureds and choosing third-party administrators to manage self-insurance programs.

With workers' comp, the focus isn't so much on insurance and brokerage as it can be on loss control, especially because so many clients have large retention plans.

"Ann has really helped us take advantage of the California law," said one risk manager for a large public-sector client.

Stephenson, who has been with Marsh for a dozen years, also did a stint with Gallagher Bassett, which has no doubt helped her advise clients on claims management and administration.

She's also an executive board member of the California Commission on Workers' Compensation that represents more than 250 businesses, large and small.

Managing Director
Aon
Chicago

If you want to land a major retail account these days, chances are you must have a workers' comp expert on your team. For Aon, that's Carol Murphy.

She's been part of teams that won a group of major new retail clients. In workers' comp, the issue often isn't premium--frequently, it's the collateral requirements imposed by an insurer on workers' comp losses.

With one client, a well-known retail discount chain that had about $200 million a year in annual workers' comp losses, Murphy negotiated a deal that required no up-front cash for collateral loss funding for the first year, a highly unusual and creative solution to a problem that almost all larger clients with workers' comp risk face.

That solution came alongside a 30 percent reduction in the workers' comp premium.

Murphy holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, and no doubt the financial analysis skills that she gained there have served her well with her client base in creating these new kinds of options.

She doesn't handle workers' comp risk only--currently, she's the casualty practice manager for the central region and frequently confronts liability, particularly product issues, for her retail clients in regard to the exposure for the loss of a supplier. She was a retail Power Broker^TM in 2006.

Managing Director
National Workers' Comp Practice Leader
Marsh
Boston

Mark Noonan may be the dean of workers' comp brokers, but his career began as a defense trial lawyer, experience that has probably served him well in a business that is often focused on changing regulation and law.

At the beginning of his career as a lawyer, he handled insured and self-insured workers' comp and general liability claims. Through the years he handled clients in the manufacturing, retail, high technology and healthcare markets, and he's come to understand the complexity of workers' compensation, made more so by its regulation in 50 different states.

"He's an invaluable resource," said one risk management client. "And there's not a lot he hasn't seen and solved."

Noonan doesn't have as much client contact these days, and he focuses on identifying important emerging trends that affect the insurance marketplace, along with training the Marsh's workers' comp staff that is spread throughout the United States.

He started his career in brokerage at Johnson & Higgins as the Global Practice Leader for Claims and stayed on at the company after it was acquired by Marsh. His current project has focused on developing a tool that look at a client's total cost of risk.

He's a regular speaker at industry meetings, including the National Workers' Compensation and Disability Conference.

Vice President
Marsh
Louisville, Ky.

Although Melissa Updike may be better known for her healthcare clients, those clients usually have significant and expensive workers' compensation risks.

As with most organizations that have large numbers of employees, an Updike client had a large deductible workers' comp policy.

By identifying with the client the source of the rising claims and costs, total claim counts dropped by 56 percent and indemnity claims dropped by 20 percent.

Specifically, Updike developed a program for all staff members that helped them to understand how the entire comp program worked and why their role was important.

A special focus of the program was put on risk managers at individual healthcare facilities. The objective was to help them expedite claims and get workers immediately back to work or on a modified duty program.

She also assisted in the development of a return-to-work program for the whole organization. While the initial reduction in claims is impressive, other components of the program continue to be measured, and it's expected to see increasingly lower costs.

Updike, a former healthcare risk manager, brings that valuable experience into play for her clients.

Vice President
UnionBanc Insurance Services
San Diego

In the workers' compensation market, risks tend to cluster in particular industries.

Hospitals and retailers tend to have ongoing, large workers' compensation loss-control programs. One of the toughest workers' compensation risks lies in the transportation and trucking markets.

That's where UnionBanc Insurance Services' John Hill made his mark. The San Diego-based broker was commended by a large transportation and trucking executive, who said Hill deserved recognition because of his superior client service.

For one client, Hill helped the company negotiate a policy with its carrier with no collateral requirements up front. The deal also included a significant retro payment. This happened because Hill was able to leverage the client's exceptionally low loss history based on very low claims.

Hill has worked for John Burnham Insurance, a division of UnionBanc Insurance Services, for the past 17 years and is currently the vice president of commercial insurance.

Hill is a graduate of the Aetna Insurance School and received his bachelor's degree in business management from San Diego State University.

Vice President
Marsh
Chicago

A workers' comp broker isn't really a broker--successful workers' comp brokers probably spend most of their time consulting on claims-handling and loss control. That's what can really help a client with a large workers' comp risk reduce the cost of risk.

In 2007, Srivatsan Sridharan developed a financial analysis product that looked at what factors created excessive costs and expenses in a workers' compensation program. The program identified why the problem happened, and, by inference, how it could be solved.

Now Marsh is marketing another program developed by Sridharan that compares the medical outcomes and claims management costs of different vendors to see where the greatest improvements to the system can be made based on an evaluation of the total cost of risk. It can be used to compare one vendor with another vendor.

Sridharan's job is to look for opportunities for Marsh to develop specific analytical products that can help clients improve their loss control programs. This client advisor in the National Workers' Compensation Practice in Chicago has only been with Marsh for four years.

He has a master's degree in engineering from the University of Michigan and was named the MVP of his class at The Hartford School of Insurance.