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Senior Account Executive
Academic Risk Resources & Insurance, Boston

Crafting a Masterpiece

It's one thing to be managing risk in a college setting. But it's quite a different animal to manage risk for a museum on a college campus. Whether it is implementing fine arts risk control recommendations from carriers or standing between the carrier and a museum after a major loss, Diane Gould has been there.

"I have always found Diane to be great," said the director of one college museum. "She is very realistic about the challenges we face being a museum in a college setting," this person went on to say.

Gould was presented with the challenge of reviewing and implementing 16 fine arts risk control recommendations from a carrier less than two months before renewal. She had 75 percent of them in place as of the end of 2009, and will have the remainder in place and paid for this year. Gould scores high on the responsiveness meter as well, according to another university museum administrator.

"She is very timely and responsive to an array of any questions we may ask regardless of whether or not we think it is part of our portfolio," the risk manager said.

"She is very open to any questions. If she doesn't know it, she'll get back to you. She'll do some research, or she'll get back to our insurer to make sure that the answers she has are correct."

Managing Director
Arthur J. Gallagher, Itasca, Ill.

Stepping up and Stepping In

Like his counterpart at Marsh, Jean Demchak, John McLaughlin is known throughout the higher education sector as a people connector and a bit of an educator himself.

Risk managers appreciate the fact that Gallagher has an area of expertise in education risk, but they particularly like the way McLaughlin, a regular speaker at university risk management conferences, uses those Gallagher resources, especially in negotiating with carriers on behalf of his clients.

"I know that there are others in the Gallagher firm that are charged with responsibility for relationships with various carriers, and John had the fortitude to collect those individuals in the firm and to make a very compelling argument for reconsideration of a claim," one university risk manager said. This risk manager had a sizable and complex claim turned down by a carrier. He said McLaughlin had the muscle and the expertise to open it back up again.

"If John doesn't step in, this doesn't happen," this risk manager said. McLaughlin can also turn on a dime to connect risk managers with one another, helping paper-weary risk managers avoid having to burn up precious brain cells in figuring out a solution to a problem that someone else might already have found.

"He is very cordial and reaches out to clients and says, 'So and so has a question. Can I direct him to you?' And then I chat with somebody who has already invented this particular wheel," the client said.

Managing Director, Global Education Practice Leader
Marsh, Hartford, Conn.

The Matriarch

There are those we honor for their consistent dedication to their industry niche and for their level of commitment to industry organizations and risk management problems not even on their books. One such broker is Jean Demchak, managing director at Marsh.

As the global leader of a Marsh higher education practice with more than 650 professionals, Demchak is looked on by some as a kind of fairy godmother of higher education risk management.

"No. 1 she is completely dedicated to the industry sector," said Gary Langsdale, the risk manager for Penn State University.

"She has a tremendous depth of knowledge, and I am sure it is broader than higher education. She just exudes that," Langsdale said.

Whether it be arranging coverage wraps for Penn State professors that do consulting work on the side or in her work as a board member for the University Risk Management and Insurance Association (URMIA), Demchak is pushing URMIA to better serve its members and leading risk managers toward ever more strategic thinking.

She is now focusing on developing risk strategies to hedge against credit issues, technological advances, changing student demographics and more regulatory scrutiny.

She also uses her knowledge to back up her people. "If I don't get an answer (from my broker), I know that I can go and ask her," is the way one university risk manager phrased it.

Managing Director
Marsh, Hartford
Category: Education

Beyond the Dictates of Necessity

Many great brokers apply their intellect and expertise when it's in their financial best interest to do so. They know from whence their bread is buttered.

But in her passion for the importance of providing superior risk management to this country's institutions of higher learning, Jean Demchak has gone well beyond what professional and financial necessity dictate.

Demchak cares enough to take the 30,000-foot view and apply her thinking to global emerging risk, such things as decreased financial resources, technological change, changing student demographics, and the increased regulatory scrutiny that are going to affect University's and their budgets.

A long-standing member of the University Risk Management Association's Affiliate Committee, Demchak took a position on URMIA's board this past September.

She has also leant her time and expertise to numerous URMIA presentations and white papers, including URMIA's total risk task force, co-authoring a white paper on the basic tenants of a cost-of-risk model for higher education and speaking at four regional seminars on the topic in 2009.

"A critical differentiator for my role within the education industry is the ability to focus full-time on the emerging and critical areas that challenge schools globally," said Demchak.

"She is completely dedicated to the industry sector," is how the risk manager at a well-known mid-Atlantic university described her.

She's also not just looking to line her pockets as expeditiously as possible by working in the insurance industry. She's truly looking at the future of higher education risk and what managing that risk will look like.

--By Dan Reynolds

Senior Vice President
Marsh, Syracuse, N.Y.

Meeting and Exceeding Expectations

As Marsh's education practice leader for the Northeast, Dan Mahle personally serves as the client executive on 11 higher education accounts and represents 30 other members of a workers' compensation trust in upstate New York.

What comes across when you talk to university risk managers about Mahle, a senior vice president, is the sheer breadth of his expertise, whether it be handling pollution legal liability coverage for a green-built data center, or even how he navigates the difficult arrangement of international fine arts coverage for major university museum exhibitions.

"I can't say enough good things about him. He is really, really effective and lives up to our expectations," said one university risk manager.

In our three key criteria, customer service, creativity and knowledge of the industry, Mahle excels, according to another university risk manager. That includes his ability to leverage the resources of Marsh, the large brokerage that he works for.

"I think Dan puts things in a good perspective of getting the specialty people in the firm and getting the university's cooperation and getting the right people to find the right solutions or the right recommendations," this risk manager said.

"We might not accept his recommendations," the client went on. "But I think one of his strengths there is looking at the customer's needs and understanding what resources are there to help the customer manage risk."

Executive Vice President, Regional Director
Willis, Charlotte, N.C.

Creating the Seamless Team

What does it say about a leader when the people who depend on his team for service say that it operates seamlessly? It says plenty. How important is it that something told to one team member is etched onto the tablet of another with no follow-up needed from the customer, and that the ladders of company hierarchy are nearly invisible from the client's perspective?

"I need to be able to give my information one time and know that it has been fully received everywhere it needs to go," is how one university risk manager served by Goode's team put it.

"I think they truly operate off of the same page and work very closely together, so that rather than have the resources of a single person, you have really got the mind-set and thoughts of three people, and I really think they bring their own strengths to the table," said another university risk manager.

"You don't see that distinction of who is in charge and who answered to who. It is, 'What can we do to help you?' They don't seem to be hung up on who is in charge. It's whoever you can get to help you out."

In addition to the aforementioned seamless customer service, Goode also led the development of Willis' Special Contingency Security Risk Management Program.

To date, more than 500,000 students are covered under the program, which is built to provide insurance protection against tragedies of Columbine High School or Virginia Tech proportions.

Senior Vice President
Willis, Charlotte, N.C.

Keeping the Fort

Sometimes the numbers don't tell you the whole story. Take what Mike Honeycutt and his team accomplished in the past year.

When one state educational system set out to consolidate its property program, Honeycutt and his team delivered, big time. They consolidated property coverage for nine educational institutions, increasing overall insured values by 80 percent to $4.5 billion from $2.5 billion, with average rate decreases for each individual institution of as much as 40 percent.

That was the easy part. They also had to take on an entrenched network of local agents and politicians who were screaming mad at them every step of the way.

"We had to fight a lot of local agents, and we had to fight a lot of local politicians," is how the involved risk manager put it. "Our board was under attack continually."

Picture Clint Eastwood gunning his way through a shantytown loaded with grizzled, antagonistic sharpshooters in "High Plains Drifter."

"It's really a level of professionalism that is really very rare in today's workplace," was the way another university risk manager described Honeycutt's work. "He is always available. He follows up very thoroughly and in a very detailed manner," she said.

Honeycutt and his team helped this risk manager improve data collection on about $9 billion worth of coastal-exposed property values.

"It has more accurately defined our exposure so that we have a better handle on how much we need to buy," she said.

Executive Director, Higher Education Practice
Arthur J. Gallagher
Glendale, Calif.

Executive Director, Higher Education Practice
Arthur J. Gallagher
South Burlington, Vt.

Division President
Arthur J. Gallagher
Quincy, Mass.

Senior Vice President
Marsh
Park Ridge, Ill.

Senior Vice President
Marsh
Detroit