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Managing Director, Strategic Account Manager
Aon, Chicago

A Strong Right Arm

Tim Routhieaux knows the markets and he knows his clients.

One of his clients described him as his "right arm", saying that "it's not like he's working for Aon, he's working for me."

This client gave Routhieaux credit for his leadership skills, for being extremely organized and for being a strong client advocate.

"He's put together a very, very strong team," he said. "He is the best team leader I've had and I've had three different insurance brokers over the 20-year period I've been in the business," he said.

Another client gave him high marks for his responsiveness. "He is really good at getting back to me immediately," she said. "Tim was really in tune with the things I needed."

"Whenever I have questions, he's always there to answer them" she said. "He's there every step of the way."

In one case, he developed an account strategy for a retail client to drive down the total cost of risk across all lines of coverage while continuing to improve coverage terms and conditions and maintaining current deductible levels.

Given that the total cost of risk was reduced from $10.2 million in 2007 to $7.3 million in 2008, this goal was extraordinary.

But in 2009 Routhieaux and his team delivered savings of $1.3 million, about 17 percent compared with 2008.

Vice President, National Property Practice
Beecher Carlson, Atlanta

A Quick Study

At 28, Annie Fleming has already made quite an impression on her clients.

"She's an exceptional broker," one client said. "She could stand up to any seasoned, 20-plus year veteran and run circles around them--no question," this client said. "I've seen her do it."

This retail client gave Fleming high marks for her hard work and her grasp of the client's business. The client has a complex global program and Fleming has done an outstanding job of finding creative solutions to the various problems the company has faced.

"She's very smart, a really hard worker and she gets it. She understands the company," she says. "She's just magnificent at pulling together a professional underwriting package," she said.

One of the challenges the client faced over the last year was the acquisition of a European company. The challenge was to integrate this company into its global policy including expanding the program to 30 countries. Upon completion of an extensive risk assessment of the acquired company, it was discovered there was a deficiency in the California earthquake limit for the acquired company. Fleming immediately added the acquired company's California locations to the existing global placement and used a stock throughput policy to insure the stock at the warehouse and obtain a premium 75 percent below the market price.

Managing Principal
Integro, San Francisco

Diversification Expertise

Marc R. Kunney is not just a transactional broker, but a business partner, according to one of his retail clients, "He really gets it," this client said. "He understands the industry. He's observant. He learns his customer's business strategy and culture and risk appetite," she said, saying that he also excels at thinking strategically.

"He's someone who understands insurance and understands risk," she said. "He comes up with ideas that require work and research and that can lead to other solutions."

In particular, Kunney worked with the retailer's risk management team to find ways to generate savings. One of the key areas was in structuring the excess markets in non-traditional layers--optimizing coverage breadth and premium savings.

Working with a global team of insurance specialists, Kunney was able to restructure the retailer's excess program to introduce new insurance partners, diversify counter-party credit risk while maintaining the integrity of the company's casualty program.

He also helped the retailer to save money by eliminating costly facultative reinsurance structures on global insurance programs as well as identifying ways to reduce insurance company frictional costs.

"I would definitely say Marc is one of the best and brightest in the industry," this client said. In addition to his role as the head of Integro's San Francisco operations, Kunney was recently appointed to lead Integro's National Casualty Practice.

Senior Vice President
Marsh, Los Angeles

Speaking in Volumes

Dennis Donahue has delivered in a big way for clients over the last year.

"We had this huge debt approaching maturity and hadn't resolved it yet or found a replacement lender or come to agreement with the existing lender," said Rod Kazazi, director of operations for American Apparel. As a result, "the insurance market had a very hard time getting comfortable with our company," he said.

"That we were able to get renewals on all of our lines despite that fact speaks volumes for the work they (Donahue and his team) did with the insurance companies," he said.

Another client spoke about how she joined the company recently only to discover it was being overcharged by the existing broker. She went out to the market and asked for bids.

"We were shocked," she said. The quotes Donahue brought in forced the company to eventually switch all of its business to him.

As pleased as clients were with those accomplishments, they also praised him for his accessibility, his responsiveness, his professionalism and his expertise.

"When I call, he answers immediately, he answers his own phone and that's important to me," another client said.

"I don't have to leave messages over and over again. He's easy to talk with and he has just the right amount of interaction with the client."

Managing Director
Marsh, Chicago

Success in Excess

New risks have emerged in the last few years for pharmacies and other retailers as they have expanded their businesses to include healthcare clinical services inside their stores, at their patients' homes or through various on-site client locations.

Retailers are accustomed to the traditional types of liabilities for their sector--slips and falls and, for pharmacies, druggist liability. But with the expansion into the healthcare sector, these retailers were now facing medical malpractice liability as well, which was something entirely new for them.

Randy Tchon worked with medical professional liability experts on behalf of his clients to help identify the new exposures and integrate them into their existing insurance programs.

"Randy has developed a number of unique--even cutting edge--solutions," one client said. "He was right up in front offering unique, out-of-the-box solutions to some of the issues that we were running into," he said.

One of the key solutions to this emerging and expanding retail industry risk has been enhanced retailers' mono-line malpractice coverage with significant global market capacity and a manuscript form.

"Randy is one of the better excess brokers that I've dealt with," this client said.

Another client gave Tchon high marks for his negotiating ability, which resulted in enhanced coverage at improved pricing and for providing outstanding customer service.

Northeast Retail/Wholesale Industry Practice Leader
Marsh, Norwalk, Conn.

The Three R's

Mac Nadel has helped clients save money and obtain improved coverage from the insurance markets at a time when many underwriters had their worries about the retail sector.

In doing so, he's also won the confidence of clients--one of whom had enough trust in him to invite him in to present to the board of director's audit committee. This client pointed out this was no small thing as it was his own reputation that was on the line if anything had gone wrong.

"He is the best. I'm just telling you he gets it done," this client said. Plus, this client said, "He's a nice guy. He's a good guy and he just delivers and that's the kind of culture we have around here," the client said.

Nadel's accomplishments included upgrading the client's policy, migrating the client away from AIG and reducing costs.

Another client gave Nadel credit for helping the company to manage insurer concerns about collateral. "We've had to have several phone calls and he was involved in those discussions making sure it was resolved to our benefit."

"We're very happy with what he's been doing," he said.

In response to the difficult environment for retail clients this past year, Nadel also organized a symposium, "The 3R's--Retail, Risk Management, Recession" this past spring for clients and prospects.

Managing Director
Aon
New York

Managing Director
Aon
Cleveland

Managing Director
Marsh
San Francisco

Property Advisor
Marsh
Atlanta

Managing Director
Marsh
Chicago