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Managing Director, Automotive Industry Practice Leader
Marsh, Detroit

Wise Woman Behind the Wheel

Meredith Elvidge, managing director and automotive industry practice leader for Marsh in Detroit, occupies an envious position in the commercial insurance brokerage industry.

She's no longer a broker in the traditional sense, as she no longer places coverage. The day-to-day hunt for capacity and "boots on the ground" legwork is left to others, like Marsh's John Finley and Mike Bauer.

After working in the industry for 31 years, 28 of them at Marsh, Elvidge has been kicked upstairs.

For Elvidge, brokering is more about scoping out market trends and using her contacts and knowledge to find ways to help the auto industry renew itself following three of the toughest years it has ever faced.

Elvidge works with institutions like the North American Vehicular Supply Chain Institute and Marsh's supply chain practice to help automotive suppliers get easier access to capital and find ways to quantify supply chain disruption costs. Identifying supply chain bottlenecks, for example, helps automotive suppliers receive more favorable terms from lenders.

In addition to contributing to the economic stability of Midwest suppliers, Elvidge has helped several startup electric-vehicle manufacturers refine their insurance programs and provide risk management support, product risk assessment and compliance reviews through Marsh Risk Consulting.

"She brings resources and ideas and alternative methods and strategies for us to consider as the automotive practice leader," said a risk manager for one of world's largest automakers.

Senior Vice President
Marsh, Los Angeles

Kicking Performance Into a Higher Gear

When Chris Hoshimiya, a senior vice president in Los Angeles, left a competitor three years ago for Marsh, it was only a matter of when Hoshimiya's clients would follow.

Now the industry knows. It took Hoshimiya less than three years to have three accounts follow him. In 2010, he managed to win over a major Japanese auto client that had been with his former employer for more than 20 years.

Gaining those clients speaks for itself, said Dan Sandru, risk manager at Avago Technologies Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based manufacturer of semiconductor equipment used in cars.

"A lot of brokers work with a wink and a nod with insurance companies, and they go out and have drinks with the underwriter," Sandru said. "They tell the customer a story and then the insurance company another story. Not Chris. He's a straight shooter, and he's very honest. He doesn't 'broker' you when he talks to the client."

As a member of the Marsh Japan Client Services team, Hoshimiya leads and participates in the negotiations with Japanese insurers on behalf of clients. The charge is important given the deregulation of the insurance industry in Japan.

With more than 33 years of experience in the industry, Hoshimiya has no time to be "kicked upstairs" to the managing director level.

"He leaves no stone unturned, and if you're willing to learn, he's more than willing to teach," said the U.S.-based risk manager of a large Japanese automaker. "He's not one of those 'secret society' types, who feels he needs to keep information away from the client."

Managing Director
Marsh, Detroit

Broker Hovers Above the Realm of Placement

When a company makes millions of cars every year, there are dozens of insurance programs involved. What automotive risk managers look for, then, are brokers who know how to manage the dozens of other brokers placing the different programs. That's Marsh's Detroit-based managing director Michael F. Kowalski.

"Our renewals have been very good this year," said the risk manager for one of the Big Three U.S. automakers. "He was able to put together a team that was very responsive to us. He kept the team on track. He knew want needed to be done, and where to go and who to go to to get it done."

The past 12 months have not been easy for Kowalski or his auto industry clients. One of his clients kept getting its bankruptcy emergence date moved up, and as a result the due dates of the new insurance coverages kept shifting.

"It was absolutely nuts," one of its risk managers recalled.

Still, directors' and officers' renewals were down about 20 percent this year, the risk manager said, and property renewals were down 8 percent. The market helped, of course, but so did a certain Michael Kowalski.

Risk managers also point to Kowalski's ability to line up his firm's enormous resources first, and then setting up fee discussions.

"He's all about getting the job done first instead of haggling over price," the risk manager said. "He's really an excellent client executive."

Executive Managing Director
Beecher Carlson, New York

The GM of Auto Brokers

Gregory K. Myers, the New York-based managing director for Beecher Carlson, completed two major goals in 2010.

He brokered the product liability risk program for an original equipment manufacturer to the automotive industry by using aggregate attachment points. And he helped a different client form a District of Columbia-based captive in which the automaker could place its benefits risks.

That's just what Myers has done for clients lately.

More noteworthy, perhaps, are the results starting to come through for the ZOOM program implemented two years ago by Nissan. The program, which combines analytics and integrated brokerage services to cut workers' compensation costs, has chopped collateral by $5 million and decreased reserves outstanding by $2 million. The number of lost-work days has dropped, and claims per 100 employees went down as well.

All of this means the amount of premium Nissan allocates to its reinsurer, Nissan Global Reinsurance, have decreased even as the captive, which sells service contracts for cars and reinsures Nissan's risks, has taken on more risk.

"He's a very dedicated individual who's really given us a great deal of his time on those two projects this year, and his team supports us," said Larry Weissman, the corporate insurance manager of Nissan North America.

Myers possesses more than 31 years of experience in the actuarial, consulting and brokerage fields and a depth of knowledge that few automotive insurance brokers can match.

Managing Director, Automotive Practice Leader
Aon, Southfield, Mich.

Broker Revs up for a Rare Opportunity

It's a rare--and welcome--development when an insurance broker has the opportunity to structure an insurance program for a startup auto manufacturer based in the United States. That's why the new company, V-Vehicle Co., needed an experienced team led by a veteran like Mike Stankard, managing director at Aon.

"Mike and his team on the automotive side and some of the automotive actuarial folks at Aon, along with their knowledge of captive insurance structures, caught our eye as the best fit," said Eric Carnell, general counsel of V-Vehicle Co. "It was the right decision at the time, and it's still the right decision."

Stankard and his team advised V-Vehicle managers on fire prevention strategies for a new factory. He also advised the company on how to place a directors' and officers' program to allow V-Vehicle to recruit new directors to its board.

The broker also helped his new client forecast the cost of risk management and insurance programs for various production levels and developed a liability program for future automobile products. A captive has also been structured to protect the funds set aside to pay for future claims as well as warranty obligations.

"Given our new position in the marketplace, the folks on the selling side wanted to make sure we had sufficient cover to backstop us for product indemnity and the like," Carnell added.

"I wouldn't consider anyone else," said the risk manager for one of the Big Three.

Managing Director
Beecher Carlson, Atlanta

Dousing the Flames

Following several years of catastrophic fires, the Special Districts Association of Oregon was feeling the heat over the past few renewals. It was once again expecting a steep price increase in its property program in 2010.

The association uses Troisi to place reinsurance for two pools, a $13 billion fund for school and a $3 billion property placement for special services districts.

Both pools have important automobile liability components to them, which is why Troisi was involved. In the end, the association faced no price increase in their 2010 renewals.

"I don't know how he managed that," said Frank Stratton, insurance services program manager with the Special Districts Association.

"The market helped, but he also did a good job with putting together a lot of meetings among underwriters with the carriers and the reinsurers to make them understand that these were really fluke events beyond our control," he said.

For Ryder System Inc., the logistics and truck rental company, Troisi recommended an overhaul of the company's property program, at first leaving senior managers "skeptical," said Michael Lubben, Ryder's vice president of risk management.

Troisi insisted that he could deliver lower premiums, while keeping terms and conditions and the underwriter relationships in place. In the end, he did.

"The net result was a 40 percent savings in property premium," Lubben said.

Vice President
Marsh
Detroit