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Assistant Vice President
Marsh, Charlotte, N.C.

Covering the Full Portfolio

Tim Fischer, assistant vice president for Marsh in Charlotte, N.C., is too young to remember the oil embargoes of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but he has earned recognition through efforts to avert future energy crises.

"Tim did a great job developing a master wind-energy construction and operational property insurance program with very broad terms at competitive pricing," said the manager of insurance at a major power company. "The master program enabled reliable premium forecasting and known terms for new project due diligence and short-fuse deals."

In another situation, when a client jumped into the concentrated solar-energy market, Fischer was able to use his wind master program as a template to create a similar program for the solar-energy portfolio. The client called the program "highly efficient."

Fischer gains accolades for having spent numerous hours reviewing and ensuring insurance market compliance for several deals with "onerous" insurance requirements. "Tim's responsiveness, attention to detail and creativity have been very beneficial to our green-energy portfolios," one risk manager said.

For all the kudos in structuring coverage for emerging technology projects, a large portion of Fischer's portfolio is relatively old-school: looking for coverage for nuclear energy producers.

He is credited with helping clients secure coverage for new reactor construction, which remains a challenge despite the renewed enthusiasm for nuclear power.

Vice President
Beecher Carlson, Eugene, Ore.

Broker Breaks Ground in Green Energy

New is good, new is exciting, new is a clean slate, which makes underwriters nervous. Carriers want tried and true. The longer the track record, the better. So, while utilities and government officials and many private citizens are thrilled about the rapid growth of wind and solar and geothermal power, the vast arrays of panels and towing huge turbines over highways and water make underwriters uneasy.

The technology is all new, and is on a scale never attempted before. Most of the projects are financed with government-guaranteed loans, and some carriers feel more exposed than a rock ledge in the flat expanses of North Dakota.

Enter Erin Lynch. In one multibillion-dollar, high-profile solar plan, she found that even underwriters familiar with the green energy field were reticent to step into the glare of the sun. Existing programs and policies simply did not address underwriters' need for warranty of equipment coverage. "This was at the forefront of development for green power and for insurance," one client said. "There was very little ingenuity and a lot of resistance in the market. Many people encourage green energy, but few actively support it."

Lynch picked up the phone, then picked up her manuscript pen, and soon came the answer. She made a case for an international syndicate to underwrite a wholly original program that would enable to entire project to move ahead.

Lynch's work broke ground in creating innovative and effective coverage in green energy.

Senior Vice President
Aon, Cincinnati

Marathon Man

In one four-month stretch last year, Mike Miller, senior vice president with Aon in the Cincinnati office, renewed more than 30 policies. A renewal in just four days is an accomplishment in itself, but to repeat that feat every four days, week in and week out, for 120 days is rare.

It is not as if Miller cloistered himself away somewhere, scribbling away on the renewals. That marathon streak was accomplished while maintaining "excellent day-to-day service, and providing the necessary support for the success of my internal risk-control team," one client said. Still, somewhere in there, Miller slashed the client's overall annual insurance costs by more than 25 percent. Many of the policies had to be cancelled and rewritten, excess towers restructured and retentions and limits benchmarked and realigned.

He also set himself and his clients in good stead with an industrywide benchmarking review, and he was able to realign limits and retentions for several clients as a result. In one case, he was able to reduce retentions by more than $1 million. In another, Miller coordinated placement of a complex builders' risk policy covering a transmission line. The coverage involved bringing in many partners and dealing with significant financial constraints.

Mike has demonstrated outstanding service and more importantly, the ability to execute and deliver," said one director of corporate insurance and enterprise risk management (ERM). "The achievements we were able to make with our insurance programs and the benefits we were able to capture in such a short time are remarkable."

Senior Vice President
Marsh, Portland, Ore.

The Beauty of Innovation

During a recession, it might seem that the main mission for brokers would be to drum on the carriers for lower premiums, insist on less restrictive terms and extract more favorable conditions on behalf of their clients.

Quite to the contrary, innovation and creative problem solving were clearly a theme in this year's testimonials. Even in lean times, holistic risk management remained a priority, and any costs savings at the expense of innovation were considered part of the problem rather than the ideal solution.

"My company had a huge problem driven by catastrophe loss peril, which caused us to lose two-thirds of our prior year's coverage limits and have the pleasure of paying four times the premium for reduced coverage last year," said one director of risk management.

The risk manager said going into the 2010-2011 renewal, Joseph Phillips was able to tap into the property reinsurance market, which was a brand new experience for that client, to come up with an insurance policy that to his knowledge had never been offered to a utility company. In this case, the coverage had never been offered because of the internal structure necessary to support it.

"Joe helped us to make use of an industry mutual company captive-cell arrangement to put this new insurance into," said the client. "Both efforts (tapping into the reinsurance market and the use of the mutual) enabled us to regain nearly all the lost capacity we once had. Joe helped us negotiate the many challenges," the client said.

Vice President
Marsh, Philadelphia

Breaking Ice Dams and Log Jams

When most risk managers encounter obstacles, they speak of roadblocks. One of Robert Sweeney's clients, the director of corporate risk and insurance for a national utility, speaks in terms of dams, ice dams, to be specific.

The operator owns hydroelectric plans in the northeast, and in previous years expansion projects have suffered losses as a result of ice dams. As a result, the utility found it difficult to get coverage for another dam project because of the ensuing claims. "It was a real challenge," the risk manager said. "Carriers were reluctant, but Bob was able to find new markets. He was able to demonstrate to those markets that the risks were controlled."

Ice and hydropower are well-known subjects, but Sweeney, a vice president in the Philadelphia office of Marsh, gets accolades for his facility with leading-edge risk as well.

"This is the age of renewable energy," another client said. "We have a waste-to-energy facility, and we wanted to add a windmill. Bob was able to secure for us builders' risk even though the underwriters for the existing facility were not familiar with that type of exposure. Bob was able to understand the risk, understand the market, and communicate the risk to the market in a way that made them comfortable. If it had not been for him that windmill would never have gone up."

Special missions like that do wonders for a broker's reputation, but it is also seamlessly executing the day-to-day business of insurance coverage that endears a broker to his clients.

Managing Director
Aon, Dallas

A Tough Veteran and Wise Innovator

Two different portraits emerged of Marshall Nadel in 2010: one was of a shrewd and savvy technical expert, and the other was almost Obi-Wan Kenobi-like, a man of surpassing integrity in tune with his clients and the rest of the power utilities coverage universe.

One client cited both the trust that he put in Nadel, but even more so, Nadel's "ability to trust."

The director of asset management for another client cited the tough side of Nadel, a managing director working out of Aon's Dallas office. "He negotiated reduced premiums for enhanced policies," this year, and "worked through complex insurance transactions with suppliers and lenders to facilitate timely financing."

After a comprehensive review of corporate policies and a comprehensive gap analysis Nadel consolidated legacy coverage and then "brought innovative products to meet our business's needs," the asset management director said.

Being a shrewd veteran is not Nadel's only feature. He is also credited with being an innovator. In one case he was asked to develop a warranty program for a client's wind turbine generators as it changed suppliers and took on the responsibility of handling its own maintenance.

The client noted the effort was one of real risk management--taking on additional risks in return for significantly reduced premium, and balancing the operating and insurance costs versus the benefits.