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Senior Vice President
Harden, Jacksonville, Fla.

Broker Helps Cure Hospital Property Exposures

After suffering through major hurricanes in the mid-2000s, Florida's nonprofit hospitals ran into a tough market for property insurance. State legislators delivered half the cure, a new law allowing hospitals to pool their insurance purchasing power. Mike Ammiano delivered the second half by spearheading the creation of a property insurance purchasing alliance that has saved member health systems hundreds of thousands of dollars, while enhancing coverage at the same time.

"Any dollars saved are significant in the world of healthcare," said Harvey Granger, senior vice president and general counsel for Baptist Health System, an alliance member in Jacksonville, Fla. "As a not-for-profit, it's not like money going into the pockets of the business executives or owners. It's dollars that we hold in trust for the benefit of the community."

In addition to delivering savings, Ammiano, senior vice president for Harden in Jacksonville, Fla., brings an understanding of his nonprofit clients' needs, Granger said.

For example, Ammiano went out of his way to commission a first-ever study looking at the effects of a serious hurricane on Jacksonville and on Baptist Health's flagship hospital, Granger said. "He knows our appetite for risk and, in that particular situation, has set up a program that appropriately covers us in case of that unlikely but catastrophic event," Granger said.

Ammiano's creativity appeals to another Florida hospital's insurance manager. "You can't turn your program upside down every year, that's for sure. But he just keeps us informed and helps us throughout the year."

Category: Real Estate

This Leader Goes Big and Small

Mike Ammiano, senior vice president with Harden in Jacksonville, Fla., likes to go big and small, and when he pauses to think about what he can do for others, he likes to think about what he can do for a multiplicity of clients.

Hence his creation of a purchasing alliance that allowed many hospitals with coastal windstorm exposures to combine their purchasing power. Sure enough, the health systems saved hundreds of thousands of premium dollars.

"He knows his clients. He knows the fiduciary responsibilities of not-for-profit hospitals to their communities so he's well aware of the responsibilities that we have to protect our assets against risks. He's very thorough in his analysis of what exactly we can do," said Harvey Granger, senior vice president and general counsel for Baptist Health System.

Ammiano likes to think small, too, which he does when it comes to mentoring and, boy, does he take his mentoring role seriously, so seriously, in fact, that his colleagues joke that he is the "Godfather of Insurance."

Ammiano reaches out to new hires in other locations to make sure that they get the assistance they need to thrive. Not only does Ammiano increase the education and competence of younger brokers, he also serves as a resource to brokers with 20 or more years of experience.

Ammiano is an active member of the Jacksonville community. He has been a mentor of disadvantaged youth, worked as a volunteer for the United Way and is currently on the Board of Multiple Sclerosis of North Florida.

Ammiano is a graduate of Leadership Jacksonville, a selective year-long program which brings youth and adult leadership together to analyze and solve areas of community concern.

Managing Director
Aon, Houston

Filling the Gap

For Fugro Inc. insurance administrator Karen Luke, having an insurance broker who can put into the clearest possible terms the risks a company faces is paramount for a successful business relationship.

Jim Aylsworth, managing director for Aon in Houston, meets that criteria. Indeed, he goes beyond it.

"His availability and response level for any question or problem is always immediate and thorough, usually giving examples for our project managers to better understand our coverages as it affects their current project or contract negotiation," Luke said.

Such professionalism has been critical for Luke and Fugro as the company's insurance needs have expanded. "His knowledge and service, along with his team's professional involvement make us very confident in making significant changes when required to best serve our needs," she said.

The departure of the chief executive officer who also served in the top risk management role for a terminal operator left a gap that Aylsworth filled more than adequately. "He works with equity partners on directors and officers' coverage, top management on enterprise risk management principles, and operations management regarding marine liability and other insurance placements," said a company official who assumed the role as Aylsworth's main contact.

The broker's discovery of a new catastrophe exposure resulted in coverage for that risk and at a lower cost for the overall policy.

Category: Marine

Leading Through His Intellect

Jim Aylsworth, managing director for Aon, is known as the "insurance professor" to his colleagues because of his depth of industry knowledge and his willingness to share it. And this is one professor who doesn't insist on tenure.

"Jim has been instrumental in knowing our business thoroughly and conveying our diverse operations to our underwriters,'' said Karen Luke, an insurance administrator of Fugro Inc. Aylsworth ¿ as most professors do ¿ has the requisite gravitas to be taken quite seriously. He's a past president of the Houston chapter of the CPCU and maintains an active role in that organization.

He has the knowledge to help not just colleagues but CEOs and corporate controllers, too. Clients like Aylsworth because he doesn't rest on his laurels. The only track record he cares about is the one he delivers to clients. His expertise wasn't gained overnight or "off the shelf." It came with hard work and more than 30 years in the business, and now, as one of the "wise men" in the segment, is happy to share it.

In addition to his business accomplishments, Aylsworth, professorial as ever, has taken on the management of Aon's Early Career Development Program, which trains and mentors Aon's new hires out of college. He meets with new hires weekly to encourage them and to boost their knowledge and development.

Aylsworth, based in Houston, also has championed a program for development and promotion of minorities into senior management at Aon.

In addition to his corporate mentoring work, he's also active in the nonprofit volunteer community in Houston and is a director of the Rotary Club of Houston.

Executive Vice President
Lockton, Los Angeles

Doing What's Right to Reshape Coverage

Teena Hostovich provides A to Z service to her higher education clients, saving them millions of dollars by reshaping their property/casualty coverages and benefits programs.

Hostovich has saved clients $2 million annually on average--or 30 percent to 70 percent each--by moving them into loss-sensitive workers' compensation programs and helping them take greater control of their claims-handling.

On the benefits side, Hostovich has helped clients slash up to $1 million in annual employee benefits costs through wellness programs and resources.

She also developed a risk financing evaluation process and manuscripted a policy form that protects clients from catastrophic earthquake and flood losses--at a 25 percent to 65 percent cost savings per client.

Hostovich also has developed cyberrisk solutions and established a consortium of schools that share best practices on risk management and benefits issues.

Phillip Doolittle, COO at the University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif., noted that the university's risk financing approaches don't always generate the highest fees. Still, he said: "Teena provided professional counsel that resulted in the best long-term solution for the university."

Richard M. Haluschak, CFO at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., said Hostovich "knows a lot about the higher education world and is easily conversant about the challenges and strengths we as her client possess."

Category: Education

Broker Leads Through Extracurriculars

For Los Angeles-based Teena Hostovich, an executive vice president with Lockton, there's curricular, there's extracurricular and then there's extra extracurricular.

First, the curricular part of her life: her day job. For her employer, she's built a higher education practice practically from scratch. Like all good brokers, though, she prefers to let the numbers do the talking.

On the income side, she's likely brought in millions of dollars for her employer. On the expense side, she's saved clients tens of thousands of dollars.

Client Phillip Doolittle, executive vice president and chief operating officer at the University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif., said: "Teena is a good listener. She really pays attention. She waits until she truly understands an issue or topic before she expresses an opinion or provides a recommendation."

Second, the extracurricular part of her life. For that, she uses her talents to educate students at the University of California's Marshall School of Business, where she holds popular workshops. Acting on her passion for helping women find fulfillment in the workplace, she has made a name for herself in Southern California insurance circles, particularly among young women, many of whom mentored by her and now in senior positions in the insurance industry.

Third, the extra extracurricular part of her life refers to her work on the board of Opportunity International, which is dedicated to the elimination of global poverty through microfinance, and to her work with disadvantaged young women, children, and families.

She also brings music programs into inner-city schools and serves on the board of the L.A. Philharmonic Association, as well as on an advisory group of the Friends of California Institute of the Arts.

Senior Vice President
Marsh, Boston

Enlightening the Life Sciences

When a new client, a life sciences technology manufacturer, had an extraordinarily complex insurance program that had 31 policies, redundant coverage, gaps and unorthodox limits, Ty Howe and his Marsh team went into action.

Senior Vice President Howe and the team, reduced the client's policy count from 31 to 18, added three new policies to cover uninsured risks and saved the client nearly 30 percent on its multi-million dollar premiums.

Kristie Bolieau, vice president of finance and accounting at GTC Biotherapeutics Inc. in Framingham, Mass., who has been working with Howe since 2005, said she and GTC received an immediate positive experience relative to risk and risk financing from Howe's work.

"Right from the start, Ty has done a lot of outstanding things for us in areas such as premium savings and explaining some issues we were not aware of before we worked with Marsh," said Bolieau.

Howe and his team have been especially helpful on the D&O front. "He has tremendous knowledge of pharmaceutical and life sciences, and has done a great job of aligning our needs with the specific risks we face, and helping us when going out to the market," she said.

For another client, Howe was able to convince a directors' and officers' (D&O) carrier to extend coverage for a life sciences consultant who had come to rely on outsourcing the specialized work.

Howe is the clinical research organization practice leader for Marsh USA.

Category: Pharmaceuticals

A Leader in Value and Service

Ty Howe, senior vice president for Marsh USA in Boston, is the clinical research organization practice leader for the firm and supports other Marsh offices around the country.

In fact, in 2010, he helped colleagues in Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Charlotte in their efforts to provide great service.

"Ty Howe's deep knowledge and understanding of the CRO (chief risk officer) space has added significant value to my CRO clients,'' said colleague Mary Riley, a Marsh senior vice president and client executive.

Thanks to his work, Marsh has landed several new clinical research organizations as clients and has helped clients better manage their risks. For one client, for example, he's helped cut the number of policies from 31 to 18, saving the client nearly 30 percent at renewals.

Howe could sit back, of course, and be a "super specialist" focusing only on the improving his clients' pharmaceutical coverage. But that's not really what drives Howe.

He's thinks more broadly, and so the question for him is how to exert a broader stamp, the Howe imprimatur, if you will, on the firm and within the rest of the industry. As it turns out, he found the perfect segue.

Howe's became a trustee of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute, which conducts research to identify the causes of cancer, degenerative diseases, and muscle diseases. The institute has licensed technology for Alzheimer's and cancer research to pharmaceutical companies to aid in their drug development efforts.

In addition, Howe has recruited student researchers to participate in a summer internship program at the institute so that they can get a taste of scientific research.

National Managing Director, Professional Risks
Aon, Chicago

A Loss Load Innovator

Kevin P. Kalinich is known for his ability to come up with solutions to exceptionally difficult problems.

"Kevin helped us figure out a way of doing something we didn't think we would be able to do," said Alyce Moore, general counsel for Kronos Inc., a Chelmsford, Mass. workforce management software company. "He went way above the call of duty."

Moore noted she also appreciated Kalinich's work ethic.

"I get in the office at 7:30 a.m., and even though he's an hour behind me, I can always find him at his desk if he's not traveling," she said. "He works long hours at the end of the day also. You can tell he loves his work."

With nonrenewal and no alternatives a real possibility for a number of his clients in the past year, Kalinich, national managing director with Aon in Chicago, dug into his background as a technology attorney to craft custom-made solutions in each case. Developing solutions required leveraging long-term insurance carrier relationships and negotiations in Germany, London, France and United States.

In the case of a program limits loss scenario, seven of the 14 carriers nonrenewed the program, but Kalinich was able to retain seven of the 13 layers by negotiating a "loss load" factor, in which the retained carriers agreed that they would be repaid a percentage of any claim payment for a specific case.

"Kevin is very thorough, very efficient, very effective," another client said.

Category: Telecommunications

Taking the Lead in Law and Technology

Aon's Kevin P. Kalinich, a lawyer by training and with substantive experience in the technology and telecommunications sector, is educating the insurance industry on the risks of aggregation or outsourcing of sensitive, confidential, or proprietary data; the dependence on electronic processes or information; the publication of electronic content; and the use of social media and mobile communications.

"He really understands our business as well as insurance and risk management. He immediately thinks of what's best for my business," one client said.

He gives back in spades to the professional community, reading, listening and learning, and spending countless hours with university professors, software developers and technology attorneys. Kalinich lectures at top law schools and around the country at technology seminars sponsored by some of the most important and influential tech companies.

Kalanich is one of the more bookish brokers that you will find. He graduated cum laude from Yale University with a degree in applied mathematics in 1984, and followed that with a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1987. In his graduate work in law, Kalinich was the recipient of the Michigan Law School Book Award for outstanding legal research.

Before his 10-year stint with Aon, Kalinich, based in Chicago, spent a year as the CEO of Altima Technologies Inc. and several years as a partner in the technology group at Chapman and Cutler Law Firm.

He's a member of the Aon Excellence Roundtable for outstanding achievement.

Managing Director
Marsh, Louisville, Ky.

Adding Value to the Menu

John Logan is no stranger to getting things done with insurance placements for his restaurant clientele. For the first time in five years he helped a major Southwest chain market its insurance program, saving it hundreds of thousands while also landing increased sublimits and enhancements.

But to get a better sense for what this Marsh managing director can offer, look beyond the numbers at strategic initiatives. For instance, this aforementioned client held a two-day retreat for his risk management staff and Logan's team. What they devised was what the client called a "Vision 2013" document, a breakdown of their current risk management program and how it could go "world-class" in three years.

"Is this adding value or not?" the client exclaimed.

It's this added value that explains why at least two other clients left their incumbent brokers for Logan at Marsh. Of course, it wasn't just Logan that brought them to Marsh, but consider the words of a claims director at one of the largest fast-food chains. He related that he was impressed with how Logan and team handled the RFP process this past year, coming up with specifics for how they could help. One proposals became reality: Logan helped them apply Marsh's proprietary VCORE analysis to choose a new TPA.

"I was pretty amazed at the results it yielded," the client said.

For the other restaurant client, he's helping her completely restructure her risk management department, with one of the end goals being getting more value out of Marsh.

Category: Hospitality/Gaming

A Broker who Leads With Numbers

John Logan, managing director with Marsh in Louisville, Ky., isn't above doing the grunt work and going whole-hog into the ins and outs of the restaurant business to find out how the sausage is really made. For that, he will forever earn the respect of clients, colleagues and competitors. Most of all, though, Logan lets the numbers do the talking, whether it's the 13 percent decline in third-party administrators (TPA) rates, the 9.1 percent drop in casualty rates, or the 5 percent slice off the previous year's property rates.

In short, Logan's the type of broker who loves to eat--eat costs, that is--for breakfast, lunch and dinner, much to the delight of clients.

Louisville's Marsh office is small but mighty in impact on humanitarian causes. Logan and his Marsh colleagues partnered with Texas Roadhouse on a large-scale humanitarian effort, sending care packages to members of the armed forces throughout the world.

Logan and his colleagues drove trucks and loaded, hauled and then unloaded more than 10,000 boxes of goods at a warehouse in New Jersey to pull off the project.

As a result of Marsh's efforts, Texas Roadhouse bestowed its "Corporate Humanitarian Award" on Marsh. Logan accepted the award on behalf of the firm.

Not one to dominate the limelight, Logan mentioned the names of 20 Marsh colleagues who had assisted him in this effort in his Responsibility Leader® application.

"We could not have pulled off what we wanted to pull off without Marsh," said Patrick Sterling, director of risk and people administration at Texas Roadhouse.

Vice President, Director of Business Development
DeWitt Stern, New York

A Broker Who is an Art Wizard

To her most recent client, Mary Pontillo is known as a first-rate educator as well as an excellent broker.

"She is excellent at educating her clients, from seminars for groups of dealers and museum clients right down to presentations at individual galleries and museums," said Robin Roche, director of Gerald Peters Gallery in New York. "She went to our locations in New York and Santa Fe, N.M., to make individualized presentations. She demystifies the fine arts process."

Added Amy Hau, administrative director at the Isamu Noguchi Foundation: "The series of conversations she holds at DeWitt Stern are excellent. She keeps us informed of all the latest developments in our field."

Pontillo, vice president and director of business development for DeWitt Stern in New York, is known for keeping her clients up to speed on a range of relevant subjects. "She was the first to make me aware that the Transportation Security Administration was making changes in how art is transported on passenger planes, obviously a matter of great importance to us."

Pontillo has a reputation for having a great passion for art and bringing innovative, out-of-the-box thinking to the field.

Ellen Holdorf, registrar of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, said of Pontillo: "She's a whiz. She's extremely knowledgeable and incredibly quick witted. Her response time is very fast. At 10 p.m. the other night I sent her a question about a certificate of insurance, and there was an answer waiting for me the next morning."

Category: Fine Arts

Leading Through Fine Arts Education

For the past four years, Pontillo has coordinated a backpack and school supplies drive for Sanctuary for Families, a battered women's shelter. Her firm donated 35 packs filled with supplies thanks to the National Association of Insurance Women NYC, DeWitt Stern colleagues, and other insurance professionals.

In addition, she introduced three Sanctuary for Families' mothers to DeWitt Stern and they became the beneficiaries of DeWitt's annual Thanksgiving food drive. Pontillo also coordinated a gift drive during the holidays for Sanctuary for Families' children.

Pontillo, based in New York, participated as a walker for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer three times, volunteered for God's Love We Deliver's kitchen, and served as vice chairwoman for Fountain Gallery's annual benefit.

Pontillo provides yet another example of a professional who established expertise in a given discipline and then ended up marrying that expertise to a career in insurance. "She is an excellent educator. Changes in regulatory matters and keeping the client abreast of changes in their field, that's something she's very good at,'' a client said.

Pontillo earned a bachelor's degree in studio art from James Madison University and a master of arts in art history from the same institution. She holds an appraisal certificate from New York University and is a candidate there for a certificate in art business.

Before joining DeWitt Stern in 2006 as a vice president and director of business development, Pontillo worked as an underwriter at Huntington T. Block/Aon from 2002 to 2006.

Managing Director, Hospitality/Gaming Practice Leader
Marsh, Portland, Ore.

Talking and Walking the Talk Time and Again

For having such a high-fallutin' title as managing director and global hospitality and gaming practice leader for Marsh, Janice L. Schnabel really can relate to any worker in the business, from the housekeeper to the corporate risk manager. After all, Schnabel used to be a risk manager for hotel chains.

"She can talk the talk," said one loss prevention manager at an international firm.

That she can relate comes through particularly when she's running safety training sessions for supervisors and managers. The goal is to change the safety culture at a hospitality or gaming company. But attendees don't even know they're in a boring, mandatory meeting, Schnabel is so good at entertaining and informing.

One gaming risk manager related how he's gotten attendee comments ranging from "incredible teaching session" to "usually people pay for that show."

But instilling a culture of safety is more than just doing standup. When Schnabel tailors a risk management program for a client's entire portfolio of properties, as she did for at least one client in 2010, Schnabel "gives a comfort level" for insurers, as the risk manager put it.

He's leaned on her in the past year in particular for a number of OSHA complaints. His larger goal is to avoid such problems in the future, and to do so, he's enlisted Schnabel as a consultant to help draft a proprietary inspection manual to help property managers and supervisors learn as many as 250 OSHA items they need to watch for.

"I think it'll have great success," he said.