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Category: Hospitality/Gaming

Broker Leads from the Trenches

Janice L. Schnabel participates in the Marsh mentoring program and lectures to students at the Cornell School for Hotel Management on the subject of risk management and insurance.

She's a member of the court appointed Special Advocates, speaking for children without a voice in the court system. As a cancer survivor, she is active in the local chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. She donates time and resources to the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Child Fund International and in 2006 adopted a foster child through the Children's Christian Fund that she continues to sponsor and actively correspond with.

In her work, Schnabel, based in Portland, Ore., is dedicated to a heavy travel regimen, traveling between 36 and 40 weeks a year, in order to maintain closer working relationships with her clients. And when we say close, we mean really close. For a hotel client that was struggling to control claims, she rolled up her sleeves and worked side by side with the company's housekeeping department, identifying ways to install best practices and improve morale. Schnabel has helped other clients run and critique fire drills and assisted with evacuations, all with the goal of making hotel guests and employees safer.
v "She's great," as another hotel client put it. "Nobody can even touch her."

Schnabel has really worked her way up the ladder in her career. She spent five years as a legal assistant, before moving on to become a health and safety director for a manufacturer. She spent six years as a risk manager for a hotel chain before her first insurance job with Wausau.

Managing Director, Midwest Manufacturing Leader
Marsh, Chicago

She Is a Champion of Change

The manufacturing sector in this country has undergone incredible transformation over the past 40 years, and Marsh's Chicago-based Managing Director Sara Sirotzky has kept up with every subtle and not-so-subtle change to provide her clients with the best possible service.

For example, in the workers' compensation arena, Sirotzky has developed a post-offer test that ensures new hires are slotted to jobs they are physically capable of handling. She also developed a unique understanding of the challenges of providing proper directors' and officers' (D&O) coverage for foreign subsidiaries of U.S. parent companies.

Her fierce client advocacy skills and determination have resulted in clients obtaining insurance settlements at times when it seemed the carrier held all the cards. It took six months in the case of a recent animal park incident to prove to the carrier that a contractor was responsible for the loss, whose carrier ultimately paid the claim.

"I feel that she is a champion for us," said an executive of one such client. "She frequently offers to harness the talents of others in the firm for our benefit."

If a client has losses not acknowledged by an insurer, she will investigate thoroughly even when the placement is completed by a different broker.

And in the case of cash flows that are transferred to a client's captive at what she considers too slow a pace, Sirotzky will be on the phone soon with the right contact to speed up the process, using her years of experience for the betterment of her client's bottom line.

Category: Global

Leading by Example with Integrity

Sara Sirotzky, a managing director and Midwest Manufacturing Practice Leader for Marsh, is the type of person who watches out for her clients, her company and the community.

She's the founder of Professionals in Transition, a nonprofit volunteer group that provides job referrals for executives in finance and human resources. She's very active in the Chicago community, serving on the board of the Chicago Network, with past experience in the Executive's Club of Chicago, the Joffrey Ballet and the Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital. She's also a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, the Chicago Financial Exchange, the International Women Forum and other organizations. Sirotzky has also taught, published articles and speaks on enterprise risk management and evolving risks.

People take different career paths to the top, and Sirotzky provides another type of model. She has spent her entire 40-year professional life with Marsh and has been named a top performer at the company for three years running.

"She clearly practices building strong relationships rather than being transaction oriented. I admire her honesty and integrity,'' one client said.

Sirotzky's work is also infused with a strong sense of ethics. If Sirotzky feels she's not the right person to be representing a particular client, she will request to be transferred away from the account. If she feels competitors are pricing a piece of business irresponsibly, she'll walk away from it.

Sirotzky holds an M.B.A. from Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of Management and an IIT Chicago Kent master's in financial markets and trading.

Senior Vice President
Willis, Chicago

The Epitome of Execution

While still in his 30s, United Kingdom native Max West has made quite a name for himself negotiating the stateside complexities of environmental liabilities for companies. One chemical company executive noted how West put the hours in with him even before negotiations started to be certain he grasped the different environmental issues that the more than 250 properties in question possessed.

"Max did a really good job of carrying our story to them so that we could get an indication of what could be insured and what could not," the executive said.

Valerie Baxa, vice president for a Chicago-based First Industrial Real Estate Trust, agreed that West is the one to turn to for environmental coverages, especially when they must be obtained yesterday. "I assume that is based on his strong rapport with both his clients and the underwriters," she said. "Max is epitome of execution. We have come to rely on him, and he has never missed the mark."

West's work was instrumental in a town in the Midwest being able to hold on to a crucial manufacturing facility. West, senior vice president with Willis, customized an environmental insurance package that would pay for cost overrruns above $4 million on environmental issues up to $8 million over the 10 years of the policy.

This enabled the town to save more than 1,500 jobs and be able to stay within its environmental remediation budget. West regularly educates colleagues and clients on new environmental issues and how insurance may address those issues.

Category: Environmental

A Leader in Making Others feel Secure

Max West took it upon himself to help secure the selection of Connersville, Ind., as the manufacturing location for the first automobile built specifically for use by police officers.

The proposed site had brownfield pollution issues and the city could not afford another penny of remediation costs. The umbrella policy created by West saved the day, as well as helping to keep 1,500 jobs in the state of Indiana. The policy capped the cost of remediation at $4 million and anything over that up to $8 million over the next 10 years would be covered by insurance.

West, based in Chicago, also acts as a go-between for companies seeking environmental remediation partners and regularly educates his colleagues and prospects on new developments in environmental risk issues. In addition, he's a board member of the Friends of the Chicago River, which is engaged in trying to clean up that high-profile waterway.

West appeared for three straight years on Willis' Exceptional Producer Council. The holder of a bachelor's degree with honors in environmental management from the Southampton Institute in England, West's academic background has dovetailed nicely with his professional career.

West began his insurance career as an environmental underwriter with AIG--now Chartis--and spent six years in the Marsh environmental practice before moving on to Willis in 2006. West's work experience has placed him on three continents, Europe, North America and Australia, but he proudly and humorously bills himself as "Max West--America's Guest."

One client, Valerie Baxa, president of First Industrial Real Estate, said of him: "Max is continually able to secure the best coverage, options and pricing for environmental insurance products.''