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Senior Account Executive
Aon, Dallas

Master of the Art of Correctness and Correction

Most of the Power BrokerŪ stories have only good guys, people working together behind one enterprising and industrious leader to resolve an unusual situation. In this story the broker is still wearing the white hat and the star, but his honor is in helping the client correct an inequitable situation that he had inherited.

"I am a new insurance manager," said the client. "And Rob has been extremely helpful not just in helping me to get settled and explaining our program to me thoroughly, but also in helping with special projects."

For example, Battenfield, senior account executive with Aon Risk Solutions, was able to update the standards for procedure and indemnification involving downed wires and power restoration, the client said.

"In our case, I found that those documents were very much off the standards for the industry," the client said. "The program was woven very differently, and Rob was able to help me make the changes necessary to bring those documents back into industry standards."

Wind was also a complication for another client. The utility was developing a wind farm, which happened to be in the migration path of the critically endangered whooping crane. Fewer than 300 of the elegant birds are left, and protection is strict. The state wildlife commission had the ability to curtail power production if an endangered crane was even seen within a one-mile radius of a wind turbine. That created a potential exposure of $70 million without an obvious risk mitigation method.

Vice President
Marsh, Charlotte, N.C.

A Broker is as Good as Legal Tender

"My company has a delicate relationship with one of our carriers," said the risk management coordinator for one of Timothy K. Fischer's clients, "and Tim is always looking for ways to help tend that fragile situation."

Fischer, vice president for Marsh Inc. has been successful in getting this client's company talking with its carrier again.

"When one of our locations lost its facility form coverage, Tim was quick to work with his team and come up with a solution to solve our very urgent and serious problem."

Fisher is considered by this client to be the best nuclear broker around. But there's more in that Fischer helps solve other issues not related to nuclear power, even in matters of coverage that Marsh doesn't place for this client.

"For example, there were times when my casualty broker has been tied up when I was in a bind and Tim was there to save the day," the client said. "On more than one occasion he has been able to assist me with an insurance indication for a job my company is bidding."

Without Fisher, the company may have not made an accurate bid and could have lost a contract.

In another case, one of Fischer's clients was vexed by the expiration of manufacturer warranties on its large fleet of wind turbines. Given the short history of that technology, the client had little documented actuarial information to take to an underwriter. Fischer helped the client develop an insurance-based warranty that was presentable to the commercial market.

Brazil Power and Utilities Practice Leader
Marsh, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Broker Aims High, Plans Big

Architect Daniel Burnham's most famous quote is "Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir the blood. Make big plans. Aim high in work and hope."

It is in that spirit that a client of Paulo Mantovani, power and utilities practice leader with Marsh Corretora de Seguros, bid on a government project to supply energy through three wind farms even though it had no facilities in place to supply the power. It also lacked an insurance program to protect all its activities. Mantovani developed an integrated program that included the transportation, construction, testing, commissioning, operation and transportation of the turbine and the turbine facility.

"Paulo provided solutions that were comprehensive and very important in many different aspects," said the risk manager. "Process safety was one of them, assuring investors that the project would be well conducted and, simultaneously, reducing overall project costs."

The key was Mantovani's ability to combine several policies into one, and to generate an in-depth risk exposure analysis before the contractual stage.

"The goal was to have a better view of the critical points of the project, thus helping banks and investment funds have a more appropriate analysis regarding risks," the client said. "Besides that, it helped in the surety guarantees placement to secure the project life cycle."

Without the insurance it is impossible to borrow money.

"For the construction and operations stage an integrated risks program was developed and insured through tailor-made policies to guarantee the investors' needs and to mitigate the infrastructure risks," the risk manager said.

Managing Director
Marsh, Greenville, S.C.

Veteran Broker Provides Peace of Mind

Like Obiwan Kenobi referring to the Old Republic, the experience of Marsh Inc.'s Dan McGarvey stretches back long enough to when nuclear plants were being built in the U.S.

When construction began on plants this year, after a break of around three decades, all the parties involved were glad to have McGarvey's expertise on hand. "We are in the throes of trying to negotiate policy forms for things that have not been done in decades," said one client. "The world is a very different place than the last time anyone built a nuclear plant. There are new issues coming up all the time that just have to be worked through."

With as many as 11 professional designations to his name, McGarvey's knowledge and institutional memory is extremely helpful, "but so is his ability to do things that are outside the strict definition of his duties," this client said.

As if the brave new world inside the fence line and on the jobsite were not complicated enough, there are new suppliers to the nuclear energy industry, and new transportation companies moving new components.

"Dan's expertise in the nuclear industry is well known, so we came to him for suppliers and transporters policies," said the risk manager at another client. "He was very good at explaining all of the facets of the coverage to us, and to our counterparties, and also at explaining our business to the underwriters. We buy sleep insurance."

Senior Vice President
Marsh, Philadelphia

Broker Seals a Win with a Boom

John Shannon Moyer, senior vice president for Marsh Inc. in Philadelphia, sealed his ascension to the rankings this year with a boom. Literally. One client, for whom he handled the overall casualty coverage, was planning a major capital construction project that required demolition, including blasting under the piers of a highway bridge spanning a large river.

"Because of the nature of the project, the blasting part had to be done quickly," said the client's director of insurance.

"We had all the plans and engineering studies showing there would be no effects on the bridge, but the highway authority insisted that we have coverage and funds ready for any emergency repairs because the nearest other crossing was 30 miles away," the insurance director said.

Shannon found the coverage, reviewed the terms and conditions, and ensured that the premium was manageable. Did the coverage include temporary ferry service?

"I don't even want to think about it," said the insurance director. The project went off without a hitch, and there was no harm to the bridge. Moyer's extensive work on behalf of his nuclear-power clients seems almost mundane by comparison. In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, many nuclear utilities in the U.S. faced heavy regulatory inquiries and scrutiny by their underwriters.

Clients attest that Moyer was able to argue from a position of industry knowledge and familiarity that risks to their U.S. nuclear reactors were no higher after Fukushima than they were before, and thus that there was no need for higher premiums or more stringent terms.

Managing Director
Aon, Dallas

The All-Weather Broker

Floods may be the most infuriating of natural disasters because they occur incrementally, and often more slowly than tornadoes, fires, tsunamis. There is time to prepare, but never enough, then the inexorable creep of the water.

"We have a complex near the Missouri River," said the insurance manager for one of Nadel's clients, "and the main plant was protected by the dike, but several outlying facilities were on the river side.

"Several years ago Marshall studied the problem -- to retain or transfer the risk, and if so how -- and found that we qualified for federal flood insurance," the client said. "This year, when the Missouri flooded, those facilities outside the dike were inundated."

Nadel, managing director with Aon Risk Solutions in Dallas, handled the claim, and the client recovered.

"Not everyone in our management agreed with the expense of that flood premium every year, but this year his guidance proved sound," the insurance manager said. "And he handled the claim without a hitch."

Gravitating from rain to sun, Nadel also placed coverage for the world's largest solar thermal power plant.

The client planned to have the engineering, procurement, and construction contract completed, and also planned to have the insurance in place in time for filing for the loan guarantee by the Department of Energy. The developer was not a client at the time, and as due dates drew closer the risk management urgency increased.