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Principal
Integro Insurance Brokers, San Francisco

As Aggressive as She Needs to Be

For one corporate senior vice president of risk management, it's not that Integro's Elizabeth Carabas holds her hand for her, because she doesn't need that. She knows what she's doing.

Rather, it's that Carabas is so service-oriented in going about her work, and so responsive to this client's needs, that she helps her client stay ahead of her own work load.

"It's not really new ideas because we are pretty sophisticated in what we do. But it is nice to have somebody who is being proactive and even before I know something needs to be done ¿ already saying we need to be doing this or we have already done this," this risk manager said.

In dealing with another client, a major West Coast medical center, Carabas has some serious intellectual talents to win over, but she clearly does that.

"You always go with what you know ... but she knew what was going on out there and could get us the best price," said a senior director of risk management for the organization.

In a California market where rates for workers' compensation premiums were increasing by double digits annually in some cases, Carabas was able to engineer significant price reductions, in fact double-digit price reductions for this client because she takes the time and makes the effort to develop an intimate knowledge of her client's risk management program and loss profile.

"She really highlights our strengths as an organization," this executive said.

Principal
Integro Insurance Brokers
Category: Workers' Compensation

Leading the Carriers

Elizabeth Carabas, principal of Integro Insurance Brokers, manages the relationships with the insurance carriers within Integro's casualty practice in the San Francisco office. She regularly sets up meetings with these carriers to ensure that brokers are not only communicating on new business opportunities but also educating carriers about why they may have been unsuccessful on a piece of business they quoted.

The strategy has a purpose. It is so that carriers can improve their coverages or offer better rates -- in effect becoming more competitive. She also works with carriers to understand why they are declining certain business and to determine if there is a way to make them more comfortable, which ultimately will give her clients more options. In other words, Carabas is looking to perform a service instead of being an intermediary to a transaction. She wants to make each of her clients feel like they are her only client.

Carabas works closely with the younger employees she manages. She wants to ensure that those for whom she is responsible are being recognized for their contributions to the organization, that they are setting appropriate goals, and that they are given ample opportunities for training and advancement.

Carabas also is deeply involved in her company's intern program. The program encourages college students to enter insurance-related professions by providing them with meaningful internships that allow them to learn about the variety of jobs available in the field.

Managing Director
Marsh, Chicago

Building Programs for Construction Projects

Hospital construction projects present unique challenges for insurers, but Marsh Central Zone Health Care Practice Leader Jeffrey P. Devron's clients believe he has a special ability to deal with them effectively. "His construction expertise is what sets him apart," said the senior vice president of a rehabilitation hospital in Chicago.

The hospital wanted to reduce insurance costs to help fund a large-scale capital improvement program, and looked to Devron for some fresh thinking on risk-management program cost-cutting solutions. Devron and his team presented the client with eight different structures, each clearly outlining what the market offered at different premium points. After helping the client analyze the pros and cons of each alternative, Devron delivered a major premium reduction with minimal upside risk by using a buffer layer approach and consolidating carriers.

"He has gone out of his way to be creative," the senior vice president said.

Devron also helped a community hospital undergoing construction in suburban Chicago save hundreds of thousands of dollars by utilizing a customized contractor insurance program that Devron created by combining Marsh's Health Care Practice with its Construction Practice.

"We are basically taking on the workers' comp insurance work for the construction project," the chief financial officer of the community hospital said. "We've taken it away from the contractors. Typically, that provides a pretty nice profit margin for contractors."

Safety consulting is an important component of the program and helps to prevent losses.

Managing Director
Marsh
Category: Health Care

A Force in Education

Jeffrey P. Devron, managing director in Marsh's health care practice, is a member of the board of trustees for Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. The neighborhood, once inhabited by Slavic immigrants from Europe, is now home to a large Hispanic population in the center of the Windy City.

Devron has also served for the past nine years as an advocate and primary liaison at Marsh for the Cristo Rey Corporate Internship Program. The program offers inner-city students an opportunity to get real-world professional experience, while funding their private high school, college preparatory education.

Since Marsh Chicago's support of Cristo Rey began, the company has employed more than 80 of its students, funding 75 percent of each student's education. Devron's contributions haven't gone unnoticed. Scores of students have him to thank for brightening their futures.

Devron's commitment to Cristo Rey began in 1994, at the inception of the school, when he regularly volunteered to "chaperone" a community gym in order to provide local kids with a safe, gang- and violence-free place to convene and exercise.

In 2001, he was asked to join the Leadership Advisory Council, and after serving on the council for six years, Devron was asked to join the board of trustees. For the past two years, he has served as chairman of the corporate internship program.

The Cristo Rey program has now been replicated across the nation and the 24th school opened its doors last year ... back in Chicago where the program began.

President
RCM&D, Bethesda, Md.

Giving Good Counsel

SIGMA, a Virginia-based trade association for motor-fuel marketers, last year approached Patrick Allen Haney, president of the nonprofit division of Riggs, Counselman, Michaels & Downes, with the idea of developing an insurance program for its members.

Haney evaluated the ins and outs and ultimately advised against the idea, said Kenneth Doyle, SIGMA's executive vice president.

Haney's advice spared the association the embarrassment of a failure, as well as the time and money it might have poured into trying to make the program work, Doyle said.

"Allen has always been able to come to me and tell me when we need to do something different, or come up with a new idea, or tell me that what I want to do is dumb. I've heard him say over and over again, 'I'd really like to sell this to you, but I'm not sure you should buy it,' " he said.

Other policies from Haney have been a great fit. For instance, the broker worked with SIGMA to figure out the coverage it would need for an upcoming trip to Brazil. As a result of his work, the nonprofit secured event interruption coverage, as well as coverage for ransom and kidnapping.

"Allen and his group walked us through that and got it quickly," Doyle said.

For other nonprofit clients, Haney has fine-tuned benefit programs. One nonprofit had balked at Haney's recommendation that it switch to a 401(k) plan, fearing the impact on its existing, 40-year-old plan. But after five years of discussion and research, the group is making the change, which is expected to increase plan participation by 25 percent over the next two years.

For another client, Haney went to bat to fix an old deferred compensation plan and key insurance program for one of the client's key executives. After doing a thorough risk analysis, Haney and his team were able to help the key executive to receive his benefits on a tax-free basis.

At the same time, the key person insurance policy was rewritten to enable both the nonprofit and the executive's family to be protected should he pass away.

Haney's customer service philosophy is built on the maxim of "purpose before product". One technique that he uses is responding to a client's e-mail either with a phone call or a personal visit. This technique breaks down the distance that electronic communication can create.

Haney is heavily involved in industry groups, having been a major force in the Washington, D.C. chapter of the CPCU for years.

President, Nonprofit Division
RCM&D
Category: Nonprofit

Committed to His Industry

As a founder of the Professional Insurance Marketing Association 35 years ago, Riggs, Counselman, Michaels & Downes' Patrick "Allen" Haney stamped himself as a professional who is dedicated to knowledge sharing within the insurance industry. PIMA honored Haney with its Founder's Award for the work he did in establishing the organization.

Haney has also been very active in the District of Columbia chapter of the CPCU Society. Haney is a past president of that group, as well as being a past board member of the Society of Financial Service Professionals. Most recently, Haney received the Association Trends 2010 Vendor of the Year Award.

Haney's involvement with professional societies has extended to mentorship within those societies. Four of the chapter presidents that followed Haney in that position were professionals that he selected for leadership positions and mentored.

As a broker, Haney was approached within the past year by a trade association that was interested in developing an insurance program for its members. Haney determined that the trade group should not undertake such a program, saving the trade association a lot of time and trouble, as well as the reputational damage it would have suffered had it undertaken the program and failed.

Managing Director
Neace Lukens, Cincinnati, Ohio

Broker Fosters Growing Partnerships

Uninsured tenants create potential exposures for Phillips Edison-ARC Shopping Center REIT, a real estate investment trust that manages roughly 250 shopping centers anchored by grocery stores. So the company requires tenants to keep their insurance coverage up to date. That means keeping track of roughly 4,000 tenants.

Phillips Edison had been trying to verify coverage internally, said Mark Addy, chief operating officer of the Cincinnati-based company. About a year ago, Richard Lonneman, the company's longtime broker, offered to take over the task at no cost, setting up a new protocol and tapping the resources of Neace Lukens.

"The reason that Rich has grown with us, and we are so loyal to him, he's always out there giving us ideas and looking ahead," Addy said.

One of those ideas helped lower costs for insuring company properties in high hazard wind/hail zones. Phillips Edison had shouldered high deductibles on those 36 properties, creating an unfunded liability with no mechanism to share the risk with tenants.

Lonneman remedied the situation by establishing a segregated captive cell in Neace Lukens' parent captive company and offered a wind buy-down policy that slashed deductibles and transferred some of the risk to tenants. Earthquake and environmental liability exposures were recently added to the captive.

Even as the relationship grows, executives at Phillips Edison never feel Lonneman is pressuring them to add this policy or that coverage.

Managing Director
Neace Lukens
Category: Real Estate

Mentoring Growth

As a managing partner of Neace Lukens' Cincinnati office, which includes northern Kentucky and Dayton. Richard Lonneman promotes a culture that recruits and mentors young producers. That approach has helped grow that office from $6 million in sales to $16 million in sales. It has also created a relationship with clients who now view the Cincinnati office of Neace Lukens as a versatile team.

"The reason that Rich has grown with us and we are so loyal to him, is he's always out there giving us ideas and looking ahead," one client said.

Not simply a broker, Lonneman works with his clients on workplace issues such as safety, culture and operations. Lonneman has helped real estate investment trusts that manage shopping centers tackle the troublesome issue of uninsured tenants. For large clients, that can mean keeping track of the insurance coverages of thousands of tenants.

Lonneman also helped clients in windstorm-exposed areas by creating segregated captive cells for them within Neace Lukens' parent captive company.

In addition to the work he does as an outstanding broker and mentor, Lonneman joins his office in participating in numerous charitable events throughout the year. The Cincinnati office of Neace Lukens hosts numerous fundraising drives for One Way Farm Children's Shelter, a shelter for abused children in Cincinnati.

Lonneman's focus on community also includes work with the United Way's Tocqueville Society, which recognizes citizens who have given outstanding voluntary service in the community and contribute annual gifts of $10,000 and above.

Managing Director
Momentous Insurance Brokerage, Van Nuys, Calif.

Broker Star of the Insurance Program

Christie Mattull is a skilled relationship manager who is also adept at ironing out major wrinkles in contract negotiations.

For example, Mattull had a client last year who was making a documentary on a well-known entertainment figure. Mattull and her team bound the policy at standard minimum limits of $1 million to $3 million. But when a big studio got involved and wanted to distribute it, the celebrity's estate initially tried to prevent the client from making use of the film footage.

When the estate finally agreed it then mandated a $10 million errors and omissions policy, but the insurance company refused to handle the higher limits, putting the project in jeopardy.

Mattull's solution was to get all the parties into a viewing room to watch the film. Based upon that meeting, all parties felt comfortable with the project and agreed to a primary layer with a $5 million limit. Mattull was then able to secure an excess placement of $5 million.

"Christie is very good at guiding her clients," said Matthew Leonetti Jr., executive vice president of physical production at Mandate Pictures. "She's very accessible, very knowledgeable, and her service is outstanding." Carolyn Napp, director of risk management at DreamWorks Studios, said Mattull "helped achieve excellent renewals for us, giving us enhancements at a good premium."

Napp said Mattull was "always forthcoming with information."

"She has the highest degree of honesty and integrity, and she is always thinking of the best solutions for me," Napp said. "She is always on top of things."

Managing Director
Momentous
Category: Entertainment/Media

Office as Classroom

Perhaps all one needs to know about how seriously Christie Mattull takes her responsibilities as a commercial insurance mentor is to hear how she coached a young account executive. Mattull met once or twice a week with him in her office over lunch and helped him study every single type of policy that she could think of. For months, she reviewed policies with the young executive, helping him learn and grow as a professional.

As a managing director with Momentous Insurance Brokerage, Mattull now has three younger professionals in her department that she is mentoring. When they entered her department, they knew very little about film & television insurance. But Mattull considers this segment of the commercial insurance industry one that demands on-the-job training.

"There is no class to take and no book to read to learn how to do it," Mattull said.

"I want to bring in young people who are smart and eager and teach them the business, so they can take the place of the senior group of entertainment brokers," Mattull said.

Outside of the office, Mattull participates in company volunteer and charity work. One of the beneficiaries of her volunteerism is the work she does with Habitat for Humanity, the organization that builds homes for low-income citizens.

Mattull also brings a winning, thoughtful approach to her relationships with her clients. She helped one entertainment executive avoid paying a $20,000 premium when he was under the mistaken impression that he needed aviation coverage to fly in an audience on a commercial airliner on an annual basis. She could easily have sold this coverage, but she did the right thing and talked him out of it even though it cost her a commission.

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."

Managing Director
Marsh
Category: Utilities

Navy Proud

As a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and retired naval commander, Marsh's Dan McGarvey has never felt much temptation to do anything other than the right thing. McGarvey, a national expert on the topic of nuclear power plant risk management, was one of a handful of instructors initially selected to present in the online Marsh University forum. He has presented five courses to educate colleagues and has been designated a Marsh University ambassador.

He has acted as a volunteer instructor for the CPCU, most recently for the CPCU finance course at his base of operations in Greenville, S.C. In addition, he has also taught all three parts of the Associate in Risk Management curriculum.

For years, McGarvey has been charged with identifying and hiring young officers from the Navy who have obtained nuclear engineering credentials and have developed and demonstrated leadership skills.

Marsh's current five-member Marsh nuclear practice is made up naval nuclear chief engineering professionals that McGarvey helped introduce to the industry.

As the head of Marsh's Greenville office, McGarvey has spearheaded charitable efforts, such as dunking himself in the Reedy River to insure 100 percent participation by his office in the United Way. For the past six years he has served as Santa during his company's sponsorship of an annual holiday party for a local special-needs school.

Through an office "jeans day" and other fundraisers, McGarvey and his team at Marsh support more than 20 fundraisers and have been recognized for their efforts in support of child-abuse prevention and the Juvenile Diabetes Association.

Managing Director
Aon, Chicago

Broker Operates at Another Level

When it comes to how she approaches the art of workers' compensation risk management, her admiring clients said that Aon Risk Solutions' Carol Murphy is quite simply at another level.

"I think it is a combination of things. She has got good relationships with the markets. She has strong analytical skills and capabilities, and a knowledge of how to use that information to present our risk in the best possible light," one client said.

Carol has worked with another client, a major national retailer, on any number of money and time saving solutions over the years.

"To be quite honest, we have wrung about as much as you can wring out of our casualty program and Carol still comes up with more ideas," this client said.

For this massive client, Murphy's industry knowledge has been invaluable in the past year in helping the client's risk manager navigate the different states' demands on the credit-worthiness of risk management partners.

"Not everybody has that," this risk manager said. "A lot of brokers are transactional in nature and not problem solvers and what we are looking for is a problem solver as opposed to a transaction," this client said.

Sizable reductions in collateral requirements due to Murphy's work for yet another client are part of the reason Murphy finds herself in the Power Broker® winner's circle this year.

"She has just been a huge advocate for us with the underwriting people," this executive said.

"She is very tough, she is very strong, but she is very fair," he said.

Managing Director
Aon
Category: Workers' Compensation

A Champion for Women

Carol Murphy, managing director with Aon Risk Solutions, leads Aon's Women's International Network, a global initiative designed to provide professional growth, mentorship, and networking for female colleagues and clients.

As a result, Murphy has probably created more opportunities for more women to move into senior executive roles in the insurance and risk management sector than anyone working in the insurance brokerage industry. Murphy is well aware of the competition for talent from investment banks and hedge funds and she is active in recruiting professionals from inside and outside insurance. She is also active in creating an environment that supports Aon's diversity leadership model.

She's extended the reach and impact of Aon's womens' leadership strategy to include professional development opportunities. After conference programming hours at the Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc.'s annual convention in Vancouver last year, for example, her initiative drew more than 125 clients, CEO's and senior executives.

Murphy, who has a reputation for being a tough negotiator, speaks regularly at seminars aimed at talent development of women. The seminars are open to all in the industry. Murphy said she wants to provide an example to other women on how to remain strong and take the right road over the easy road, even as the obstacles for women in achieving senior industry positions remain substantial.

To encourage more young people to join the industry, Murphy recently spoke to students in Temple University's risk management program to encourage them to join the ranks of the profession.

Managing Director
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Baton Rouge, La.

Broker Fixes Holes in Buildings and Coverage

Nancy Sylvester's clients sing her praises all over Louisiana. Wind percentage deductibles are a common theme.

For a Jesuit college, Sylvester, a managing director with Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services Inc. worked hard with Lloyd's of London to provide a new product with one of the lowest percentage wind deductibles within the market.

"That was a tremendous boost to our program," said the college's risk manager. "We had an interesting year in New Orleans; we suffered our bruises, and the markets really squeezed us. After Katrina, we could buy only $25 million worth of coverage, which is scary when you have $325 million worth of property."

The insurance program has returned to stability, he said, and managers don't have to worry whether the institution has wind and storm coverage.

"She has a risk manager background. We're a higher education entity, and she has the perspective that relates to that but is not buried in the miasma of higher ed." The school was faced with massive rebuilding and repair work last year, and Sylvester brought unique ideas about to how to insure it.

"She helped us revamp insurance requirements for our contractors," the risk manager said. "Her work on our bonding process and insurance requirements were not necessarily a broker's responsibility, but she was able to reach out to her underwriters on things we needed to do to enhance our program."