Newsletter Sign-up

Managing Partner
Willis, Chicago

Bringing Customer Service Back Home

Managing Partner John Atkinson and his team at Willis get praise from a client for making a good thing even better. By working with a long-term care facility on its diagnostic process, the Willis team under Atkinson was able to vastly improve the loss control experience at Brentwood, Tenn.-based Brookdale Senior Living, said Andy Smith, the company's executive vice president and general counsel.

"We think John and his team at Willis really helped us a lot and we would recommend them highly on that," Smith said.

And the resulting savings? Let's just say that they were very significant and that they would have a big impact anyone's bottom line.

Another risk manager at a long-term care facility also had praise for Atkinson and his team. "He has a well-managed and put-together team that does an outstanding job," this risk manager said.

This executive's take on Atkinson is that he must be a great motivator. His team works hard for him, she said, and delivers superior results.

"My biggest thing is that in today's workplace customer service is lacking and that is what they bring to the table," she said.

Atkinson and his team might not have the answer she needs in the first breath, but they sure go out of their way to find the answer and find it soon, she said.

Atkinson and his partner Mike Pokora run a team of more than 20 brokering professionals that is growing business at a rate of between 15 percent and 20 percent annually.

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.

Vice President
Wells Fargo, San Carlos, Calif.

Broker Displays a Passionate Approach

The work that Robyn Tam, the global benefits manager for Yahoo, and Wells Fargo Insurance Services Inc. Vice President Robin Hendrickson are doing to make sure that Yahoo workers are safer is really worth looking at.

Yahoo was concerned about ergonomics training at its various call centers. The company had an online ergonomics training program, but Hendrickson decided a road show was the ticket to helping workers in Yahoo's home state of California and at call centers outside the state to get more productive, face-to-face ergonomics training.

Tam described one such road show in Hillsborough, Ore., as a "huge success." Workers showed up with no incentive, in numbers that shocked Tam. The call center had 120 workers and 70 of them showed up for the training.

"So having 120 people at the call center and having 70 people show up is not bad at all," Tam said.

Tam describes Hendrickson as "not only a broker but she is also an advocate for my relationship with my head administrator."

Hendrickson is a broker that is passionate about transparency and keeping an open mind in how she goes about her professional life.

"I think she is doing more than her job because she is so passionate about what she is doing," Tam said. "It makes it a great partnership because we are both very passionate in the work, about what we are trying to avoid and prevent, and bringing great ideas to the table to see what we can do better."

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
Marsh, Atlanta

Saving Backs; Saving Money

There is just no telling how many backs and knees Gary Pohlmann has saved in his career. As a managing director with Marsh Risk Consulting, Pohlmann works with some of the biggest names in the grocery and restaurant business to better manage worker safety and reduce the cost of claims.

In the past year, Pohlmann worked with the design and construction team of one major restaurant chain to complete a redesign of shelving in work areas that required heavy lifting. For the same client, he completed floor testing to advance the defense to one of the most pernicious risks in the restaurant business, the slip and fall.

A 2011 benchmarking report for this client revealed that the work Pohlmann has done in conjunction with the client's risk management team shows cumulative savings in workers' comp costs of $42 million.

The risk manager for this company describes the customer service delivery of Pohlmann and his team as, "Excellent. They always put (the company)'s interests first, treat us as if we are their favorite client, make it easy to work together as a team," this risk manager said in an e-mailed response to questions from Risk & Insurance®.

In his consulting work for a captive of one of the largest beverage makers in the world, Pohlmann has delivered a 23 percent reduction in claims frequency and an 18 percent reduction in claims severity in 2011 over 2010. For a company as large as this client, the savings must be astronomical.

Senior Casualty Broker
Aon, Portland, Ore.

Taking Every Step

Whether it's fine tuning loss control services, helping a client sell reduced collateral requirements to a carrier, or helping yet another digest the workers' compensation implications of multiple mergers and acquisitions, Aon Risk Solutions' Anne Stites is just simply all over it.

"She is the best workers' compensation broker in our state," said an admiring risk manager for a sizable manufacturer.

"I think she is the consummate professional through her conscientiousness and through her service to her client," said Ron Cummings, the director of risk management for Waste Connections Inc.

Stites helped Cummings and his chief financial officer put together presentations that greatly aided the company in reducing its letter of credit requirements for collateral over the last three years.

On his renewal this year, he realized even more savings as Stites was intimately involved in detailing for the carriers shrinkages in frequency and severity that had come about because of his strong risk management program.

For another client, Stites pointed out some erroneous calculations that helped them make a more informed decision to go with an insured option over a captive option for covering workers' comp risks.

"She is very honest, I know she didn't want to lose the business," this client said of Stites' focus on helping him versus directing his business in a way that would benefit her the most financially.

Regional Practice Leader, Strategic Outcomes Practice
Willis
Norwalk, CT

Managing Director
Willis
Chicago, IL