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President, Client Technologies
CS STARS LLC
Chicago

Bill Diaz sees clearly into the future of CS STARS.

Risk managers with finely tuned technological antennae had for the last couple of years sensed some drift, a dulling of the lenses, over at CS STARS, Marsh's ground-breaking risk management information systems (RMIS) platform. Was CS STARS losing its twinkle in the face of aggressive competition?

Not if William (Bill) Diaz, a veteran of the Marsh and CS STARS organizations, had anything to do about it. Promoted last year to the top spot at CS STARS, it was high time to adjust the team's lens barrel and focus with laser-like intensity on the marketplace.

First off, Diaz slapped a pair of goggles on the system's massive database, a tool aptly named "Risk Goggles." The tool allows risk managers to access, view and interpret risk data and intelligence in the context of geography, similar to Google's popular mapping technology.

"We leverage Google Earth and are kind of doing it in a format that's visually impactful," he said.

With Marsh's purchase of Corporate Systems in 1968, CS STARS has more policy, claims and exposure data than any other risk management information in the world, just waiting to be mapped and presented in a visually attractive way that risk manages can understand.

That's Risk Goggles.

When the buzz started building about the improvements, clear-eyed risk managers had their doubts about how fast CS STARS could put a real, meaty tool into production. So, when Diaz and his team unveiled a prototype of the tool last March, some 400 starry-eyed users were stunned, responding with "Ooooohs," and "Ahhhhhs."

"Speed to market is most important and I saw the power of what it could help us do," said Brent Pickens, assistant corporate risk manager of Mars Inc. "Bill was the reason behind that."

Diaz is also behind much of what's to come: big improvements to the software as the definition of risk, like an ever-expanding universe, continues to broaden.

"We have a bright future," he said. "There's a sense of energy again. Some of these clients were blown away, and by how quickly we intend to move forward."

Risk managers are clamoring for tools that can help them make sense of all the data. As far as Diaz is concerned, there's no reason for CS STARS not to move at the speed of light. As the No. 1 risk management information system, with about 1,000 clients and "tens of thousands" of users, delays are unacceptable, not when you're in charge of the STARS ship.

Three times larger than the next closest competitor, "we should move three times faster," said Diaz.

The Goggles tool is delivered through the STARS Enterprise risk management technology platform, according to Diaz's application materials received for this nomination process.

To extend the capabilities of the platform, Diaz has also finished the integration of a suite of audit capabilities to support enterprise risk management (ERM), for which all associated data is accessible through Risk Goggles.

It looks like Diaz, appointed last September, is just getting warmed up. There are plenty of the other software overlays coming to STARS' massive data warehouse.

If nothing else, the buzz is back at CS STARS where Diaz has put the staff on notice that they're in for a challenge. "He's challenging them so that he next release is not just cosmetic," said Pickens. "New versions I would expect will include something new and valuable from a business perspective so that clients are anticipating the next thing."

Companies that are market leaders need to act like leaders, and that means innovations need to be put to use in the service of clients, Diaz said.

Brilliant ideas wasting away on library shelves, whiz-bang applications too complex to use, market-leading platforms eroded by complacency, Diaz said he has seen it all before, but that such stumbles are not going to happen on his watch. He's wearing his goggles.

"When you're the market leader it should mean something," he said. "It should mean that you get more innovation, more service and more choice, and we intend to deliver on that."

--By Cyril Tuohy

Senior Research Specialist (Ret.)
FM Global
Johnston, R.I.

FM Global's Archibald Tewarson plays with fire ... and (usually) wins

Deep inside FM Global's research campus in Johnston, R.I., a quiet, humble man who originates from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh toils quietly in the heat of the flames and the crackling of the industrial-strength Bunsen burners.

At 73, when his peers in retirement are playing golf or boarding cruise ships, Tewarson continues his research into the chemical properties of plastics under intense heat.

Three simple goals matter to Tewarson. The first is to increase a plastic surface's resistance to ignition; the second is to slow the spread of ensuing flames; and the third is to reduce the smoke and the heat.

To say that Tewarson is an expert in the highly specialized field of the physics of fire retardants would be an understatement, said Lou Gritzo, vice president and manager of research for FM Global.

"He speaks softly but boy does he have a lot of horsepower upstairs," said Gritzo, who has worked with Tewarson for more than 20 years.

Tewarson's been studying the science of flame since he emerged from Penn State in the early 1970s with his doctorate, and went to work for FM Global.

That was a time, Tewarson recalled, when Factory Mutual, the predecessor to FM Global, was paying a lot of money in claims to replace properties damaged by fire--properties built with what today might be considered minimal standards.

It was also a time when the environmental and consumer protection movements were born, and when many interest groups began to lobby in earnest for better standards from government agencies, and from the private sector.

"When I joined FM, it followed the minimum (government) standards and FM was losing left and right," he said. "My job was to review those standards and to improve upon them."

Did he ever. His research contributions helped lower fire risks in dozens of industrial applications, everything from power cables to polyurethane, to hydraulic fluids, to children's sleep ware. In recent years the semiconductor industry has taken an interest in his research for its so-called "clean room," in which companies like Intel can store millions of dollars worth of expensive chips.

The fire-retardant plastics, which Tewarson helped develop, used in those rooms will guarantee that flames spread much more slowly, cutting into the property and business interruption losses suffered by an insured.

Lives are at stake too, said the scientist, who's worked with General Motors Corp. to cut the risk of fire in cars and trucks. More often than not, the difference between life and death is only a matter of minutes. "If people can get just five or 10 minutes, then many lives can be saved," he said.

FM Global began doing fire testing more than 100 years ago, so developing new standards in the middle of the 20th century was nothing new in the context of the company's fire testing tradition.

With the increasing use of plastics in industry in the 1960s, and higher fire losses as a result, the research conducted by Tewarson and his team, and initiatives to better understand such losses and finding ways to prevent them took on greater urgency.

As far as Gritzo is concerned, Tewarson is as deserving of attention as anyone because many of Tewarson's applications will eventually turn up in a broader range of applications--the food services industry, for example.

Airlines are already benefiting from many of the researcher's discoveries as new airplanes flying off the factory lines come equipped with better fire-retardant materials inside and outside the cabin.

Tewarson said his proudest innovation is probably the "clean room," so prized by the semiconductor industry.

Ultimately Tewarson takes the most satisfaction out of his long research career whenever he knows his research was used to benefit people. "I feel a lot of satisfaction inside that some of my research was of some help," he said.

--By Cyril Tuohy