Catastrophe Resiliency Network Podcast

About Catastrophe Resiliency Network Podcast

Monthly Podcast for the Risk and Insurance Industry focusing on catastrophe resiliency and modeling.

Publisher

Christopher G. McDaniel

Category

news · science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

11 Oct 2021

Latest episode

12 Sept 2025

Latest episodes

9 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   12 Sept 2025

   Becoming a Change Agent in the Insurance Industry with Courtney Davis

   Courtney Davis is the Executive Vice President and Global Education Practice Leader at HUB International. Courtney was a guest on the podcast back in 2022 and has returned for a follow-up interview at the RIMS 2025 Conference in Chicago. She reflects on changes in her career, what it means to effectively educate and engage across a network, and how she is working to be an agent for change and greater diversity at every level in the insurance industry. Key Takeaways: ● Courtney’s journey from the University of Chicago to HUB International. ● The conversations and possibilities that attracted Courtney to her present role. ● HUB’s growing footprint in the insurance industry. ● The biggest surprises in Courtney’s shift from risk management to brokerage. ● Educating and engaging an entire network. ● Supporting greater diversity at every level in the insurance industry. ● Effective strategies for attracting new talent. ● What it takes to become a change agent. Mentioned in This Episode: Courtney C. Davis HUB International (https://www.hubinternational.com/) Tweetables: “As much as an opportunity may be great, it’s who you work with that will make you successful.” “Sometimes you have to be the change agent yourself.” “Don’t stop until you see the change that you want.” “Being truly intentional to support the next level of talent is what we have to commit to.”

2. 

   12 Sept 2025

   Pivoting From Pro Golf to Pro Insurance Broker with Kyle Thompson

   Kyle Thompson is the Senior Vice President in Risk Management at Arthur J. Gallagher, where he leads large teams on complex risk. He played pro golf for 17 years before pivoting to risk management in 2019. In this live from RIMS 2025 episode, Kyle reflects on the ways that his golf career prepared him for risk management. He highlights the similarities between the two careers, reflects on some of his biggest wins, and details the athletic characteristics that have helped him excel in his new career. Key Takeaways: ● Kyle’s experience with golf was a family affair that is in his DNA. ● Advancing through the PGA was a multi-year-long effort. ● Kyle’s pivot from pro golf to risk management. ● Risk and insurance knowledge started with earning accreditations. ● Kyle has zero regrets about his career in risk management. ● Reflections on Kyle’s biggest wins and AJG’s growing success. ● Addressing the male-dominated insurance landscape. ● Surprising discoveries that Kyle made once he joined the traditional workforce. ● Characteristics of ex-athletes who thrive in risk management. Mentioned in This Episode: Kyle Thompson Arthur J. Gallagher (https://www.ajg.com/) Tweetables: “I had a few offers to go into real estate, but it just didn’t speak to me the way insurance did.” “I was a pro at golf; now I’m an aspiring professional insurance broker.” “I know what I know, and I know what I don’t know.” “Golf itself is really nothing but risk management.”

3. 

   12 Sept 2025

   Outsourcing Risk Management with John Kempton

   John Kempton is a Senior Consultant at FHS and is responsible for advising clients on program design and implementation, negotiating contracts, and implementing overall risk management strategy. Before joining FHS, John was the Southeast Zone Real Estate Leader and Senior Vice President for Marsh in Washington, DC. John entered the insurance industry in 2012. In this live from RIMS 2025 Chicago episode, John highlights industries that commonly outsource risk management, including real estate and hospitality, details the unique skillset of being a broker-turned-consultant, and offers encouragement to anyone who is wondering whether returning to the office is really worth the effort (it is). Key Takeaways: ● John’s role at FHS focuses on real estate and construction space. ● Industries that commonly outsource risk management. ● From history major to insurance industry — John’s unexpected career path. ● Acquiring insurance clients in the real estate industry. ● The benefits of offering a flat monthly retainer. ● Brokers turned consultants offer a unique skillset to clients. ● John’s engagement preferences in the real estate and hospitality industry. ● Growth in this industry is not slowing down anytime soon. ● In another life, John is managing a safari lodge in South America. ● John’s networking advice to his early career self. Mentioned in This Episode: John Kempton FHS Risk Management (https://fhsrisk.com/) Tweetables: “Our job is to come in and manage the process rather than hijack the process.” “Many of our clients don’t even know that this outsourcing model exists.” “The earlier we’re involved with our clients, the better the outcome typically is.” “Embrace being in the office and making connections.”

4. 

   12 Sept 2025

   Insurance for Every Sector, Including Nuclear Energy with Kate Fowler

   Kate Fowler is the Global Head of Nuclear at WTW and a certified fire protection specialist. She previously contributed to Marsh’s Global Specialty Energy & Power team, where she worked to advance nuclear energy initiatives. In this live from RIMS 2025 Chicago episode, Kate offers an insight into this highly specialized sector of risk management, including a look at the future of nuclear energy, the benefits of earning her ARM and CPCU advancing nuclear energy initiatives designations, and what she wishes she had known at the onset of her insurance career. Key Takeaways: ● Kate’s role with WTW aims to support the global construction practice with nuclear plant contractors and potential operators. ● Originally an architectural engineer, nuclear engineering wasn’t in Kate’s initial career plan. ● The technical ins and outs of fire protection. ● Transitioning from loss control to underwriting to the broker side. ● Nuclear energy is ramping up again for the first time in a decade. ● Energy independence is becoming a greater focus than ever before. ● Clean energy technologies will be part of future solutions. ● Kate’s perspective and expectation shift from an underwriter to a broker. ● The benefits of ARM and CPCU designations in Kate’s career. ● Considerations when moving from one established broker to another. ● Types of nuclear energy, including advanced reactors, fission, and fusion. ● Kate’s experience as a woman in a male-dominated field. ● Kate still doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up — and that’s okay. ● Don’t worry about a career plan, just follow the breadcrumbs. ● Recruiting talent in the nuclear insurance industry means building a talent pool. Mentioned in This Episode: Kate Fowler WTW Tweetables: “Originally, I didn’t even know nuclear insurance was a thing.” “I want to do more for the nuclear industry and support more people in the nuclear industry.” “For all of the new nuclear assets that are coming online, the first thing you’ve got to do is construct them.” “My career has absolutely not gone the way I expected it to, and it has been amazing.”

5. 

   1 Sept 2022

   How Do You Best Measure Dependency Risk?

   Sean Rider is the Chief Revenue Officer at One Concern, a firm that transforms risk into resilience and calculates how to make disasters less disastrous. There’s a fundamental problem happening in the world today and that’s digital infrastructures are failing. How do you best calculate when these electronic systems will fail, and plan for it? Sean shares his thoughts on this week’s podcast about how you can have a strong metric for something that seems very intangible. Key Takeaways: A little bit about Sean and One Concern. One Concern has built the digital infrastructure for physical risk. How do you make disasters become less disastrous? What is One Concern doing with dependency risk in Japan and the US? How do you understand and quantify dependency risk? One Concern is able to provide a consistent and comparable metric around dependency risk and downtime. What’s AI’s role in digital resiliency? Sean offers his predictions on what aspects of the insurance industry will be disrupted in the future. Where does One Concern best fit in when it comes to the insurance industry landscape? Sean shares some client success stories and how One Concern helps solve complex problems. Climate adaptation is all about sustained business and economies. Sean expands on what he means by this. What’s next for One Concern? Resources: Catastropheresiliency. (https://www.catastropheresiliency.org/)org (https://www.catastropheresiliency.org/) Email: crc@theinstitutes.org Oneconcern.com Sean on (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-b-rider-b2a12764/) LinkedIn

6. 

   11 Aug 2022

   A Behind-The-Scenes Look into Spatial Insurance and How it Works

   Christopher G. McDaniel is joined by Matt Schmidt from Ecopia AI. Matt is a Senior Associate and uses geospatial data to better calculate insurance and financial risk. In this week’s episode, Matt breaks down the importance of spatial insurance and how it works. At this current time, his firm is focused on creating a digital twin of earth, and they’ve got some exciting 3D representations of the entire United States, but how does insurance leverage this data to make better risk assessments? Matt shares his insights! Key Takeaways: An introduction of today’s speakers and topic. What’s Ecopia’s vision? To create a digital twin of the earth! A bit of history about Ecopia and how they first got started. What is spatial insurance and why is it important? How do carriers get spatial locations right? How does Ecopia locate objects differently compared to other geotracking companies? With all the data that Ecopia is capturing, how do Matt and his team sift through that data to find what’s relevant? What would make the data incomplete or inaccurate? What’s next for Matt and Ecopia? Resources: Catastropheresiliency. (https://www.catastropheresiliency.org/)org (https://www.catastropheresiliency.org/) Email: crc@theinstitutes.org Oasislmf.org Dr. (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/stuartfraserdisasterrisk) Stuart on LinkedIn Ben on LinkedIn Mark on (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-cravens-86630417/) LinkedIn

7. 

   7 Apr 2022

   How to Better Identify and Manage Risk Through the Use of Analytics

   AIR Worldwide is one of the top data solution providers in the catastrophe modeling world. AIR provides risk modeling software and consulting services that make individuals, businesses and society more resilient to extreme events. Today, Chris welcomes Bill Churney, president of AIR Worldwide. He’s responsible for setting global strategy and overseeing the worldwide operations for the company. Bill has extensive experience working with companies to better understand how they manage risk and identify ways to use analytics to improve catastrophe risk management. He shares his thoughts and expertise on this episode. Key Takeaways: What are the challenges insurers and communities face with the changing climate? How can the insurance industry navigate it? Bill thinks that analytics will be critical to help make people make sound decisions because the signs of climate change are complex. How is the insurance industry evolving with regards to modeling the climate change risks? Bill shares some examples. Chris agrees with Bill and adds that working in silos won’t help anyone in the long run. Different regulatory bodies are taking their own approach on climate change but it would be good for them to have more alignment. Bill expands on this further. The use of analytics models can help assess climate change because these are future risks where there is really no historical data. What is AIR doing to ensure their models can be used to assess the risk of climate change in the future? Climate change is the biggest challenge in profitability in the next five years. As a catastrophe modeler, Bill talks about their vision of the future. Bill also shares their plans of how to capture risks of climate change. Their ARM team, which does liability modeling, is developing a range of climate change scenarios. Understanding the risks you have today is very important to identify the impact of climate change in the future. Bill shares how they are doing this. How can AIR help the insurance industry to achieve the global net zero in 2050? The insurance industry has a unique ability to be a leader in the area of reducing emissions. Bill shares why. Data analytics combined with an insurer's ability to collect and work with high quality exposure information will be a positive path forward helping society achieve its goals. Bill encourages clients to ask questions around the impact on climate change and to help reduce its uncertainties. Resources: Catastropheresiliency.org (https://www.catastropheresiliency.org/) Email: crc@theinstitutes.org Air-worldwide.com (https://www.air-worldwide.com/) Bill on LinkedIn

8. 

   7 Apr 2022

   What the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) is Requesting on Climate Change

   In August, the US Department of the Treasury announced that the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) will be requesting information from the insurance and climate sector as a response to President Biden’s May 2021 Executive Order on climate change. In this episode, Chris welcomes Dale Porfilio, Chief Insurance Officer of Insurance Information Institute (III), to talk about the FIO’s request. Dale oversees the Research and Education division, working closely with III subject-matter experts to develop data-driven industry insights and analyses. He shares his thoughts and III’s responses to the FIO. Key Takeaways: What information is the Treasury Department and the FIO requesting for? Dale shares the key components of III’s response to the Federal Government. Dale believes that the NAIC’s ORSA model is a very strong model to regulate and understand climate change. He expands on this further. The federal government can reinforce companies to price for coverage consistent with the expected cost. Dale also talks about the importance of increasing the insured for flood risk. Dale shares the three main points of the climate related priorities and activities that the FIO has requested for. The FIO follows up with nineteen questions and uses the responses they get to figure out how they can use their influence to make a difference. What specific types of data are needed to measure and effectively assess the insurance sector’s exposure to climate related risks? Dale explains why III did not provide a solution to their response to the FOI on their question about standardized risk disclosures for climate change. Everyone (local and global) has a responsibility in making risk assessments and disclosures for climate change to work. Dale shares his thoughts on the concerns of the FIO with client related issues or gaps in the regulation and supervision of insurers and their impact on financial stability. What are the realities that should be considered when identifying and assessing the potential disruption of insurance coverage in the US? Dale shares some examples. The bigger the residual market, the more chance there is for major disruptions in the US market. Dale talks about the increase in the exasperation of economic losses caused by the weather related disaster and why it’s happening. What is the insurance industry doing about this increase in economic losses? III thinks there is a lot of power in partnerships between the public and private sectors on climate change. Dale explains why. There are already good things that are happening but there are more things we can do together to better assess and measure climate risks. Resources: Catastropheresiliency.org (https://www.catastropheresiliency.org/) Email: crc@theinstitutes.org Iii.org (https://www.iii.org/) Dale on LinkedIn

9. 

   11 Oct 2021

   How to Evolve the Catastrophe Model to Take Advantage of Technical Advances

   In this Catastrophe Resilience Network episode, Chris McDaniel welcomes Dickie Whitaker, CEO and one of the founders of Oasis Loss Modeling Framework. Dickie also co-founded and worked for The Lighthill Risk Network, FiNexus Ltd, Oasis Palm Tree Ltd, and the Oasis Hub. He shares his insights of the current catastrophe model and how it should be adopted with our rapidly changing technologies. He also talks about Oasis and how insurance is a force of good despite how others may perceive it. Key Takeaways: What are some of the key issues and risks in the insurance industry? Collaboration plays a particular role in two areas: complexity and efficiency. Dickie elaborates on this further. How can the catastrophe model take full advantage of technical advances that are changing daily? Established practices are hard to change. Dickie shares his thoughts on how these can be challenged with the changing times. Interoperability vs Standards. Dickie describes what their differences are and how both can be complementary. What key areas of the catastrophe model need to be prioritized for change? Innovation and creation of standards starts with people and individuals who make a stand and actually do it. Where does Dickie see catastrophe modeling being used outside of the insurance industry? Insurance is a force for good. Dickie shares how their work in developing countries is an extension of that. Dickie talks about the successes of Oasis that he feels most proud of. Resources: Catastropheresiliency.org (https://www.catastropheresiliency.org/) Email: crc@theinstitutes.org Dickie on LinkedIn Dickie on Twitter (https://twitter.com/dickiewhitaker)

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