For future speaking opportunities, email sbrown@commercialriskonline.com
| Company | Job Title | Name | Profile Picture | Speaker Bio | Speaking At |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qiddiya | Chief Delivery Officer | Eddie Sammut |  | Edward Sammut is the Chief Delivery Officer at Qiddiya - one of the flagship projects that form part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. In this position, he leads the construction portfolio with responsibility for program-wide delivery. With over 30 years of international work experience spanning Australia, the United Kingdom, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, Ed has worked across a variety of roles including operational project and commercial management; was Executive General Manager for global risk with a major international contractor and has held various executive management roles. Having a keen interest in risk and how to understand the true interpretation of perceived risks, Ed is committed to changing the way risk and potential outcomes are viewed and mitigated, including the apportionment or risk to where it is best managed. | Fireside discussion: Managing GIGA projects – Vision 2030 |
| Hawkins & Associates | Principal Associate | Dr Eleanor Jay |  | Eleanor has a 1st class Masters Degree and a PhD from Imperial College. After her PhD, she worked as a Research Associate for Imperial College, but was quickly seconded to the Government Office for Science and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to be part of the Nuclear Energy Research and Development Review Board. She was heavily involved in assessing the UK’s nuclear energy landscape, which involved close communication with stakeholders across the nuclear industry in the UK. After this Eleanor then took up a consultant position with Adelard LLP, who specialise in risk, security and safety analysis for a wide range of industries; defence, nuclear, rail and critical frameworks. Whilst at Adelard, Eleanor established a new specialist work area in hydraulic fracturing. Eleanor is a Chartered Engineer and specialises in material failures, metallurgy, escapes of water and oil, system failures and personal injury. | Workshop: Water risks - beyond the usual |
| SCOR | Global Segment Leader, Environmental Impairment Liability | Emma Bartolo |  | Emma joined SCOR in February 2023 as the Global Segment leader for Environmental Impairment Liability (EIL), responsible for the growth and development of the EIL portfolio. Emma joined SCOR from Chubb, where she was the London Corporate Regional Manager, responsible for the delivery of the middle-market strategy and financial plan in London. Prior to this, she worked as an environmental underwriter and was responsible for the EIL portfolio at Chubb for its UKI and Syndicate business. Before joining the insurance industry, Emma worked as a Consultant at WSP, and as a Technical Officer, Contaminated Land at Manchester City Council. She has written a number of industry publications on environmental insurance and is considered a leader in her field. | Panel discussion: Emerging risks and insurance market response Workshop: Sustainability – How insurance can assist |
| CCi, a Rimkus Company | Director | Hugh Corrigan |  | Hugh Corrigan is a Chartered Civil Engineer, a Chartered Water and Environmental Manager, a Chartered Project Manager, and an accredited Adjudicator. He has over 35 years of experience in design, construction delivery and client programme management. He has significant experience in managing risk on major, complex projects and programmes of work from both the design/construction and client perspectives. He has acted as Design Director and Programme Director on many design-build, PFI and BOT projects, including major coastal and marine projects. Hugh specialises in providing independent expert witness advice related to design/engineering, professional services, and construction delivery, and provides due diligence and strategic project advice on contract, procurement, governance, and assurance issues. | Workshop: Marine risks in construction – and how to mitigate them |
| Swiss Re Corporate Solutions | Head E&C Risk Engineering | Ian Clarke |  | Ian is currently head of the engineering and construction risk engineering team at Swiss Re, and has spent 30 years as a risk engineer in the energy, construction and property sectors. His industrial experience included drilling for oil and gas in the Australian desert, trying to make oil out of low grade Australian brown coal, and working in a technical safety capacity at one of Melbourne's most diverse petrochemical facilities before joining the insurance industry. He is a Chartered Chemical Engineer and a registered Professional Process Safety Engineer with the Institution of Chemical Engineers and also the current Chairman of OPERA. | Presentation: The hazards of the energy transition |
| SCOR & Executive Committee Member, IMIA | Global Head Construction | Isabelle Kowalski |  | Isabelle has worked for 27 years in the construction world, including six years as civil engineer and 21 years in the insurance and reinsurance industry. Since 2019 she has been Global Head Construction at SCOR Specialty Insurance, a member of the IMIA Executive committee, and is engaged in a number of working groups on ESG matters. She gained her experience in construction as site superintendent with Spie Batignolles and VINCI, as senior construction underwriter at SCOR, being lead market on a number of large projects around the world, and as senior practice leader at AXA Corporate Solutions, managing large corporate accounts on all construction lines. | Workshop: Sustainability – How insurance can assist |
| Aon | Global Specialty Industry Leader Construction & Infrastructure | James MacNeal |  | James has 32 years of construction insurance experience, of which 18 have been with the Aon Group. He has travelled extensively and placed a large variety of major construction projects in most parts of the world for owners, contractors and infrastructure funds. He is currently Aon’s Global Head of Construction and Infrastructure team which includes over 1000 specialist colleagues in 48 countries. | Fireside discussion: Leadership approach to managing risk on large construction projects |
| CCi, a Rimkus Company | Head of Architectural Services | Joanne Williams |  | Joanne is an ARB registered Chartered Architect with more than 30 years of experience in the construction industry as a designer, technical lead, and project delivery manager across a broad range of building types, including residential, education, healthcare, leisure and industrial sectors. Joanne acts as an Expert Witness, writing reports in the fields of architecture and construction, including construction defects, professional negligence, design copyright issues and contract disputes. She also undertakes technical advisory reports in construction insurance-related matters and provides construction advice and contract troubleshooting. Joanne provides dispute resolution assistance, advice, and expertise, including CPR35 compliant reports for Court purposes and reports for adjudication and arbitration. | Workshop: Implications of the Buildings Safety Act (UK) |
| Allianz Commercial | UK Head of Professional Indemnity, Large-Corp & Specialty | Katherine Watson |  | Kat is Head of Professional Indemnity at Allianz Commercial in the UK, a role she assumed in 2022. Prior to this she held underwriting roles of increasing seniority at different carriers including Ace, Hiscox and Berkshire Hathaway. | Panel discussion: Professional Liability – What does the London Market have to offer? |
| Zurich Resilience Solutions | Risk Engineer | Matthew Taylor |  | Matt Taylor works as a Risk Engineer for Zurich Resilience Solutions, specialising in the design, construction and operation of solar farms and battery storage systems. He has worked on solar and battery storage plants for clients in the UK, France, Spain, Portugal and Ireland and has a broad knowledge of the industry ecosystem in Europe, Australia and the US. | Presentation: Renewable Energy - Insurance coverage for batteries |
| IMIA | Secretary general | Michael Spencer |  | Michael has held the position of Secretary General at IMIA (International Association of Engineering Insurers) sine 2018. IMIA was formed in 1968 and today representing a network of experts in Engineering Insurance from around the world. IMIA has expanded greatly and now has 20 member countries with members from Reinsurers, Insurance Companies, and representatives from Loss Adjusters and also Insurance Brokers. Prior to joining IMIA Michael held senior construction insurance roles for Marsh, RSA, Zurich and SCOR. | Panel discussion: Emerging risks and insurance market response |
| Beazley | Underwriter – Large Client Professions & Product Leader - Large AEC | Michael Attwell |  | Michael is an Underwriter and Product Leader at Beazley in London. He has excess of 20 years’ experience in professional liability insurance and has spent most of that time specialising on global construction, architecture and engineering firms. He was the inaugural chair of the International Underwriting Association’s construction working group, a grouping of professional liability underwriters specialising in construction risks. | Panel discussion: Professional Liability – What does the London Market have to offer? |
| Bechtel | General Manager – Commercial Infrastructure | Mike Wilkinson |  | Mike is a Partner at Bechtel, having joined in 2004 as the Global Head Counsel for the Mining & Metals business. Since then, he has served in various legal, financial, operational and management roles across the company. For several years, Mike was Bechtel’s Global Head of Risk Management, which included responsibility for Bechtel’s global insurance program. Before joining Bechtel, he specialised in front end project work in the motorway, rail, ports, water, power, mining and defence industries, largely working for owners, developers and financiers. | Fireside discussion: Leadership approach to managing risk on large construction projects |
| Invesis | Risk & Insurance BP | Nathalie Vandenbroucke |  | Nathalie Vandenbroucke is an experienced Risk Manager specialising in the construction sector. She currently serves as Risk & Insurance Business Partner for Invesis. Invesis is a global investor and developer in sustainable infrastructure projects who actively manage all aspects of an investment, from development and financing through to design, construction, maintenance, operations – all the way through to hand-back. Previously, Nathalie led the Risk Management, Compliance and Insurance portfolios of construction groups Eiffage in the Benelux region and BAM in Belgium and Luxembourg. She is a board member at Belrim. | Presentation & panel discussion: Climate change risk Workshop: Developing risk management strategies |
| Aon | Head of UK Retail Cyber | Nathan Hankin |  | Nathan Hankin is the head of the UK Retail Cyber team at Aon. He has fifteen years of experience in commercial insurance helping organisations across many industries of all sizes from start-ups to global organisations. Nathan has presented at many Cyber focused events across the country. He offers help and insight around Cyber risk with real life examples or media, to help educate colleagues and clients. | Presentation: Cyber risk |
| Zurich Insurance Company | Senior Underwriter, Cyber Liability | Nicholas Pritchard |  | Nick Pritchard is a Senior Cyber Underwriter for Zurich UK. Since 2019, Nick has specialised in underwriting large and complex cyber risks across a range of industries and territories. Alongside this, Nick has supported the development and launch of key cyber risk consultancy propositions aimed at improving customer risk posture. Prior to this, Nick worked in roles across underwriting, claims and sales as part of Zurich’s Graduate Programme. | Presentation: Cyber risk |
| Descartes Underwriting | UK & Ireland Business Development Director | Ola Jacob |  | Ola has enjoyed working in the London Market Insurance Sector for over twelve years on UK Retail, Product Recall, Terrorism, Onshore Energy and Parametric. Ola's background in Human-Computer Interaction and Psychology has fuelled his passion for working on new approaches to risk transfer and managing risk for clients. He's proud to be named Insurance Times Technology Champion of the Year. He has just become the Business Development Director for the UK & Ireland for Descartes Underwriting, a specialist parametric insurance MGA and insurer who covers natural catastrophe exposure globally. | Presentation & panel discussion: NatCat trends accelerating alternative risk transfer solutions |
| Bechtel | Risk Manager | Paul Aird |  | Paul has been a corporate risk and insurance manager for over 30 years on a global basis. He has been a Risk & Insurance Manager for Bechtel (a global engineering and construction company) for most of his career (23+ years). He is currently based in London and the Risk Manager for Bechtel’s Infrastructure Division. This work has involved being responsible for the placement of insurance and the allocation of contractual risk for a variety of business lines including Power, Oil and Gas, Government and Infrastructure and he has worked extensively in both the USA and London with additional time living in Singapore, Dubai and Zurich. | Fireside discussion: Leadership approach to managing risk on large construction projects Panel discussion: Emerging risks and insurance market response Panel discussion: Professional Liability – What does the London Market have to offer? |
| SCOR | Global Practice Lead for Construction Claims | Paulina Herrington |  | Paulina joined SCOR UK in June 2022 as Global Practice Lead for Construction Claims. Prior to joining SCOR, she spent almost 11 years at Liberty Specialty Markets as Senior Claims Specialist handling large and complex energy and construction claims. Before Liberty, Paulina spent almost 4 years working in the energy loss adjusting division of Charles Taylor. Paulina is originally from Poland and has been in the UK since 2007. She also lived in Qingdao in China for two years where she studied Mandarin Chinese. Paulina has an outstanding story in terms of her career journey and demonstrates that hard work and determination can enable you to achieve your goals in life. | Panel discussion: Claims – trends & future |
| Zurich Insurance Company | Credit Lines Chief Underwriting Officer | Piergiorgio D'Ignazio |  | Piergiorgio D’Ignazio is the Global Head of Credit Lines for the Zurich Group. He has more than 25 years of experience in financial markets, banking and insurance. Prior to joining Zurich in 2017, Piergiorgio was the Chief Risk Officer of SACE, the Italian export credit agency, and held various positions as senior executive or board member for various trade insurance and factoring companies in the group and in other financial institutions. Before SACE, he worked for several major financial institutions in Italy and Europe. He holds a M.Sc. in Computer Engineering from University of Pisa. | Workshop: Contractor / subcontractor insolvency |