For future speaking opportunities, email sbrown@commercialriskonline.com
| Company | Job Title | Name | Profile Picture | Speaker Bio | Speaking At |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HDI Global SE, UK & Ireland | Principal Risk Engineer | Mark Allan |  | Within the insurance industry, Mark works in Risk Engineering for the Construction and Engineering sectors, undertaking UK and international CAR and EAR surveys for projects valued anything between a £few million up to €1bn within the building, tunnelling, dams, transportation and industrial sectors. He also provides desk top review and technical guidance to underwriting and clients, as well as training and contribution to professional working groups including development of guidance papers. Prior to joining the insurance industry in 2010, Mark worked for 10 years within Civil Engineering Industry, working on heavy civil engineering projects within transportation, power distribution, and aviation sectors in both site and design based roles. | Workshop: How to mitigate water damage risks |
| Aon | Executive Director | Tom Anderson |  | Tom has 20 years’ experience in construction and construction insurance. His career was spent at one of the UK’s largest contractors where he led their insurance and risk management programme. Now at Aon he is now focussed on supporting the Professional Services team and their clients with insight and innovation. | Presentation: Professional liability – what to expect next |
| Wint AI | UK Insurance Partnership Manager | Rory Baker |  | - | Workshop: Leaks, losses and liability: the AI revolution in water risk prevention |
| Swiss Re Corporate Solutions | Global Head Engineering & Construction | Manuela Baroncini |  | - | Panel discussion: Major risks and insurance market outlook |
| Descartes Underwriting | Head of EMEA Distribution & Client Management | Blanca Berruguete |  | From Descartes’ Madrid office, Blanca is responsible for EMEA business development, client services, and leads the European commercial team. She reports to Descartes’ co-founder and Chief Insurance Officer, Sébastien Piguet. During her 25 years serving clients and brokers in the commercial insurance sector, Blanca has developed a keen focus on building value for clients by listening to their needs. Most recently, she was Global Industry Solutions Director for Construction at Allianz Commercial, working closely with underwriters and key account executives to build industry-specific expertise and best practices. She previously served in leadership roles in broking and underwriting, both in London and Madrid, at firms including Generali, the Corporation of Lloyd’s of London, AIG, Zurich Insurance, as well as Heath Lambert and AJ Gallagher. She is an executive committee member of the International Engineering Insurance Association (IMIA). | Panel discussion: Climate change and extreme weather – who bears the risk? |
| McKinsey & Company | Associate Partner | Birgit Biemans |  | - | Keynote address: Construction market economic outlook |
| Aon | Global Managing Director, Climate Risk Consulting | William Bruce |  | William has 25 years risk consulting experience and leads Aon’s global climate risk consulting team, which works to support clients through profiling and quantifying the risks and opportunities arising from the climate transition. Before joining Aon, William was at WTW from 2016-2022, where he was Global Head of Enterprise Risk Consulting, Risk & Analytics and responsible for Transition Risk engagements for corporates, working with organisations to help them identify and assess threats and opportunities from a changing climate and in so doing, meet guidance provided by TCFD. From 2007-2016 William worked at Marsh where he was responsible for consulting services across industries and a member of the management team. Whilst at MMC, William worked on secondment for Oliver Wyman where he led a large team, involved in delivering a large European banking engagement. William spent the first 8 years of his career at the Big 4 (1999-2007) on the advisory side of both EY (FS) and PwC (Sustainability). | Panel discussion: Climate change and extreme weather – who bears the risk? |
| Concirrus | Product Manager | Tom Butler |  | Tom Butler is Product Manager at Concirrus, where he leads the development of AI-powered platforms designed to modernise risk workflows in specialty insurance. With deep expertise across both the London and US markets, Tom plays a key role in bringing innovative, data-driven products to life—enabling underwriters, MGAs, and carriers to accelerate decision-making, respond to evolving risks, and unlock scalable growth. His focus is on building solutions that don’t just automate, but meaningfully improve underwriting outcomes in complex lines like construction, marine, and PV&T. | Workshop: Beyond blueprints – how tech is reshaping construction for risk managers |
| Network Rail | Risk Management Director | Wesley Cadby |  | Wes is an accomplished risk management professional with extensive experience in both the public and private sectors, specialising in the construction and nuclear industries. He has successfully delivered Enterprise Risk Management frameworks in large organisations and led risk management on major infrastructure projects. He is currently the Risk Management Director for the TransPennine Route Upgrade major programme; a major multi-billion-pound programme of railway improvements for the North of the UK. He has previously served on the Board of the Institute of Risk Management, and is a key member of their Infrastructure Risk Management special interest group. | Breakfast session workshop: Building the perfect construction risk manager – what skills are needed and is the profession ready for the future? |
| Landsec | Group Insurance Director | Cleo Curl |  | Cleo is Group Insurance Director within the Corporate Governance team of Landsec, a FTSE 100 company and is one of the leading real estate companies in the UK. Cleo has responsibility for risk financing of insurable risk for the group and coordination of risk management activity across the portfolio. She is a Chartered Insurance Risk Manager of the Chartered Insurance Institute and a Certified Risk Professional of the Institute of Risk Management. Cleo started her career in a small motor trade insurance broker before moving to in-house insurance roles in various industries such as Helphire, London Luton Airport, Luminar and Threadneedle before moving on to Landsec in 2016. | Panel discussion: The importance of collaborative sharing |
| QBE | Risk Solutions Practice Leader - Casualty & Construction | David Dexter |  | Dave joined QBE European Operations as their Casualty and Construction Risk Solutions Practice Leader in January 2020, bringing extensive experience of construction risk management to QBE, after 12 years working for other insurers in a variety of risk engineering management roles. Prior to that, Dave worked for a prominent risk management consultancy where he worked for over 15 years in a wide range of industries including construction, utilities, aerospace, heavy engineering and recycling. He started his career with the HSE working for several years as one of HM Inspectors. Dave is a Chartered Safety Practitioner and a member the Construction Insurance Risk Engineering Group. | Workshop: Mental Health – the hidden claims driver |
| Mott MacDonald | Senior Associate Risk Manager | Anna Dowle |  | Anna is a seasoned risk professional with a diverse background across various sectors and government departments. She has spearheaded effective risk management in multi-million-pound endeavours, ensuring that both threats and opportunities are well understood. A specialist in risk management at all levels, Anna has a focus on open communication. She is a skilled consultant, facilitator, and trainer, specialising in enterprise and strategic risk, as well as bid, portfolio, and project risk management. Helping businesses to identify and manage risks, she has developed robust continuity and crisis management strategies. | Quick fire presentation: Learning from failures – is AI the answer to effective risk management? |
| SCOR | Senior Underwriter | Vicky Evans |  | Vicky joined SCOR in January 2024, she was previously at Chubb where she was a Senior EIL Underwriter for over 10 years and prior to that was with ACE and AIG. Vicky has extremely broad experience of the EIL market and environmental risks with nearly 20 years in the industry including M&A transactions, large global multinational portfolios, mining and construction risks. Vicky has a BSc in Geology from the University of Bristol and an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London. Prior to joining the insurance industry Vicky worked as an environmental consultant for Laing Technology Group, WS Atkins and RSK. | Workshop: De-risking ecological restoration projects |
| Aon | Managing Director Global Construction & Energy | David Gierski |  | David has more than 25 years of service in the insurance industry with 20+ years spent on carrier side from field risk engineering up to group head of commercial lines. David served in Asia for couple of years. Since 2018 David has moved to broking and he joined AON as EMEA Property Broking Director in 2022. In his role, David is supporting program structuring including parametric insurance and alternative risk transfer. | Panel discussion: When parametric solutions work |
| Zurich Insurance Group | Head of Energy, Marine & Construction | Richard Gordon |  | Richard is currently the Head of Energy Marine and Construction for Zurich Commercial Insurance UK based in London, UK. Before taking on this role, he has been Head of Construction for Zurich in London and Underwriting Manager for Engineering Lines for Zurich Commercial Insurance in Dubai, UAE. Prior to joining Zurich, he worked in Engineering Insurance as a Construction Underwriter with Infrassure Ltd based in Zurich, CH working in the Construction and Infrastructure Team. Richard is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Member of the Institution of Civil Engineer. He has worked on complex Infrastructure Projects in the UK and overseas in India and Kazakhstan. | Panel discussion: Major risks and insurance market outlook |
| Zurich Commercial Insurance UK, Zurich Insurance Group | Head of Captives & ART | Esme Gould |  | Esme has 10 years of experience with Zurich Insurance in London. In early 2023 she was appointed Head of Captives & ART for Zurich UK, having spent the previous 9 years underwriting Energy & Heavy Industries for large multi-nationals in the London Market. Esme particularly enjoys working closely with customers and brokers to navigate complex international programmes, whilst also delivering continuous improvement in service and building differentiating propositions. | Panel discussion: Europe's changing captives landscape |
| Charles Taylor Adjusting | Managing Director Construction & Engineering | Marcus Gresham |  | Marcus is MD of CTA’s Construction and Engineering team. He started his adjusting career in 1986, and since 1989 has specialised exclusively in construction related claims. He has handled claims on many of the UK’s highest profile civil engineering and building projects, including the Jubilee Line Extension; Tate Modern; Heathrow Terminal 5; Wembley Stadium; Canary Wharf; and the Glasgow School of Art refurbishment. He has been Network Rail’s CAR and PL adjuster for 25 years. He works mainly in the UK but frequently provides practical advice and assistance to colleagues and Insurers on claims issues on international construction projects. | Panel discussion: Design & Construct coverage issues |
| Aon | Design Firms Specialist Risks | Oliver Heaton |  | - | Presentation: Professional liability – what to expect next |
| Aon | Senior Vice President | Todd Henderson |  | Todd joined Aon in 2020. He quickly assumed responsibility for large construction client accounts at Aon Montreal. He began his career in an insurance coverage and defense law firm in Montreal, before moving to insurance and risk management at global engineering and construction firm AtkinsRéalis. There in his role as Claims Officer, he was responsible for insurance claim handling and resolution, in addition to captive insurance operations and global insurance program development, budget preparation, M&A due diligence and integration, and presentations to Executives and Board of Directors. | Panel discussion: Europe's changing captives landscape |
| SCOR | Global Practice Lead for Construction Claims | Paulina Herrington |  | Paulina has over 18 years of claims handling experience predominantly within CAR, EAR, onshore energy and power generation. Paulina joined SCOR UK in June 2022 as Global Practice Lead for Construction Claims where her focus is on managing large lead construction claims worldwide, with a large proportion of her portfolio being Builders Risk losses in the US. Prior to joining SCOR, she spent almost 11 years at Liberty Specialty Markets as a Senior Claims Specialist handling large and complex energy and construction claims. Before Liberty, Paulina spent 4 years working in the energy loss adjusting division of Charles Taylor. Paulina is also a deputy chair of the IUA’s Construction and Engineering Claims Committee which focuses on promoting good practice, hosting educational presentations and sharing industry insights within the London market claims community. | Panel discussion: The importance of collaborative sharing |