Speaker information: Construction Risk Management

Company	Job Title	Name	Speaker Bio	Speaking At
Swiss Re	Director, UK & Ireland Public Sector Lead, Public Sector Solutions	Aidan Kerr	Aidan leads on Swiss Re's engagement with Government and the public sector in the UK and Ireland. He has over 20 years' experience in banking, consulting, Government, and insurance. Before joining Swiss Re, Aidan was COO at Flood Re, which enables affordable home insurance to be available for people at risk of flooding in the UK. He led the design, build and operation of Flood Re which has, to date, helped over 500,000 homes access affordable flood cover. Prior to Flood Re, Aidan was the Head of Investment and Funding for Flood Risk Management at the Environment Agency.	Panel discussion: Climate change and extreme weather – who bears the risk?
Chubb	Property and Energy European Technical Claims Lead	Andy McAvan	Andy has 35 years’ experience in claims the majority relating to first party Property Energy Construction and Terrorism. He was part of the team that previously won the Major loss award at the British Insurance Awards and has handled many losses in excess of £100 million. He has also been involved in operation projects to create new claims systems and open new Chubb claims offices.	Panel discussion: Claims – how to navigate megatrends
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?
Royal BAM Group nv	Director Insurance	Bernard van den Berg	Bernard is a seasoned insurance professional with 30 years of experience, including 11 years at Royal BAM Group NV, 6 years as Insurance Manager at Ballast Nedam NV and 13 years in various sales roles at Rabobank.	Panel discussion: The importance of collaborative sharing
McKinsey & Company	Associate Partner	Birgit Biemans	-	Keynote address: Construction market economic outlook
Descartes	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. 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?
Swiss Re Corporate Solutions	Head E&C UK	Cedric Wong	-	Presentation: Flood risk – the journey from knowledge to protection
Rimkus	Insurance Delays Director	Chantel Russell	Chantel is a chartered structural engineer with 11 years of experience in both design and fabrication, having worked in multi-disciplinary teams in order to deliver complex major projects. She has experience in offshore and onshore projects in design and analysis as well as experience as a Lead Engineer on major offshore oil and gas projects. Chantel also has site experience in the Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) construction yard in South Korea on the fabrication of an offshore platform. In addition, Chantel has worked as a structural engineer working in the nuclear industry in Paris. Chantel has 6 years’ experience in delay analysis, working on delay claims in Insurance and Construction in a variety of sectors (Delay in Start-up [DSU], Business Interruption [BI], and Construction Delay claims). Over the last 6 years, her technical industry experience has enabled her to understand the intricacies of construction delays and utilise her knowledge in the analysis of delay claims (DSU, BI, and Construction).	Panel discussion: Delays on construction projects – managing and mitigating the risks
Aon	Head of Strategic Risk Consulting	Charles Winter	Charles has over 35 years’ experience in the insurance sector and has worked for Aon for over 20 years. He is currently Head of Strategic Risk Consulting for the Aon Risk Consulting business in the UK. Previous roles have been in corporate broking and underwriting.	Panel discussion: Europe's changing captives landscape
Turner & Townsend UK	Director and Testifying Expert	Chris Hillier	Chris is part of the Turner & Townsend Expert Team based in the London HQ Office. He has over forty years of experience as a Chartered Engineer as part of the project management teams in many energy related major and mega projects worldwide, with over twenty of those years specialising in dispute resolution and expert witness work. He has acted as an expert in over 75 cases and has been cross examined 30 times in the Technology and Construction Court, Commercial Court and both domestic and international arbitrations on many continents of the world as both expert or witness of fact, along with representation in mediation, as a Dispute Board Member, being the Adjudicator, and as an Expert Determiner.	Panel discussion: Claims – how to navigate megatrends Workshop: Avoiding conflicts & disputes on construction projects
Allianz Commercial	Global Head of Construction Claims	Christian Kolbe	After working in the automobile industry developing diesel engine components, Christian joined Insurance in 2008 working as an Independent Loss Adjuster for Onshore Energy, Property, Engineering and Construction losses in different countries of Latin America, before leading a loss adjusting office in Brazil. He joined Allianz Commercial in 2018 and has been Claims Manager and Field Adjuster for Engineering and Property in Germany before joining Global Claims Key Case Management, recently also dealing with on/offshore wind/solar and IDI losses. In his current position, Christian is Global Head of Construction Claims, responsible for the Global Construction Claims book within AGCS.	Panel discussion: Claims – how to navigate megatrends
K&L Gates LLP	Partner	Clare Kempkens	Clare Kempkens is a partner based in K&L Gates’ London office and is the Practice Group Co-Ordinator for the firm’s global Maritime and Offshore Energy Group. Clare advises a wide range of contractor clients on both contentious and non-contentious issues connected with offshore construction contracts and insurance around the world. On a day-to-day basis she advises on shipbuilding, EPC contracts and associated insurance cover with a particular focus on WELCAR and WINDCAR. Clare specialises in offshore energy disputes with a heavy technical content including claims concerning the design, engineering, construction and insurance of a variety of offshore projects.	Panel discussion: Delays on construction projects – managing and mitigating the risks
Aon	Global Claims Leader, Construction & Infrastructure Industry Specialties Claims Leader, Asia	Clarence Ting	Clarence has been working in insurance since 2003. During this time he has been effectively managing Energy, Construction, Machinery Breakdown, Delay Start-Up and Business Interruption claims globally. Prior to joining Aon, he worked with global reinsurance firms leading their major and complex losses in the region. In his current role, he is a member of Aon’s Global Construction & Infrastructure Leadership team and a member of the Global Claims Leadership team delivering significant client value through Aon’s escalation protocols, and dedicated Claims Advocacy. Clarence is empaneled with the Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC) and a member of the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID).	Panel discussion: Claims – how to navigate megatrends
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
Sacyr	Group Chief Risk Officer	Cristina Martinez Garcia	Cristina is a globally recognised non-executive director and Chief Risk Officer in SACYR with over 20 years of business leadership experience in complex multinational environments. Her executive experience spans industries including aviation and consumer products. She is an awarded pioneer in leveraging risk governance and technology for growth and turnaround, known for helping CEOs and Boards align corporate strategy with the advanced governance of risk-taking and integrate comprehensive risk & insurance management frameworks and solutions. Currently serving on the boards of the insurtech IMeureka and the Institute of Actuaries in Spain, and member of the advisory panel of experts to the EU Commission involved in the drafting of new legislation on risk, insurance, pension funds, sustainability, digitalisation and corporate governance. Previously, Vice President and Board Member at FERMA in Belgium and a Stakeholder Supervisory Board Member at The Institute of Directors and CROs in the US. Chartered Actuary and Economist with a Ph.D. in Risk and Insurance, Qualified Risk Director®, Certificate in Risk Governance®, Executive Leadership Programme at ESADE, and “2024 Women to Watch” by Business Insurance.	Case study presentation: Rethinking risk – a catalyst for transforming infrastructure
HDI UK & Ireland	Captive Manager	Dan Sammons	Dan Sammons joined HDI in February 2025 from AIG, where he held a variety of roles across the Alternative Risk Transfer and Captive Underwriting units, most recently as Head of Alternative Risk Solutions UK. In this newly created role at HDI, Sammons brings extensive experience in International Programmes, Captives and Alternative Risk Transfer to further enhance the firm’s proposition to deliver strategic long-term growth. Dan will lead HDI's Captives growth strategy across UK and Ireland, and help further cement HDI’s position as a global leader in Captives and Alternative Risk Transfer.	Panel discussion: Europe's changing captives landscape
Allianz Commercial	Global Head of Construction	Darren Smart	Darren is Global Head of Construction at Allianz Commercial. He returned to Allianz in 2024, where he started his underwriting career as an underwriter at Allianz Cornhill (Allianz UK), before working at Trans Re as Assistant Vice President. He joined Liberty Specialty Markets in 2007 as Construction Regional Product Line Manager for EMEA, before becoming Global Construction Practice Leader role in 2016.	Panel discussion: Major risks and insurance market outlook
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
Aon	France Head of Construction and Natural Resources	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
Fenchurch Law	Senior Partner	David Pryce	David was a founding partner of Fenchurch Law, which was the first law firm in the UK to specialise exclusively in representing policyholders in insurance coverage disputes. Ranked as a leading individual by both Legal 500 and Chambers, David leads Fenchurch Law’s Reinsurance & International Risk practice group and has a particular focus on insurance disputes arising out of large construction projects both in the UK and abroad.	Presentation: LEG3 reform and Sky v Riverstone court ruling – market moving legal developments