David Alvarez, VP, Senior Executive General Adjuster, Engle Martin
David is a Sr. Executive General Adjuster and has been with Engle Martin and Associates for over 17 years. He is responsible for handling complex, commercial property claims and mainly in the Construction, Builders Risk, DSU and large commercial property claims arena. David is the Construction Practice Group Lead at Engle Martin.
David began his career in 1996 with Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. During his tenure he held many positions at Liberty and became a member of the property department at Liberty in 1998 and began his career handling large commercial property claims including hospitality, industrial, inland marine, cargo, construction and other commercial property claims. In 2006 he came over to Engle Martin and continued honing his skills and continued to successfully adjust commercial property claims. Along with the daily routine of construction and complex commercial claims, David has responded to every Catastrophic event since 2000 including Hurricane Katrina, Sandy, Irma, Michael, Ida and many others.
David has an undergraduate degree in Health Science from State University of New York at Cortland.
Michelle Banik, Senior Claims Specialist, Munich Re
Michelle J. Banik is a dedicated professional with over 30 years of experience in the insurance and reinsurance industries. She currently serves as VP, Claims Specialist Senior at Munich Re in Princeton, New Jersey. Her expertise lies in managing complex claims, including reinsurance, large commercial property, and excess/surplus claims adjusting. Michelle is known for her exceptional communication and people skills, as well as her ability to manage complex claims and litigation files across all 50 states.
Before joining Munich Re, Michelle worked as a Property Claims Supervisor at The Philadelphia Contributionship for 11 years. In this role, she was responsible for the successful performance and development of her staff (both Field as well as Inside Reps), updating various departmental reports, conducted quarterly audits, yearly reviews and acting as a liaison between different departments to ensure a cohesive work environment. Michelle also contributed to the development of staff, and managed cross-departmental functions.
Michelle also worked at Crum & Forster, where she was promoted from Property Field Analyst to General Adjuster . She was responsible for the entire adjustment process of large losses with in the region as well as adjusting losses at the request of other regions. Additionally, she provided training to representatives at the request of other regions. Michelle also served as Property Claims Manager with The Green Tree Group, managing her staff as well as interacting with the underwriting and brokerage functions to ensure successful customer experience. The Michelle holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Neumann University, where she honed her skills in problem-solving and negotiation. She is also NFIP Certified, holds the PCLS designation, as well as the Texas All Lines Adjusters License.
Chris Dineen, Director of Property Claims Preparation, Valuation and Advocacy, AON
Chris is a Director in the Property Claims Preparation, Advocacy and Valuation group. This group assists policyholders prepare and present Property Damage,
Business Interruption, Builders Risk, Construction, Cyber and other complex claims. Chris has over 36 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Aon, Chris worked for over 13 years at FM Global and 10 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He was then a partner at Dempsey Partners which was purchased by Aon in June 2013. Experience includes handling large claims in a variety of industries and has been retained by insurers, policyholders, reinsurers, captive insurers, and their counsel.
Mr. Dineen has been involved in catastrophe handling throughout the U.S., Mexico, Caribbean, Australia, South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, India and China
including extensive work for September 11 claims, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, Chilean Earthquake, Hurricane Odile, Hurricane Maria and numerous other
disasters and losses. In addition, while working and living in Australia, Mr. Dineen consulted with excess insurers, captive insurance companies, fronting insurance
companies, and first party insurers in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore and throughout Southeast Asia.
Chris is a Director in the Rapid Response team and will triage the situation, provide direction for coverage determination, compile the narrative of the claim, prepare
Property Damage and Time Element claims, coordinate other experts as needed and for some claims act as advocate. Chris is the person within the team who has
handled the majority of the group’s share of cyber claims to date.
Paul Ferland, Member, Cozen O’Connor
Paul is the co-chair of the Property Insurance Group at Cozen O’Connor. He concentrates his practice in first-party property insurance coverage and litigation. Paul specializes in analyzing and advising clients on coverage under builder’s risk policies, including case law interpretation of various conditions and exclusions such as those set forth by the London Engineering Group regarding construction and design deficiencies. Further, Paul is well-known in the industry for providing domestic and international clients with expert advice on builder’s risk claims, and litigating builder’s risk claims in various jurisdictions around the country. Paul also frequently presents seminars and workshops to advise clients of recent trends and issues in property insurance law.
Jeff Fink, Senior Claims Director, Chubb
Jeff Fink is an experienced Large Loss property claim specialist with approximately 22 years of experience in the insurance industry. Upon graduating from Ohio State University, Mr. Fink began his career as a staff adjuster with State Auto Mutual. During his nearly 20-year time with State Auto, Mr. Fink advanced from the staff adjuster role to finishing his time as their Large Loss Property Manager.
In early 2022, Mr. Fink accepted the position of Sr Claim Director with Chubb, focusing on Complex commercial, builders risk and engineered risk claims. He has extensive experience navigating complex coverage questions of consequence and property damage evaluations. Mr. Fink has previously served as a subject matter expert for Business Income coverage and was a trainer for new agents on the claims process.
Mr. Fink graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelors in Human Ecology (Consumer Affair focus) degree in May of 2021 and holds the AIC designation.
Shirley Forer, VP of Construction Risk Management, The Related Companies
Shirley Forer is the Vice President of Construction Risk Management for The Related Companies, LP (Related), a premier owner and developer of real estate with assets across the United States and beyond. In this role, she is responsible for all aspects of risk and insurance for Related’s development pipeline which includes projects ranging from single asset repositioning to ground-up, multi-billion dollar mixed used communities. Among some of Shirley’s recent initiatives is the creation of a Construction Safety Roundtable within Related, which has led to a company-wide safety campaign.
Shirley brings over 20 years of experience, having coordinated insurance placements for some of the largest development projects in the U.S, including Brookfield Properties’ Manhattan West and Related’s Hudson Yards. Previously, Shirley worked as an insurance broker and served as an advocate for the New York City School Construction Authority’s rolling Owner Controlled Insurance Program (OCIP), which is the largest rolling OCIP in the U.S.
Shirley holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from DePaul University, and is currently pursuing a Master of Legal Studies degree from Pepperdine University. Her professional accreditations include designations in Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Construction Risk Insurance Specialist (CRIS), OSHA-30 Safety Certification, and insurance licenses in the states of Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island.
Robbie Hammett, Senior Underwriter, AXA XL
Robbie is a Senior Underwriter for AXA / XL’s Construction Property team in Atlanta. He has been in the insurance industry for 22 years, starting his career as a Graduate Trainee at Marsh before switching to the underwriting side for the past 19 years. Prior to joining AXA / XL, he managed the South Region for Zurich’s Construction Property team.
Robbie has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Risk Management & Insurance and a Master’s Degree in Sport Administration.
At AXA / XL, Robbie targets a wide range of builders risk business ranging from manufacturing and industrial projects to heavy civil works and four-wall building construction.
Paulina Herrington, Global Practice Lead for Construction Claims, SCOR
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.
Chris Hrach, Resource Lead, Construction Schedule and Delay Consulting, MKA
Christopher L. Hrach has over 25 years of experience in the construction industry, gaining his initial experience working for large commercial construction contractors. Mr. Hrach is a Resource Lead at MKA International, Inc. (MKA) overseeing and providing expert services for builder’s risk and large property loss insurance claims. He provides construction management and Critical Path Method (CPM) scheduling services and as an expert has testified in complex matters for construction claims and disputes.
Mr. Hrach’s experience includes development of CPM repair schedules, analysis of schedule delays and as-built schedules, determining periods of repair, damage assessments and repair scope development. He has extensive experience with developing analyses of contractor estimates, actual costs, soft costs and assists with the analysis of business interruption costs. Projects have involved high-rise and low-rise buildings, educational, medical, government, and recreation facilities; multi- and single-family residential, and civil projects including highways, bridges, pipelines, dams and utility plants. Mr. Hrach is a certified Planning and Schedule Professional (PSP) with AACE International.
Melissa Impastato, Senior Managing Director, J.S. Held
Melissa Impastato is a Senior Managing Director in J.S. Held’s Builder’s Risk practice. She has been a construction professional for nearly 20 years and has extensive experience with project management, general contracting, and construction operations. Melissa’s area of expertise concentrates on construction planning and scheduling, cost evaluation, and business planning. Prior to joining J.S. Held, Melissa was a Vice President of Operations for Urban Investment Partners (UIP), a vertically integrated owner/developer/contractor specializing in multi-family investments. At UIP, Melissa held an executive management role in their construction group and focused on preconstruction, contract negotiation, personnel management, and project performance.
Additionally, Melissa spent 15 years at Clark Construction Group, one of the nation’s top contractors as well as the largest privately held general contractor. Early on in her career at Clark, Melissa was responsible for on-site management for a number of large projects including high rise residential, commercial, government and healthcare buildings. She has managed over $200 million dollars in projects throughout her career. Later in her tenure at Clark, she was in charge of Clark’s Enterprise Planning and Scheduling group, which oversaw the performance of a 2 billion portfolio of projects annually and provided construction scheduling support services for Clark’s projects nationwide.
Tyler James, SVP, Construction Property Broking Leader of North America, NFP
As Construction Property Broking Leader for North America, Tyler is responsible for Property Lines go-to-market strategy, including Builder’s Risk, Contractor’s Equipment and Fixed Property coverages. His duties also include maintaining and developing carrier relationships, creative program structure solutions, and identifying key coverage needs to effectively mitigate client’s risk.
Prior to joining NFP, Tyler was the Midwest Construction Property Manager for Zurich North America. His duties including implementation of underwriting strategies, broker, and client relationship management, as well as identifying product and coverage innovation opportunities. Throughout his career, Tyler has had the opportunity to work with many ENR Top 100 contractors, as well as some of the largest owner/developers in the country. His expertise includes large real estate, manufacturing, renewable energy, and infrastructure projects.
Tyler holds a bachelor’s in finance from the University of Illinois, as well as a Commercial Lines Coverage Specialist (CLCS) designation
Jason Keen, Executive General Adjuster, Sedgwick
Jason Keen is an Executive General Adjuster in the Dallas, TX office of Sedgwick. He has worked in the insurance industry for more than fifteen years beginning his career with Liberty Mutual as a field property adjuster. From there, he joined Travelers Insurance Company as a Catastrophe field adjuster and transitioned to a position as a commercial claims adjuster before joining Vericlaim, Inc. (now part of Sedgwick) in 2011.
Jason is a graduate of Delta State University where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Master of Business Administration degrees. Since entering the insurance industry, he has earned the Associate in Claims (AIC) designation and is currently working toward his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation. He is also a Haag Certified Commercial Roof Inspector. In his current role as Executive General Adjuster, he works on complex commercial large losses of all perils, with specialization in wind / hail claims, among other areas. He has experience in large commercial property losses involving REITs, Healthcare facilities, Hospitality, Multi-Family, Builder Risk and Equipment Breakdown losses involving direct insurers, complex market policies
and claims represented by Public Adjusters / Attorneys.
Kanen Matthews, Large Loss Claims Specialist, AXA XL
Kanen Matthews is currently a Large Loss Claims Specialist with AXA XL. Kanen is based in the Philadelphia area and has over 10 years’ experience in the insurance industry. Kanen began her career at Hartford Steam Boiler as a staff adjuster handling commercial and residential reinsurance Equipment Breakdown claims. After 3 years in a specialty adjuster and business development role, Kanen moved to Mutual Boiler Re (FM Global) to continue handling claims and work on the partner company relationship. Kanen left the reinsurance world and joined AXA XL as a Claims Specialist in 2017, handling complex commercial property losses in Equipment Breakdown, Energy and Construction lines. Since joining AXA XL, Kanen has assumed responsibility for oversight of the Builder’s Risk book of business.
Kanen has experience with losses involving contractor’s extra expense, delay in completion, subcontractor/general contractor disputes and owner insurable interest. Projects insured by AXA XL range from $10M – $1B in value and vary from apartment renovation work to bridge completion.
Kanen is a graduate of the University of Delaware with a Bachelor’s in Music Management and holds a CPCU designation.
Gregory Podolak, Partner, Saxe Doernberger & Vita P.C.
Gregory D. Podolak has spent his entire career advocating on behalf of corporate policyholders, navigating issues involving all lines of coverage, with a wealth of experience strategizing risk transfer/financing. Greg assists clients in all manner of concerns from coverage placement and drafting contracts to complex litigation.
Greg’s litigation and appellate practice includes successful arguments in multiple jurisdictions, which includes a $40 million builder’s risk claim in a Maryland Federal Court case, involving previously unsettled issues of law related to coverage for construction scheduling impact costs, and a multi-million dollar bridge collapse builders risk lawsuit in Florida bankruptcy court.
He has represented clients on countless residential and commercial construction defect claims
throughout the country, and successfully advocated multiple seminal state supreme court decision, including a New York Court of Appeals decision resolving critical “additional insured” law, a Florida Supreme Court ruling deciding notice of right to repair is a “suit,” and a New Jersey Supreme Court decision that construction defect damages trigger CGL insurance.
David Pryce, Senior Partner, Fenchurch Law
David Pryce is the Senior Partner of Fenchurch Law, which he founded in 2010, and which was the first law firm in the UK to focus exclusively on representing policyholders in coverage disputes with their insurers. Fenchurch Law is top ranked by both Legal 500 and Chambers, and David is individually ranked in Band 1 of both directories. David’s practice focuses on high value and complex insurance disputes, usually with a connection to constructions risks, and often with a multi-jurisdictional or international element.
Josh Schonberger, Director of Risk Management, Clark Construction
Josh Schonberger is a Senior Director in the Risk Management department at Clark Construction. He is based in Chicago and has been in the construction industry for over 18 years. Josh began his career in a project management role overseeing project controls and managing trade partners on large projects within the Federal, Aviation, Correctional and Healthcare sectors. After 10 years on the operations side, Josh transitioned into a role with Clark’s risk management department. In that role Josh supports projects nationally on all matters related to bonding and insurance including pursuit of new work, contract negotiations, property and casualty placements, and CCIP & SDI program administration. Josh also has experience with complex SDI, property and casualty claims.
Darren Smart, Global Head of Construction, Allianz
Darren has 29 years’ underwriting experience in the Construction Insurance industry.
He joined Allianz in March of 2024 to lead the company’s integrated Global Construction practice, incorporating the AGCS Large Construction and the Midcorp Construction portfolios. Darren resumes his career at Allianz where he began underwriting in 1995.
Prior to joining Allianz Darren was Global Head of Construction for Liberty Specialty Markets, a division of Liberty Mutual. Before that he was Facultative Manager of Technical Lines at Trans Re.
Based in the United Kingdom, Darren is a previous Chairman of the London Engineering Group.
Richard Sprock, Partner, Wood Smith Henning & Berman
Richard Sprock is a partner in the firm’s New York office. He is recognized in both domestic and London insurance markets for his guidance in complex first-party and third-party insurance matters and his results in complex insurance litigation, arbitration, and appeals. He routinely advises the world’s largest domestic and international insurers on matters involving builder’s risk, equipment breakdown, business interruption and first-party property coverages for occupancies spanning the typical mixed-use housing, travel and leisure to manufacturing, farming, transport, renewables, power generation, chemical, oil and gas. “Our advice on coverages tailored to a particular business or industry benefits from our decades of experience understanding how these businesses operate and the challenges they face when
losses occur and our clients appreciate our ability to distill often difficult questions into a resolution plan that works for them and their policyholders.”
In addition to his coverage work, Richard is also experienced in commercial litigation, product liability, subrogation, and construction. His wide-ranging
and varied experience includes cases involving businesses throughout the United States and abroad. Richard obtained his law degree from Brooklyn Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Binghamton University. He is licensed to practice law in New York State as well as the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York and Southern District of Texas.
Ashley R. Sauvé, Director of Complex Claims, Turner Construction
Ashley has a broad range of insurance coverage and risk management experience, with specific focus on complex construction claims under all types of insurance policies, including consolidated insurance policies, general liability, professional, and protective policies. Prior to joining Turner Construction Company, Ashley was in-house coverage counsel at The Hartford focusing on insurance coverage and strategy for the most complex exposures. Ashley began her career as an associate at Saxe, Doernberger & Vita P.C. exclusively representing policyholders in insurance coverage disputes.
Sheri Wilson, SVP, National Property Claims Director of Lockton Companies
Sheri has more than 20 years experience in property claims. She provides technical expertise, advocacy, and industry trend analysis for domestic and international
property claim exposures. She leads the National Property Claim Catastrophe Team and is an active member of Lockton’s Global Property Practice. Responsibilities include analysis of loss and exposure data, policy wording review and revision to ensure contract certainty, communication of adverse claim and loss trends to Lockton Associates and clients, and partnering with individual senior property claim leaders within each of the carrier markets,
including elevation of claim issues.
In addition, she leads all CAT claim related activities and provides guidance, training and development, and thought leadership to the property claim
resources contained within each of the local Lockton offices locations. A noted expert in property insurance claims, Sheri creates white papers,
articles, and other resource materials on emerging issues and trends. She is a frequent speaker at Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS) events. She
also is the author of several property claim-related technical reports.