Committee Members

Jason Behrer, AON

Jason Behrer joined AON in October 2024. Prior to AON, Jason worked with Starr Companies from May 2019 as the North America Construction Manager for Builder’s Risk. Prior to that, he had spent nearly 12 years with Liberty Mutual in offices around the world. He joined Liberty International Underwriters in May 2007 in the role of Construction Underwriter in San Francisco. After 4 years of managing the construction portfolio for Liberty in the Western U.S., he was invited to work with the London team to continue to develop his insurance and construction knowledge with a more global perspective. Whilst in London he worked on many +$1bn projects, including tunnels, bridges, refineries, and power generation facilities and was actively involved with the London Engineering Group (LEG). After 4 years in London as the lead Senior Underwriter for Liberty Specialty Markets, he returned to the US in 2015 to manage the Construction product line for LIU and reestablish LIU’s presence in the market.

Prior to entering the insurance industry, Jason worked for 5 years as an engineer and sales representative for PERI Formwork Systems, a German-based global concrete construction subcontractor. He started as a project engineer in the Boston office after university and then transferred to the Northern California office 3 years later. Jason holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Steve Gregoire, J.S. Held

Steve Gregoire has specialized over the last decade in providing investigative and forensic accounting services to the insurance industry related to the review of claims involving financial damages including business interruption losses, extra expense claims and property damage claims. In addition, he has assisted in various litigation support assignments including consultant to attorneys in damage claim analysis, preparation for depositions and information requests for discovery.

His experience includes work performed throughout the world involving petro-chemical and refining, conventional and renewable power generation, heavy industrial manufacturing, agricultural industries, steel manufacturers, private universities, food and product manufacturers, hospitality, small and large retail businesses and various service industries.

Marc Giovannetti, Lloyd Warwick International

Marc Giovannetti, has recently joined Lloyd Warwick International as US Director of Energy & Engineered Risk.  He has more than 25 years of insurance claim experience, with an extensive and diverse background involving Energy, Construction and Property risks. He has directly led the adjustment of a variety of complex losses applying his insurance market experience and technical expertise for the benefit all stakeholders involved in the claim process.  

Prior to joining Lloyd Warwick International, he was the energy practice group leader at Engle Martin where he managed a portfolio of complex Energy and Construction adjustment accounts and clients. He has held various management positions with international carriers in claims while directly overseeing major loss files.  Marc holds a Juris Doctorate from Pace Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from Manhattanville College.  

Jonathon Held, J.S. Held

Jonathon C. Held has been with J.S. Held since 1977 and has been President and CEO since 1985. During that period, he has overseen the growth of the firm from a small regional two-man consulting company into an internationally respected organization with global reach.

Jon has consulted on many of the largest and most complex catastrophic insurance claims in history, including the 1993 and 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in NY, the litigation between Firestone Bridgestone and its insurers for damages sustained to the Harbel Rubber plantation during the Liberian Civil War, the AOL Time Warner Center fire in NY, The Amtrak Superstorm Sandy litigation, and many of the world’s most visible claims. He is widely considered the expert of choice in large complex “bet the farm” cases.

With an unparalleled reputation in the dispute resolution arena, Jon has been a panelist in hundreds of claims and was the party appointed appraiser in the four largest claims ever to be resolved in the appraisal process. Throughout his career, he has testified in numerous courts across the United States and has considerable experience as an arbitrator and umpire.

Anthony Scariano, Sedgwick

Anthony is a Senior Executive General Adjuster in Sedgwick’s New York Office Property Department. Anthony’s area of expertise includes Builders Risk/Construction claims in various sectors. Other areas of expertise include manufacturing losses in industries such as Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Telecommunications, Heavy Metal Working, Hospitality, Semiconductor, Food Processing, Real Estate, Aerospace, Data Processing, and Steel.

Having a degree in Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering, Anthony started his insurance career as a Loss Prevention Engineer for Industrial Risk Insurers in 1989 and moved into Property Claims in 1991. Anthony moved to VeriClaim in October 2000 as an Executive General Adjuster.

Philip Silverberg, Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass

Phil Silverberg has more than thirty years of experience in counseling insurers and reinsurers in a wide range of first-party coverage matters, including builder’s risk claims. Phil’s litigation practice has included arbitrations, trials, and appeals. He has litigated in state and federal courts throughout the United States and has served as national coordinating counsel for insurers on matters arising out of 9/11 and other catastrophes, including Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. He also has lectured nationally and authored articles on reinsurance and various coverage issues including issues arising out of builder’s risk insurance. Phil is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and is admitted to the New York and New Jersey bars. He has been recognized for his achievements as an attorney in the field of insurance coverage by, among other organizations, Chambers USA and New York Super Lawyers.

Mark Katz, Ryan Specialty

Mark Katz is General Counsel of Ryan Specialty, a leading specialty insurance services organization providing wholesale brokerage, binding authority and managed underwriting services to retail brokers and insurers. Mark has the responsibility for leading the company’s Legal, Compliance and Regulatory functions.

Prior to joining Ryan Specialty, Mark was with Manhattan law firm Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass for 25 years, 18 as a partner, where he analyzed and litigated complex insurance coverage disputes with a special emphasis on commercial first-party property coverage litigation.

Patrick Kelleher, Meaden & Moore

Patrick has nearly two decades of experience working in the area of forensic and investigative accounting field. He has extensive experience in the commercial insurance claims area, evaluating claims of financial damages, including builder’s risk, business income, property and fidelity matters ranging from $50,000 to $150 million in damages.

Patrick’s engagements included a variety of different industries including agriculture, manufacturing, hospitality and construction. As a result of his experience, Patrick has also been involved in a number of litigation support and arbitration engagements where he has provided support and expert testimony.

Education: Providence College, Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Cum Laude; Boston College, Wallace E. Carroll School of Management, Masters in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance.

Stephanie Tocci, Marsh

Stephanie Tocci serves as a Senior Placement Specialist of Marsh within the National Property Construction Practice, advising clients with complex Builder’s Risk opportunities in the Real Estate, Manufacturing, Transportation, Infrastructure, and Healthcare industries. Also, she recently partnered with several internal stakeholders to also launch the nationwide Marsh Women In Construction (WIC) initiative.

Prior to joining Marsh, Stephanie worked at Chubb, Swiss Re, and HDR Engineering encompassing roles in loss control, underwriting, sales leadership, and project management. She holds a MBA in Finance and Management from Fordham University and a Bachelors Degree in Geology from Mount Holyoke College.

Monica Christopher, J.S. Held

Monica Christopher serves as the Builder’s Risk & Construction Symposium’s Event Chair. In her role, she oversees all aspects of the organization and event from start to finish. Monica is a highly organized and forward-thinking marketing and business development professional with 20 years of experience in developing integrated marketing strategies that support and align with sales and revenue goals.

She also currently holds the position of Chief Marketing Officer at J.S. Held LLC, Monica manages all marketing, digital, branding, and business development efforts for the organization. She also helps lead corporate development initiatives including communications, employee engagement, and training and development.

Monica is active in her community and serves on the Board of Directors of the Children’s Dream Fund, a not-for-profit agency dedicated to making dreams come true for children with a life-threatening illness. She was also a founding partner of the Tampa Bay Chapter of Social Venture Partners.

She holds a MBA degree from the University at Buffalo where she studied Marketing and Management.

Casey Gallagher, Engle Martin

Casey Gallagher serves as the Builder’s Risk & Construction Symposium’s event and marketing support member, playing a key role in the success of the symposium. In this capacity, she provides strategic and hands-on support to Monica and the committee members, overseeing marketing communications, website updates, LinkedIn advertising, event logistics, and sponsorship acquisition. Her contributions ensure the symposium remains a premier event within the construction and insurance sectors.

Casey’s involvement with the Builder’s Risk & Construction Committee stems from her collaboration with Monica during her tenure as a Marketing and Business Development Manager at J.S. Held. Her ability to foster relationships and drive engagement within the industry led her to a new opportunity in 2022, when she joined Engle Martin as a Senior National Account Executive. With over a decade of experience in the insurance industry and seven years dedicated to business development, Casey has cultivated a strong expertise in client relations, market strategy, and industry networking.

Casey holds an Associate of Arts in Business Administration and is actively pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Corporate Communications with a minor in Marketing. Passionate about professional growth, she continues to expand her knowledge and influence in the insurance and construction sectors through education, industry involvement, and relationship-building.

Katy Bryde, Old Republic

Katy Bryde joined Old Republic Specialty Insurance Underwriters, Inc. in April 2019 as a Director of Claims. Katy was promoted to a leadership role as an AVP of Claims in August 2021. In March of 2024, she was again promoted to another leadership role as VP of Claims, overseeing a team of three claims professionals. Currently, in addition to coordinating a team, Katy manages oversight of first party property and third party/liability claims in both the Programs and Alternative Risks/Municipalities business spaces. Katy has over thirteen years of insurance claims experience.

Prior to joining ORSIU, Katy was a Claims Specialist and Program Account Manager with AXA XL, directly handling Property, Construction and Environmental claims. She was also responsible for overseeing third party administrators relative to Programs business. Additionally, Katy previously worked as a Claims Examiner with Mutual Boiler Re (now FM Boiler Re) on complex Equipment Breakdown losses and began her career with Travelers where she was a Field Property Adjuster.

Katy earned a Bachelor of the Arts from The University of Maryland (2009) and obtained her law degree (JD) from Temple University in 2018. Enjoyment and fulfillment within her career stems from: developing, leading and consulting.

Eugene Choi, HDI Global

Eugene Choi leads the US Engineering Lines and Construction team for HDI Global Insurance Company and is based in Chicago, IL. He is responsible for the construction builders risk, renewable energy, contractors equipment, and civil engineering completed risks portfolios in the US . Before joining HDI, he was previously with Zurich, served clients in the insurance, oil and gas and construction industries at AT Kearney and began his career working on construction disputes.

He holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.

Eric Davis, Aon

Eric is a senior member of the national team within Aon’s Construction & Infrastructure practice. In this role he is responsible for the design, placement, and servicing of first-party property insurance programs for large, complex construction projects across a variety of industry segments.

Prior to joining Aon in 2022, Eric most recently served as a builder’s risk underwriter at Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance focusing on major energy, industrial, and heavy civil infrastructure construction projects.

Eric began his career in 2002 with Zurich where he ultimately held senior builder’s risk underwriting roles in their Dallas and London offices. While working in London, Eric was also involved with the London Engineering Group as both a company delegate and a member of the LEG Executive Committee. Following his time at Zurich, Eric worked in the risk management group at KBR, and was also a partner at Wortham Insurance in Houston where he focused on broking for a variety of builder’s risk and operational energy property placements.

Eric earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin in 2002.

Natalie Kenny, WTW

Natalie Kenny serves as a Senior Construction Property Broker for the Willis Towers Watson North American Builder’s Risk Broking Team and is based in New York, NY. In this role, Natalie is responsible for leading the placement design, marketing and implementation of large and complex construction property programs including Master Builder’s Risk, Project Builder’s Risk and Contractor’s Block. Additionally, Natalie nationally manages key carrier partner relationships in the construction property space.

Natalie joined WTW in 2022 but has served clients in the construction industry for 20 years delivering strategic builder’s risk property placement solutions for both contractors and owners. Prior to joining WTW, Natalie worked at Marsh where she led the construction builder’s risk center of excellence for the Northeast. She was responsible for working with clients from a wide range of industries including
contractors, real estate/developers, homebuilding, manufacturing, hospitality, and public authorities.

Lei Huang, Chubb

Lei Huang is the Vice President and Head of National Desk Unit for Chubb which is the division that oversees adjustment of all commercial first party claims using independent adjusters.  Lei also oversees claims and business relationships for Chubb’s multinational clients.  Prior to Chubb, Lei was with ACE Limited, Chubb’s predecessor company, AIG’s legal department. and Nationwide Insurance’s casualty claims department.

Erika Kilgore, Zachry

Erika Kilgore serves as the director of risk management for HBZ, Inc., a privately-owned enterprise with diverse operations including; aggregate mining, cement manufacturing, hotel operation, real estate development, and heavy/civil construction.  Erika and her team are responsible for risk management strategy, identifying new and ongoing exposures, and reducing and/or transferring the cost of risk for the enterprise.  For Zachry Construction Corporation, she focuses on efficient risk management for their own operations, as well as joint ventures which they lead or participate in throughout the country.

Prior to joining Zachry in April of 2012, Erika served as risk manager for six years at Moss & Associates, a Fort Lauderdale based contractor.  In addition to the traditional activities of a risk manager, Erika also managed and implemented Subguard and rolling CCIP programs for large residential projects.

Erika began her career with Allied North America, where she was an account manager. Erika worked in risk management for Skanska USA Building Inc. where she developed and implemented Skanska’s insurance training platform related to risk transfer and its impacts to project profitability.  During her tenure with Skanska, she earned her Bachelors in Risk Management from Georgia State University.

Esdras Martinez, Munich Re

Esdras is a senior member of the Munich Re Engineering & Construction team, part of Munich Re’s global Facultative & Corporate unit. He is responsible for underwriting and reviewing first-party property insurance programs for construction projects across a variety of industry segments, including large, complex civil, industrial, power, renewables, and energy projects.

Prior to joining Munich Re in 2020, Esdras most recently served as a construction / builder’s risk underwriter at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, focusing on major energy, industrial, and heavy civil infrastructure construction projects in the US market. Esdras contributed to starting up the Builder’s Risk direct insurance operation for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions in the US in 2010.

Esdras began his career in 1996 at Swiss Re in Zurich, Switzerland, as an engineering / construction underwriter. International assignments brought Esdras to Argentina and Mexico in Latin America, leading the construction underwriting task in those markets before moving to the US in 2002.

Esdras holds a Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Mechanical and Process Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), with an emphasis in Energy Systems and Business Management.

Patrick McBride, Zurich

Patrick McBride is Head of Construction Property for U.S. National Accounts at Zurich North America. He is responsible for leading Zurich North America’s national construction property efforts. He works closely with key brokers and agents to design, develop and deliver innovative and comprehensive first-party risk transfer solutions. McBride is supported in his role by Zurich’s regional Construction Property underwriting managers, team leaders, underwriters and underwriting assistants.

His underwriting experience is complemented by his prior broking experience. McBride rejoined Zurich in 2018 from Willis Towers Watson, where he was the Middle Market Broking Leader for the Mid-Atlantic Region, providing leadership and oversight across all lines and industries in the Middle Market space. Prior to his current role as Head of Construction Property for Zurich North America, McBride served as the Construction Property Leader Zurich’s South region. He started his career as an underwriter and served in capacities of increasing responsibility within the Construction Property team at Zurich.

He is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance.

Arwa Mhawi, Swiss Re

Coming soon

Michael Pignataro, Marsh

Michael Pignataro is Marsh U.S.’s Contractor Builders Risk Leader and has been with Marsh since April 2022. He serves as a broking leader managing a team of brokers specializing in first-party construction insurance as it relates to contractor clients. Immediately prior to Marsh he served as the Regional Head of Energy & Construction for Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty where he was responsible for managing a team of underwriting managers in the United States and Canada for operational energy, operational power generation, operational mining, and construction property. Michael Pignataro specializes in construction property insurance, with US and international underwriting experience through roles at Allianz, AIG, Talbot and XL Catlin.

Robert Tricamo, AmTrust

Rob has been in the insurance industry for 29 years, starting his career as a risk control consultant for IRI and since then, he has been underwriting energy, technical property, large commercial property and engineered risk lines of business.

Rob has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.

At AmTrust Rob targets a wide range of builders risk business ranging from energy and process industry projects to heavy civil works and four-wall building construction.

Joe Vierling, AXA XL

Joe Vierling manages the Construction Property Group from New York for the North America Region. Prior to joining AXA XL, Joe was the Product Line Manager at Arch Insurance Company and his responsibilities included the development and monitoring of underwriting standards and guidelines, underwriting administration, and assignment of underwriting authority to the field.

Joe’s prior experience includes the role of Product Line Manager in the Engineered Risk Department of Swiss Re America. He was responsible for the underwriting, product development and marketing within the Eastern Region for all traditional engineering business including civil works. Joe began his career as a Fire Protection Engineer with Industrial Risk Insurers. He also held positions as an Underwriter and the Global Property Underwriting Manager for the New York City Region for Kemper Insurance Companies.