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By Joanne Wojcik
Senior executives of the nation's leading insurers and brokers were downright glib when talking about how they are addressing the industry's image crisis, and insurer executives were tight-lipped when asked to explain why premiums haven't fallen in sync with the end of contingent commissions.
Risk managers' reactions to responses during the leadership panel luncheon at this year's Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. annual conference suggest the industry hasn't weathered the worst of the storm.
"I didn't receive a corresponding reduction in my premium for the fact that contingents were not paid for my broker," said Ellen Vinck, outgoing president of RIMS and vp of risk management and benefits at BAE Systems Ship Repair Inc. in San Diego.
"I also feel that there's a pot of money that hasn't come back to the insureds," she said, triggering a round of applause during the discussion that was sometimes cordial, sometimes contentious as moderators Steve Wilder, vp-risk management at The Walt Disney Co. in Burbank, Calif., and former RIMS President Ron Stasch challenged the panel of chief executives of seven of the nation's largest brokers and insurance companies.
J. Patrick Gallagher, president and CEO of Itasca, Ill.-based Arthur J. Gallager & Co. Inc., claimed that his large risk management clients did not participate in any contingent programs.
While the executives sparred on stage, several members of the audience shook their heads in disbelief. If only the small accounts were generating contingents, then why did so many large accounts receive refund checks, wondered Terri Majcher, risk manager for Rochester, N.Y.-based Bausch & Lomb, who was seated at a table reserved for risk managers from the pharmaceuticals industry.
"How dumb do they think we are?" she said.
New York-based Marsh Inc. just completed a survey with Consensus Research, which went around the world interviewing clients and prospects about integrity in the insurance industry.
"Our clients and most of the prospects have moved beyond this issue," said Brian Storms, chairman and CEO of Marsh Inc. "They understand it was isolated to a small number of people. They understand that we dealt with it in a severe fashion. And they understand that we restored the confidence in our business. I think I can speak for the other members of the industry as well where I think it's less of an issue today, this issue of this being a systemic problem within our business," he said.
But Gregory C. Case, president and CEO of Chicago-based Aon Corp., and several other panel members disagreed.
"To me, this is something that's going to be with us for a long time. And the idea that we can kind of declare victory and put it behind us and say we're good--it's not going to be a survey, it's not going to be anything other than day to day are we doing a better job," he said.
"Our focus as an institution has to be around value that we give you and the price we charge. It's as simple as that and as hard as that. Our view would be it's a huge mistake at this point to essentially declare victory. And declaring victory with any defensiveness would be the worst way to do it."
Immediately following this exchange between the top executives of the world's two largest brokers, outgoing RIMS President Ellen Vinck polled the audience to see if anyone agreed with Mr. Storms' comments.
"I would be curious to see a show of hands out there, everybody that thinks that this is an issue that is done and gone and it's over with and you're good, and it's done, raise your hand," she said.
Silence followed and then one individual in the audience raised his hand.
When Mr. Wilder, serving as one of the two moderators grilling the panel, then announced he would be changing the subject, Mr. Storms interjected: "My comment had to do with the issue of integrity of one specific company--Marsh--and not to do with the integrity of the industry or, indeed, the whole issue of value, pricing and transparency. I wasn't commenting that that issue is behind us. That issue has a lot of legs to it."
"But in terms of surveying our clients around the world and our prospects as it relates to putting this issue of integrity behind us, I think it's behind us largely at Marsh," he said.
Other members of the panel were: Brian Down, chairman of ACE INA; Roger E. Egan, CEO of Integro Group; and Martin Sullivan, president and CEO of American International Group Inc.
By Sally Roberts
The brokerage compensation scandal shook up parts of the commercial insurance industry, but RIMS' leaders say more change is needed to ensure that risk managers are getting the best service from their brokers and underwriters.
In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Ellen Vinck, outgoing president of the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc., said that, among many RIMS members, there is no "feeling that we can all collectively sit back and say we have a great process, it runs smoothly and we're happy."
A key concern is the timeliness of coverage quotes, said Ms. Vinck, echoing remarks she had made a day earlier during the membership breakfast.
"Fundamentally, we should be able to get a quote on a renewal 30 days" prior to expiration, she said. "Fifteen years ago, I was getting them 30 days out," but over the years, risk managers seem to have become "hostage to the process," said Ms. Vinck, who is vp-risk management and benefits at BAE Systems Ship Repair Inc. in San Diego.
She noted that lots of "finger pointing" goes on when a buyer tries to get to the root of why it takes so long to get quotes. Brokers, for example, point the finger at underwriters, saying they won't even look at a renewal until 30 days out.
When asked whether she thinks it is an intentional move on the part of markets to try to keep risk managers from moving accounts, Ms. Vinck said: "It goes back to the issue of integrity. You certainly hope it's not intentional."
She noted that part of the problem is that many risk managers are not having meetings upfront with their brokers and insurers and demanding a commitment to service standards, such as insisting that they be given quotes 30 days out from a policy's expiration.
Michael Liebowitz, RIMS' new president, noted that he starts his renewal process six months out and at his last renewal, he sat down with his broker and said, "I'd like to have my quotes 30 days prior to expiration and my policy in my hand 30 days after issuing the policy, and if you cannot provide that to me within 30 days, I want to know why."
He said he also asked to see all of the communications between his
broker and the various markets involved.
"I now have an e-mail file from last year's renewal that has somewhere around 1,200 e-mails from various markets," said Mr. Liebowitz, who is director, risk management for Bridgeport Hospital & Healthcare Services Inc. in Bridgeport, Conn.
Mr. Liebowitz said that, as a result of his efforts, he did receive his quotes and 75% of his policies within the specified time frames.
"I believe the markets can respond if you inform your broker and underwriters through meetings that you should be having," he said.
"My take is, if the markets can create a bill in 24 hours and the bill is accurate, why can't they create a policy...within a certain period of time and get it to the broker to check for accuracy and then get it to us?" Mr. Liebowitz asked.
"The industry has to realize the need for quality going forward and quit wasting time year after year," Ms. Vinck said.
The litigation over the World Trade Center coverage "should have been a tremendous wake-up call to everyone" to ensure contract certainty, she said. But "we didn't see improvement in it after the litigation."
"It's ridiculous that we are still talking about it," she said.
But unlike past years, RIMS is a larger organization today and has the online tools for risk managers to raise the bar and improve quality, Ms. Vinck said.
By Regis Coccia
Putting contingency plans in place and maintaining clear communications with insurers are key lessons for policyholders from "the three sisters" hurricanes of 2005: Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
In a Tuesday panel discussion at the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. conference, three experts advised risk managers on mistakes to avoid in filing property and business interruption claims after catastrophes.
Mary Lynn "Mel" Bangs, director of risk management for Irving, Texas-based Omni Hotels, related Omni's efforts to secure and reopen its two New Orleans hotel properties after Katrina devastated that city last August. She said that lining up a national contract with a loss recovery firm prior to the storms was "probably our savior" in restoring operations.
Omni also had negotiated with its insurer to provide a loss adjuster to help prepare claims following a disaster, and "we got on top of his list, so there was no discussion about the number of insureds ahead of us," Ms. Bangs said.
Forensic accountants lined up in advance also helped Omni to document its financial details. This was "a great help in keeping our business interruption claim moving," she said. "When we got a list from the insurance company accountants (requesting certain figures), we had pretty much pulled it all together."
With repair work in high demand after Katrina, Ms. Bangs added that "having a contractor relationship before a catastrophe is immeasurable." Omni had secured a contractor outside Louisiana to come in and begin repairing its heavily damaged Royal Crescent Hotel.
Communication with its insurer helped Omni pay for advertising to attract guests back to the city. "Our insurer helped us do an extraordinary amount of advertising to help bring people back to New Orleans--we filled up for New Year's Eve," Ms. Bangs said.
Omni's total claims from Katrina are currently "$15 million and growing," she said, and remain open.
Claudia A. Wolf, partner in forensic and dispute services at Deloitte Financial Advisory Services L.L.P. in Chicago, continues to help clients in the Katrina-ravaged area with business interruption claims. She agreed that a contingency plan is critical, as there's no time to develop one when a crisis hits. "We've seen some clients who couldn't find employees, materials, housing, contractors" in the aftermath of the hurricanes. Involve people "you'd bring in during a loss situation so it's a full plan," she said.
As a sign of the disarray in the market, "many insurance companies haven't yet issued opinions on coverage" from Katrina, noted Randy Paar, a partner at policyholder law firm Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky L.L.P. in New York. The delay "reflects divisions within the insurance community" as to what losses are covered, she said.
While first-party property claims spring to mind from the hurricanes, a significant amount of liability claims also have arisen, especially regarding pollution after Katrina, Ms. Paar said. After a catastrophe, "it's most important to assess what type of claim you have" in order to document losses, she advised.
One of the lessons for claimants is that definitions do differ in policies that name perils, and that can affect the amount of coverage a policyholder can recover, Ms. Paar said.
Common exclusions are flood, government action, pollution and mold, but a policy that imposes "low sublimits is another way of excluding coverage," she said.
There continues to be debate around causation, with attorneys for both sides discussing the theories of concurrent cause of loss and efficient proximate cause, but as a practical matter "courts often turn these over to juries," and the theories sometimes are disregarded, she cautioned.
"You have to look at the facts and make arguments accordingly," Ms. Paar advised.
By Sally Roberts
Despite years of overall budget cutting, most employers continue to increase or maintain corporate funding for loss control services, a survey shows.
But while loss control spending tends to be influenced by the most pressing risks of the day, risk managers must balance these timely risks with more traditional hazards, such as workers compensation, a loss control specialist notes.
Chubb Corp. surveyed 125 risk management professionals for its "2006 Loss Control Spending Survey," the results of which were released Tuesday at the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.'s annual conference.
According to the survey, 43% of the respondents said they spent more on loss control services in the past year, with an average increase in spending of 7%.
"When you consider that overall inflation last year was approximately 3% and business spending is generally in line with inflation, a 7% increase in loss control spending is significant," said Steven D. Hernandez, senior vp and worldwide loss control manager of Chubb & Son in Whitehouse Station, N.J.
It indicates "that many organizations recognize the importance, function and benefits of effective risk management in their operations," he said.
According to the survey, 52% of the respondents said their loss control spending remained the same over the past year, while 5% said spending has decreased.
But while employers continue to spend more on loss control services, the risks they are focused on has shifted since 2003, the last time Chubb conducted its loss control survey.
According to the 2006 survey, disaster preparedness planning was cited by 59% of the respondents as the top area of increased spending, followed by catastrophe management--51%--and security and corporate governance, each with 47%.
But in 2003, catastrophe management was not one of the top five areas for increased loss control spending. Rather, the top drivers were terrorism and reducing exposures to counter rising insurance rates amid the hard insurance market at that time, Chubb said in its survey.
While the threat of terrorism was cited as a key factor by 24% of the respondents in 2003, only 5% cited terrorism in 2006, Chubb said.
Loss control spending is influenced by current events and the dominant risks of the day, said Mr. Hernandez, citing last year's unprecedented number of natural disasters, corporate scandals and growth in Internet activity.
"The spending trend makes sense, because in essence present-day risks should command significant attention from risk managers," Mr. Hernandez said. "But it also brings to attention one of the biggest challenges risk managers face, and that is how to balance critical time-sensitive risks against traditional risks like workers compensation, basic property and then emerging risks such as diseases and epidemics," he said.
The survey notes that workers comp ranked eighth in terms of the areas where loss control spending increased--cited by 35% of respondents--while it was the fourth highest in 2003.
By Sally Roberts
Risk managers need to take an active leadership role in establishing performance expectations with their insurance partners that will improve quality in the insurance placement process, according to the outgoing president of the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.
The risk management community is "not happy" with the insurance placement process or with the insurance product itself, Ellen Vinck, vp-risk management and benefits at BAE Systems Ship Repair Inc. in San Diego, said during Monday morning's membership breakfast at RIMS' Conference and Exhibition in Honolulu.
To back up her assessment, Ms. Vinck revealed some results of RIMS' 2006 Quality Survey.
When it comes to providing an insurance quote 30 days prior to expiration of an existing policy, Ms. Vinck said that almost 50% of the more than 700 U.S. and Canadian risk manager respondents said they do not get a quote within that time frame.
Of those, 10% say they receive quotes three weeks out, 26% said two weeks out and 24% said one week out or less, Ms. Vinck said, describing the findings as "a failing report card."
And the situation isn't any better when it comes to policy issuance, she said.
Only 5% of the respondents reported receiving a policy within 30 days of binding.
The vast majority, she said, wait between 90 and 120 days to get the product that they paid for.
"The litigation following the attack on the World Trade Center proved to us all something that we all already knew--the insurance policy placement is many times secured with written documents, but more so with verbal communications and a handshake," she said.
The timely issuance of insurance policies is "critical" and it "just cannot take this long," said Ms. Vinck, whose comments brought overwhelming applause from the audience.
And timeliness is not the only issue, she said, noting that accuracy, too, is lacking.
According to the quality survey, 53% of the respondents report not being satisfied with the quality or accuracy of the policy issued.
In answering her own question of, "where do we go from here?" Ms. Vinck said that RIMS advocates open and honest dialogue among all parties of the insurance transaction. And while "we appreciate some of the changes that have been made...we are not there yet."
She implored risk managers in the audience to use the framework of RIMS' Quality Improvement Process initiative to help boost quality in the industry.
"We, as the risk management community, need to actively play a leadership role and require definitive performance expectations that will improve quality in the insurance placement process," Ms. Vinck said, noting that she remembers hearing the same message 10 years ago while sitting in the audience of the annual RIMS conference.
By Michael Bradford
A growing interest in risk management back home and a convenient conference location are reasons a larger-than-usual contingent of Japanese attendees are at this week's annual conference.
More than 60 registrants from Japan have signed up for the event, a representation that is more than twice the number of Japanese attendees that generally travel to the yearly meeting of the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.
Direct flights from Japan to Honolulu make it easier for Japanese risk managers and insurance market professionals to reach the conference than when it is held in the mainland United States. Traveling to sites in the mainland takes much longer and usually involves connections.
"However, it is not only because it's Hawaii," said Yoshi Hamaji, executive director of the Assn. of Risk Management-Japan. He acknowledged that shorter travel times are part of the attraction for Japanese attendees, but added in an e-mail that Japanese risk management professionals want to be at the conference because there is a growing interest in the practice in their country and the event is an opportunity for them to further their education in the profession.
Some Japanese companies are sending several staff members to the Hawaii conference in the hopes that they will bring home a broader knowledge of risk management, said Mr. Hamaji.
They may need it to help handle legislative changes on the horizon in Japan that will impact how risk management is practiced there.
Mr. Hamaji said publicly traded companies in Japan are being forced to implement corporate governance standards and more thoroughly disclose their risks under new legislation effective in April. In addition, the Japanese government is working on its brand of regulation similar to that contained in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the United States, he said, and companies in Japan are "trying to establish corporate governance that will enable them to oversee risks throughout the organization."
The Assn. of Risk Management-Japan will make its contributions to the annual RIMS conference by hosting educational sessions that cover topics related to risk management in Japan.
Iwao G. Niwa, general manager of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. in Osaka, Japan, will discuss some of his company's risk management programs in a Monday afternoon session. That same afternoon, two vice presidents from American International Group Inc. will speak at a session hosted by the Japan chapter. They will cover product liability issues faced by Japanese companies doing business in the United States.
The chapter also will host a panel discussion among U.S. risk managers on Tuesday morning and another discussion that same morning that will cover the risk management practices at NEC Corp. in Tokyo.
By Joanne Wojcik
The changing nature of risk on the world stage has created the need for risk management professionals to have a holistic understanding of their organization's exposures, a high-profile risk manager says.
Risk managers also need more sophisticated risk management information systems to gather, analyze and communicate "business intelligence" throughout their organizations, according to Lori Jorgensen, senior director of finance at Microsoft Corp., during Monday's luncheon keynote address at the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.'s Conference and Exhibition in Honolulu.
At Microsoft, for example, when the software maker branched out into other areas of business after 1995, "risks for Microsoft changed fundamentally, as products were no longer contained within the desktop," she said. "I don't think this is unique to Microsoft. Like yours, Microsoft's is a complex business."
"There are seven product segments for which financial information is separately reported," she said. "While they have certain risks in common, the risks show up differently for each, as there are additional risks for each business."
For example, while product development is concerned with patent infringement, the network services division wants to ensure the security of personally identifiable information and prevent service disruption, while home entertainment is concerned about pandemic illness possibly disrupting manufacturing and shipping in Asia and component failure in the company's Xbox video game system.
In response, the risk management department at the Redmond, Wash.-based company grew from just three individuals in 1995 to 16 professionals today, each of whom is focused on both Microsoft's hazard and financial risks.
"For optimal impact, Microsoft's treasury risk group must be more than well-informed concerning risks to the organization. It is incumbent on us to collect information, gather relevant and credible data and build reliable analytical tools so that we may deliver insight and understanding necessary to act," she said.
In addition, the department must "communicate our findings throughout the organization and arrange for insurance and other solutions as appropriate," she said.
To better manage this collection of diverse risks, Microsoft built a tool called "Project Atlas" to organize information and data for evaluation and to deliver the results in a credible and easy-to-understand fashion that is "scenario-driven and multifaceted, rather than siloed and vertical," Ms. Jorgensen said.
"As a result of this work, Microsoft's treasury risk group evolved the risk practice at Microsoft from delivering an insurance product to enabling and executing a risk management process," Ms. Jorgensen said.
Roger L. Andrews, director of risk management for E.D. Bullard Co. in Cynthiana, Ky., has been given the 2006 Harry and Dorothy Goodell Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.
Mr. Andrews accepted the award last week at the society's annual membership meeting, which kicked off the 2006 Conference & Exhibition in Honolulu. The Goodell Award recognizes an individual who has furthered the goals of risk management and of RIMS. It is named after Mr. Goodell--the society's first president--and his wife.
Mr. Andrews, who has been active in RIMS for two decades, served as the society's president in 2000-2001 and has held various other governance roles during his tenure with the society. He also served as president and director of RIMS' Bluegrass Chapter in Lexington, Ky., and currently is delegate and co-chair of the Western Regional Conference from the Utah Chapter. In addition, in 2003 Mr. Andrews was named to the Business Insurance Risk Management Honor Roll.
Among other accomplishments, Mr. Andrews, who began his career at Travelers Insurance Co., in 1982 drafted the legislation that created the risk management division for the State of Maine and became the state's first director of risk management.
RIMS also presented other awards at the conference on Monday.
The Ron Judd Heart of RIMS Award was, for the first time, given to two individuals this year. Diana J. Rich, director of risk management for Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based RemedyTemp Inc., and Cheryl P. Johnson, executive director of risk management for the Dallas Independent School District, both received the award, which is given to an individual nominated by his or her chapter for outstanding performance on behalf of the chapter. Ms. Rich represents the Orange County Chapter, while Ms. Johnson is a member of the Dallas Fort Worth Chapter of RIMS.
In addition, Frances Duron received RIMS' Cristy Award, which recognizes the risk manager with the highest cumulative average in three exams leading to the Associate in Risk Management designation.
Meanwhile, RIMS on Monday also announced he results of the election for its new board of directors for 2006-2007. The directors are:
Paradise provided the backdrop early Sunday morning as scores of RIMS athletes took to the golf course and tennis courts to raise money for the Spencer Educational Foundation.
This year's Spencer/Gallagher Golf Tournament--the 15th that Itasca, Ill.-based Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has sponsored--attracted 160 golfers to the Hawaii Prince Golf Club in the Ewa Plains west of Honolulu. The unique golf course, designed by legendary professional golfer Arnold Palmer and business partner Ed Seay, features 27 holes, including 90 bunkers and 10 lakes.
Because the players were assigned to different sets of holes, the tournament had three first-place foursomes.
On course AB, the winners were Bob Abramski, Bob Blumber, Tom Fitzgerald and Steve Dennison; on course BC, the winners were Lou Iglesias, Mike Szot, Doug Thomson and Mark Ryan; and the winners on course CA were Bill Baker, Marty Ovens, John Martin and O.L. Anderson.
Winners of the men's longest-drive competition were Phil Glasgow, Lance Becker and Mike Szot, while the ladies' longest drive champions were Zulma Zak and Jacinda Elias. The players winning the closest-to-the-pin contest were Michael Horvath, Ken Antee and Mark Ryan.
This year's golf tournament raised $60,500 for the Spencer Educational Foundation, which provides scholarships and research grants for the study of insurance and risk management.
Meanwhile, the 12th annual Spencer/Logic Tennis Tournament, sponsored by New York-based Logic Associates Inc., also was held Sunday morning at Central Oahu Regional Park Tennis Complex.
Alex Tokar won the A-level singles competition, while Peter Bostwick was runner-up. Jim Budd won the B-level singles competition, while Setsuko Anthony was runner-up.
Unlike at previous RIMS conferences, the Spencer Cup Hockey Tournament and the 5K Run/Walk did not make the trip to Hawaii.
Risk managers' arrival in Hawaii coincides with the state's tsunami awareness month, aimed to help mitigate the potential loss of life that giant earthquake-driven waves can cause along low-lying ocean fronts.
While Hawaiian hotels, along with schools, government entities and other businesses, test tsunami response drills during April, there had been reluctance to scare tourists with too much tsunami education information, said Kenneth Gilbert, disaster preparedness and recovery officer for the Oahu Civil Defense Agency in Honolulu.
But the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 200,000 residents and tourists along several coastal nations changed that thinking, Mr. Gilbert explained. Currently, Civil Defense officials and hotel industry groups are developing related public service materials specifically for visitors, he said.
The 2004 event helped hotel operators and organizations charged with protecting Hawaii's residents realize that they can do more, even given the state's long history of preparation, said Murray Towill, president of the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Assn. in Honolulu.
April is tsunami awareness month because it commemorates the deadliest natural disaster in the state's history. A tsunami generated by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in the Aleutians struck the Big Island and killed 159 people on April 1, 1946.
While they are not frequent, Hawaiian tsunamis have caused other fatalities since then.
Fortunately, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center operates a sophisticated system that can help activate Civil Defense sirens, radio announcements and police cars. Extensive evacuation plans also exist for low-lying areas such as Waikiki and other parts of Oahu.
For example, buses and local trolleys would stop their normal routes to help carry people away from evacuation areas, should that become necessary, Mr. Gilbert said. Simply walking inland from beach areas can also prove effective, he added.
Additionally, steel and concrete buildings of six or more stories should provide adequate protection if individuals move to the third floor or above, according to the Oahu Civil Defense Agency.
Therefore, some hotels may lead guests in "vertical evacuations," Mr. Murray said. Other hotels may have "horizontal" evacuation plans to take visitors to taller, neighboring properties or away from evacuation areas.
While a warning system can provide ample time to evacuate when a far-off earthquake generates a tsunami, literature from the Oahu Civil Defense Agency points out that a local earthquake may not leave enough time for an official warning.
So when the shaking stops, leave evacuation zones immediately, the agency warns. Most importantly, don't do what some people have tried to do in the past, Mr. Gilbert warned. They have hindered evacuation routes by heading toward the beach, some with surfboards, to have a look.
--By Roberto Ceniceros
It was almost over before I knew it was happening, but I was surfing.
And then I wasn't.
But for those few moments, I was feet-on-the-board, arms-almost-steady riding a wave. Not carving or ripping, certainly, and not at great speed--but also not falling. I'm sure onlookers witnessed something less elegant than my present imaginings of those few moments when I managed to stay on the board until my momentum ran out and board and I (together this time) came to a stop.
This, I thought, was not bad for a guy who had never been on a surfboard until about 30 minutes prior, and for that I'll credit my instructor, who kept his promise to get me standing up on the board before our lesson was over.
We started out on dry land, where I learned the basics of getting from the paddling to --standing positions, as well as the first rule of surf clubthe person on the wave has the right of way. After a few minutes of practice, I was tossing my board into the Pacific and, before I had time to think better of it, paddling out into the break.
Once we were far enough out, my instructor spun my board around, pointing me back toward the beach. As my wave neared, he gave my board a shove, shouted at me to get ready to stand, and I was off. I didn't get far, but I did manage to get to my feet before I had to bail, and I was up long enough to know that I wanted to give it another go.
Two tries later, following some advice on how to position my feet, I managed my last and best attempt and then paddled back to shore as, however briefly, a surfer.
Surfing lessons are available at various locations along Waikiki beach; my hour-long session was $35. One risk management note: novice surfers may want to consider some kind of protective footwear, as bailing and stepping on a sharp piece of coral or rock could mean a trip to the hospital and a tetanus shot.
--By Matt Scroggins
While some risk managers may seek peace and quiet as relief from the stresses of their job, Jeff Triplette prefers the cacophony of a crowd and the potential wrath of a 300-pound professional athlete.
Since 1996, Mr. Triplette has spent his Sunday afternoons in a black-and-white uniform officiating games for the National Football League. After spending three years as a field judge, he now wears No. 42 and the white hat of an NFL referee, announcing pen-alties, overseeing instant replays and protecting the quarterback.
"This is my stress reliever from my day job," said Mr. Triplette, who by day is vp-continuity, insurance and security services for Duke Energy in Charlotte, N.C. "I'm totally focused on the NFL on Saturdays and Sundays. Some folks go play golf. This is something that is totally different. Those three hours on Sunday afternoon are totally exhilarating and relaxing."
Just as he worked his way up to the NFL from his beginnings officiating games in the Pop Warner youth football league, the 32-year veteran of Duke Energy climbed the corporate ladder, eventually taking over the insurance operations of the energy giant in 1998. He plans to retire from Duke Energy later this year.
While his current day job and weekend activities are inherently quite different, Mr. Triplette said similarities do exist.
"Both require decisive decision-making, and both have to deal with ambiguity," he said. And furthermore, with both positions, "everybody knows you do a good job until you screw something up," he said. "Think about it: Nobody thinks about refs and risk managers as long as things are going great."
Rather than avoiding 22 oversized men tackling each other on the field, Mr. Triplette said the biggest risk to being an NFL ref is making an officiating mistake.
"If we mess something up, everybody sees it. You don't get to hide behind the curtain," he said.
Indeed, Mr. Triplette may be best known in the football world for a December 1999 Cleveland Browns game in which he accidentally hit right tackle Orlando Brown in the eye with a penalty flag, causing the 350-pound offensive lineman to later run back on the field and shove him to the ground. Mr. Brown was ejected from the game and temporarily suspended by the NFL.
"Yes, that was me," Mr. Triplette admitted. "Thank goodness it was an accident. Orlando and I have seen each other several times since then and are quite good friends."
Although Mr. Triplette has never officiated a Super Bowl game--the ultimate compliment for a good officiating season--he has worked numerous playoff games.
"When you make the playoffs, you know you've had a good season. If you ultimately get to the Super Bowl, it means you've had a really great season that year," he said.
Stay tuned.