Marsh US Construction Practice President Sees Opportunities Despite Poor Economy

Marsh said it has appointed Danette Jones as construction practice leader for its Southwest partnership as part of its efforts to target emerging opportunities in the construction industry.

Mike Anderson, U.S. construction practice president at Marsh, said there hasn't been a significant turnaround in the construction economy, but there are opportunities. "It's very challenging -- if you look at the brokerage community, no one brokerage has a significant market share. So even in a declining economy, we see opportunities to grow our business. We've brought an increased focus internally and are hiring people with an enormous amount of talent and experience in the business."

Jones brings 16 years of construction risk management experience to Marsh. She comes from Aon, where she worked with a wide variety of construction clients, including large contractors and complex owner and contractor-controlled insurance programs. Jones will be based in Los Angeles. Marsh's Southwest partnership includes offices in Los Angeles, Newport Beach, San Diego, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, Marsh said in a statement.

Marsh is making a renewed focus on construction that began when Mark Reagan was named chairman of the Marsh global construction practice in March. Reagan, who joined Marsh from Aon, where he was managing director of its construction practices group, brought nearly 40 years of construction risk management experience. Anderson was named president of the practice in June (BestWire, June 7, 2010).

Marsh does insurance programs for more than 250 projects in the United States, he said. "A lot of people don't know that; they wouldn't think of Marsh as having that kind of presence," Anderson said.

Marsh doesn't see a "wholesale need to hire a whole herd of construction professionals" but will strategically hire national, regional and local leaders, Anderson said.

In the past few days, Marsh has formed a national construction claims team -- all of them from within Marsh, he said, noting they "raised their hands and said they'd work as regional claims leaders. They are not changing jobs, but they have experience in construction and will be leaders in their region."

They will be working with clients to resolve claims, reduce claims costs and reduce collateral requirements, he said.

"We hear contractors saying one big issue in risk management is the cost of collateral that's required to be posted." By resolving outstanding claims, which tend to sit open a long time -- in some cases because the contractor decides to pursue a claim to the very end -- the project cost is driven down. "It's a way to impact the pricing of their product," he said.

Marsh & McLennan Cos. is ranked number one by 2009 total revenue in Best's Review's top global insurance brokers ranking.

(By Caroline Saucer, editor, BestWeek: [email protected])