Engineering Risk with Gary Kaplan from AXA XL

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INTRO

On episode 30 of the InsureTechGeek podcast, talking about engineering risk with Gary Kaplan from AXA XL.

The InsureTech podcast powered by JBKnowledge is all about technology that is transforming and disrupting the insurance world. We will be interviewing guests and doing deep dives into specific technologies we see changing the industry. We are taking you on a journey through insurance tech. So, enjoy the ride, and geek out.

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INTERVIEW

JAMES: Howdy, and welcome folks. Always good to have you listeners on board with us for another great episode of the InsureTechGeek podcast. This week it is cross over week! That is right. We are doing a crossover with our other podcast, the ConTechCrew, cause we interviewed an awesome individual. Gary Kaplan from AXA XL. He is their Construction Chief, and he has done just amazing things in the insurance sector and the construction sector, and we had a substantive conversation around insurance technology and around risk management, around his career and path at the world's largest P&C carrier. Now with AXA, of course, acquiring XL Catlin. And then you guys know that acquisition. Now it is AXA XL. I cannot wait for you to listen to this conversation, that one of my cohosts from the ConTechCrew and I, that it is Rob McKinney, it's another Rob, and I, had a fantastic conversation with Gary Kaplan, so I hope you enjoy it. And certainly, next week we will be back with another fantastic episode of the InsureTechGeek. Here is our conversation with Gary.

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INTERVIEW START

JAMES: All right. And onto our interview, our guest, Mr. Gary Kaplan from AXA XL. Gary, again, thank you for joining us today and glad you could join in from beautiful summery, balmy, Chicago.

GARY: I am actually in Naperville.

JAMES: There you go. Close enough.

GARY: Yeah.

JAMES: So, Gary, you and I have gotten to know each other reasonably well over the years. It is good to have you in the business. And for you to be so involved, both in construction and insurance, you are one of those other guys like me, who has a foot in both worlds. I am really involved in both construction and insurance. You are as well; you are involved in insuring construction and you also have a heavy hand in tech. Before we talk about that, I just want to talk about you. Where were you born and raised? What did you see yourself doing as a career and how would you end up working for the world's largest P&C carrier?

GARY: It has been a long journey. I was born in Chicago, but I never lived there. I lived in the first suburb West to Chicago called Oak Park. Went to Oak Park high school. I went 60 miles away to DeKalb, Illinois, Northern Illinois University. Ended up with a degree in chemistry of all things, I was really interested in science and math. When I graduated, I needed to figure out how to do something more interesting than work in a lab. So, I took a job with a company called Industrial Risks Insurers as a Chemical Risk Engineer. And I crawled around refineries and petrochemical plants, utilities, coal mines, platforms. I did that for about nine years as a Risk Engineer and then started to realize that the real money was and the underwriting side. So, I made that transition into underwriting of energy risks centered property was the first thing I started in. And they all blew up. I mean, literally, it was impossible to make money in that business. I think the insurance companies still struggles with insuring those kinds of risks because the losses are so catastrophic. The first risk I ever wrote was Phillips Petroleum in Pasadena, which was the biggest on-shore loss ever. It was the first risk that I wrote.

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Connect with Gary Kaplan