A Note from Leadership – Barry Geisler, Divisional Senior Vice President

Overall Division Update

As we recently reached one year since the start of a global pandemic, so many changes have occurred. Our old routines of dropping children off to school or driving to our workplace were replaced by setting up virtual classrooms and home offices for so many of us.

I hope that the little things that we may have once taken for granted such as going out to eat at our local restaurants, traveling for leisure or work, celebrations and even work meetings in person, will soon be part of our everyday lives.

As a Division, we were very fortunate to be able to maintain our outstanding customer service and unique collaborative underwriting while staying safe as we worked from our homes.

In fact, thanks to the support of our brokers, we were recently recognized as a top environmental carrier in the industry! Great American Environmental Division was named a 5-Star Environmental Insurance Provider by Insurance Business America (IBA).

The Division achieved this recognition based on many months of research and hundreds of one-on-one interviews and surveys completed with top brokers across the country. The award celebrates the Environmental Division’s outstanding product offerings, first-class broker support and industry knowledge. You can read more about what this award entails in the latest release of IBA’s magazine.

We are honored to be recognized for such a prestigious award and would like to thank our brokers for your support throughout the nomination process.

Great American’s Environmental Division offers an exclusive focus on environmental insurance solutions to a wide variety of commercial customers. The experts of Great American’s Environmental Division can help uncover the hidden risks in your clients’ operations and develop a custom program to protect them.

Great American’s Environmental Division is proud to serve as a leader in the environmental insurance marketplace since launching back in 2008. We’re proud to be one of the few carriers in the industry with such longevity.

As we celebrate lucky number 13 this year, we look forward to the continuing the journey ahead! Check out our brand new, interactive timeline in celebration of our growth. This highlights many of our recent developments to better serve our brokers as well as our recognition by executive management at Great American Insurance Group for outstanding service and performance to the company – I am proud to announce that we continued this recognition for our achievements in 2020.

The 2021 P&C Group Management Meeting, where we were recognized for our achievements in 2020, was held virtually for the second year through a live webcast during the afternoons on March 22 and 23. For the first time in the history of this annual meeting, the event included all P&C and AFG officers, which included nearly 600 individuals located throughout the U.S. and around the globe. Participants watched business presentations on Monday and heard guest speaker Guy Kawasaki and Company representatives discuss Innovation @ GAIG on Tuesday.

This is one small example of how the COVID pandemic continues to change and challenge us both professionally and personally. Despite this new reality, Great American continues to operate successfully and has effectively adapted to a virtual world. I want to personally thank each of our employees for their contributions to our success. Without our strong broker relationships, the hard work of our underwriters, technical support staff claims professionals, and the amazing efforts by all in a very challenging marketplace, achieving such results simply would not be possible.

“I feel very fortunate to lead such a high performing, quality team – a group that comes together to offer specialized service, and in turn, write profitable business, Mark Vuono, President of Great American’s Environmental Division said. We launched Great American's Environmental Division in 2008 – we've come a long way since then and look forward to the journey ahead!”

No matter what our working environment looks like moving forward, our high-quality service levels will not waver. Our unique combination of resources, experience and national presence in combination with strong broker relationships ensures this.

I am proud to be a part of the team that leads this successful and dedicated group – a group that comes together to offer customized solutions and a unique customer experience regardless of the many challenges thrown our way.

Spring Newsletter Preview

The spring edition of our newsletter features an ever-growing variety of content including our newest riskopolis featuring a brownfield development project. From redevelopment construction to ongoing weather and business interruptions, every phase of an infrastructure project may pose environmental risks. And while all redevelopment projects have the potential to uncover environmental risks, using a brownfield site for an infrastructure expansion or development project can unveil additional contaminants related to past operations.

Our newest product video illustrates how Great American Environmental Product Pollution policy can protect your manufacturing clients when they are faced with potentially devastating risks to their business.

A variety of whitepapers, compliments of our Technical Support department which is comprised of a team of technical experts with years of environmental experience, are available with this library of resources constantly growing.

Don’t forget to check out the newest resources added to our Broker Toolkit which was developed as a one-stop shop for our brokers to access all the latest environmental educational tools and resources.

Last but certainly not least, I would like to recognize some remarkable members of our team, who as a result of their hard ethic, leadership and intelligence, have been promoted within the Division. These team members are great assets who make a difference for the Division every day. I have no doubt they will continue to do great things for the Division in their new leadership roles.

Barry R Geisler, Divisional Senior Vice President
Great American Environmental Division

Barry is a Divisional Senior Vice President and Chief Underwriting Officer for the Great American Environmental Division, leading our Executive Underwriting team. He has been with the Environmental Division for the past 12 years. Barry’s prior experience includes serving as contracts counsel with the environmental insurance space as well as working on complex commercial and defense litigation. He is based out of our Exton, PA office.