Meet Dave Brown, EVP, Transportation Industry Practice Leader
Dave Brown has been dedicated to the transportation area of the insurance industry for almost 30 years. He joined Chubb – then ACE – in 1999 as a casualty underwriter and in 2000 he helped develop the transportation industry strategy that, in 2017, evolved into the Transportation Industry Practice.
Dave has led the Transportation Industry Practice since its launch. Below, he shares some of his deep expertise, highlighting industry trends and laying out what sets the Transportation Industry Practice apart.
Lightning Round
Years in the industry: 35
Years with Chubb: 24
Hometown: New York City
What he never leaves the house without: “Like everyone, my cellphone.”
The best advice he ever got: “The amount of effort you put into something is usually correlated what you get out of it.”
Favorite travel destination: Jamaica
Favorite book: The Godfather
Get to know Dave
What are the Transportation Industry Practice’s top priorities this year?
I would say our top priority is to provide insurance solutions that cover all aspects of our clients’ transportation business. The risks in the transportation space are enormous, and we need to take steps to ensure we’re ahead of industry trends and have solutions that meet our clients’ needs.
That priority has always been part of the Transportation Industry Practice’s overall strategy. Additionally, we want to offer stability and long-term solutions for our clients. It’s been a successful strategy, because if you look at our Transportation book, our retention rate is over 98 percent and our average client tenure is more than a decade. The results speak for themselves.
What trends are you watching right now?
There are a lot of things impacting the transportation industry right now. Social inflation, overall inflation, and loss costs have gone through the roof. The industry has increasingly seen excessive or nuclear jury verdicts – a claim exceeding $10 million in value – become a market factor in recent years. Clients are having to pay a lot more for insurance because of these trends.
What sets Chubb’s Transportation Industry Practice apart?
Our products and service, and, of course, our people. As an industry practice, we’re able to tailor our products to our customers’ needs in a way that many other companies can’t. Chubb offers such a broad range of products and services through its many business units, including Primary or Global Casualty, Excess Casualty, Westchester, Surety, A&H, Management Liability, Property, and Environmental. This means that we can provide bespoke solutions for almost any client out there.
But the products don’t mean anything without people to manage them and the service they provide. I think we have the brightest, smartest people in the business. Everyone in the Transportation Industry Practice is well-trained and knowledgeable regarding the industry, and they're able to quickly pivot to work to provide solutions for problems as they spring up. We are also heavily invested in best-in-class technology with Worldview®, our online client portal, and Accelerator®, a web-based tool to assist in documenting uninsured motorist, underinsured motorist, and personal injury protection coverage elections.
