Exceedance 2018 is where next-generation modeling, analytics, technology and data science come together under one roof – in sessions or in The Lab.
It’s THE place to gain knowledge about the RMS(one)® platform – which is transforming how (re)insurers, capital markets, corporations, and public agencies evaluate, quantify, and manage risk throughout the world.
And it’s where you’ll join RMS experts, industry thought leaders, and colleagues to explore how our latest enterprise solutions and comprehensive data-driven approach will help improve business efficiency, and effectiveness, bringing concrete value to your business.
Make your plans now to join us in Miami!
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Exceedance 2018 takes place at the InterContinental Miami – set on the Biscayne Bay waterfront in the heart of downtown’s thriving financial and business district. The location offers breathtaking views of Biscayne Bay and is a short walk or ride from Miami's famous beaches, shopping, art scene, tropical flavor, and more.
InterContinental Miami | 100 Chopin Plaza | Miami, Florida
Moe Khosravy is the SVP and GM of Software at RMS. He brings 20 years of software experience on products and platforms differentiated by data and applied machine learning.
Most recently, Moe was VP of Software at HP Inc, supporting hundreds of millions of connected devices & clients including platforms for big data, computer vision, and applied ML for the 2D and 3D Printing businesses. Prior to HP, Moe was Head of Applications and SDKs at Intel, focused on building experiences differentiated by AI, NLP, and rich sensor technologies. Moe also brings experience from VMware as VP of Mobile and Cloud Data, from Microsoft with leadership roles across Cloud, Search, Windows, Server & Tools, and from Vital Images as an Architect in the advanced technologies group focused on CT/MR software solutions.
Moe has over 90 software patents pending or granted in the realm of distributed systems, AI, vision, and data platforms. He serves on the Board of Directors for Equbot, the first ETF built on machine learning as well as on the Board of Directors for Delta v, MIT’s flagship startup accelerator. Moe received his MBA from MIT and studied neuroscience/computer science at the University of Minnesota.
In his role at RMS, Rhett Austell consults with clients on the implementation of RMS models, data, and technology solutions for their businesses. During his ten years at RMS, Rhett has worked closely with reinsurers, primaries, reinsurance brokers, and ILS managers.
Most recently, Rhett's focus has been on the design and roll-out of RMS(one) solutions as well as advising clients as they go through the adoption process. He is a graduate of Penn State University with degrees in economics and international politics.
Katsuya Nagata is part of the management team at Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire (TMNF) Insurance, a subsidiary of the P&C Risk Retention Strategy Group of Commercial Lines Underwriting Department. His responsibilities include strategy development for the risk retention strategy division of TMNF, and he also manages TMNF natural catastrophe risk in Japan. Katsuya has played an important role in the development of key models that address Japan earthquake and Japan typhoon. His expertise also includes research and development, especially drone insurance and insurtech.
Katsuya received his bachelor's degree from University of Tokyo and master's degree from University of Tokyo, specializing in statistics and computer science.
Shaheen Razzaq has more than a decade of experience delivering risk management solutions to insurance and reinsurance companies. As a senior director in the software business unit at RMS, he works with clients to understand their needs for RMS(one)® solutions, the company's enterprise-class, cloud-based, risk and exposure management platform.
As a regular speaker at industry events, Shaheen often gives presentations about the business value technology delivers to organizations that manage both catastrophe and non-catastrophe risk. He holds a master's degree in business and information technology from Kingston Business School.
In his role as senior scientist at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS), Dr. Stephen Quarles specializes in hurricane/high-wind building durability and fire protection. He offers a wealth of experience in the areas of wood durability, aging, water penetration, and wildfire – critical aspects of IBHS field and laboratory research programs.
He is a member of the American Society of Testing and Materials, National Fire Protection Association, International Association of Wildfire Fire, International Association of Fire Safety Science, Forest Products Society, Society of Wood Science and Technology, American Wood Protection Association, and Association of Fire Ecology.
Stephen earned a BS in forestry from Virginia Tech and an MS and PhD in forest products from the University of Minnesota.
Dr. John Schroeder has developed a nationally recognized research program at Texas Tech University focused on the characterization of low-level wind fields. He has created a unique suite of atmospheric observing technologies and executed numerous field-based measurement campaigns. He is perhaps best known for an ongoing 20-year project to acquire research-grade wind measurements from landfalling hurricanes in the United States.
John has published numerous peer-reviewed papers, spoken at conferences across the world on topics related to boundary-layer wind structure, and served as an expert consultant on related subjects.
At the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) Research Center, Dr. Ian Giammanco provides leadership in instrumentation design and data collection, wind-flow characterization, and multi-hazard testing, including hail and wildfire field programs. He has more than a decade of meteorological field research experience, serving as the field coordinator for the IBHS Characteristics of Hail Field Program and the Texas Tech University Hurricane Research Team, and he has participated in numerous severe thunderstorm and tornado research projects, including VORTEX 2.
Ian received a bachelor's degree in atmospheric science from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and he holds a master's degree in atmospheric science and a doctorate in wind science and engineering both from Texas Tech University. In addition to his position at IBHS, he is currently an adjunct faculty research associate at Texas Tech University.
In his role at Flood Re, Gary McInally is responsible for all aspects of the actuarial function, including flood modeling and post-event loss estimation. Gary and his team are central to the Flood Re long-term strategy of making certain that insurance is available and affordable for U.K. homeowners by promoting increased understanding of flood risk, mapping, and modeling capabilities.
Gary began his actuarial career in pensions and life insurance before becoming the first in-house actuary at Lloyd's managing agent Liberty Mutual Insurance. He then spent several years as a consultant at PwC, where he provided actuarial advice to U.K. and international insurers. Gary later joined Canopius as head of capital where he was a key member in building a strong modeling capability.
As senior researcher of Hyundai Insurance Research Center (HIRC), a research organization of Hyundai Marine and Fire Insurance, Dr. Chun Baek brings over 20 years of experience in water resources engineering and natural hazard mitigation to his role. He has recently concentrated on cat modeling that focuses on regional hydrologic conditions.
Prior to joining HIRC, Chun served as a research professor at Korea University and University of Western Australia. He holds a PhD in water resources engineering from Korea University.
Tom Sabbatelli leads the RMS event response team that provides real-time guidance and modeling products to clients across a wide range of global natural catastrophes. In his role as senior product manager on the model product and data management team, Tom focuses on the RMS North Atlantic Hurricane Models suite of products.
Tom joined RMS upon completion of his BS and MS degrees in meteorology from Pennsylvania State University, where he studied the statistical influence of climate state variables on tropical cyclone frequency. He is a member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS).
As the leader of model development at RMS, Dr. Mohsen Rahnama oversees a global team of scientists and engineers. He has more than 25 years of experience in earthquake engineering, seismic structural analysis and design, building performance evaluation, catastrophe modeling, and risk assessment.
Mohsen has led the development of many of the company’s major models, including catastrophe, financial, and exposure and data analytics. He is currently overseeing the development of the RMS high-definition, simulation-based flood, earthquake, and typhoon models as part of the RMS(one) solutions platform.
He holds a master's degree and doctorate in earthquake and structural engineering from Stanford University.
As a senior product manager in the model product management group, Kevin Van Leer is responsible for RMS climate-peril products for the Americas, including wildfire and custom vulnerability analytics. Over the last five years, his role has also included the management of model releases for severe convective storm and hurricane models.
Kevin holds a master's degree in atmospheric science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he authored a thesis on tornado-genesis and severe convective storms, and a bachelor’s degree in atmospheric science from Purdue University. He achieved the Certified Catastrophe Risk Analyst (CCRA) designation from RMS, is a member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), is a mentor for the AMS Board of Private Sector Meteorologists and is a voting member of the ASCE Standards Committee on Wind Speed Estimation in Tornadoes.
Eric is the senior executive for RMS software including RMS(one)® and RiskLink®. He is responsible for the development and rollout of RMS(one), including the product roadmap, go-to-market plan, and migration of clients from our existing software products.
Eric brings more than 20 years of experience in software and technology to RMS from roles with established brands and start-ups. He joins RMS from BMC Software, where he was Senior Vice President of Solutions and Support.
Prior to BMC, his roles included Vice President of Business Intelligence and Performance Management at IBM; General Manager of Business Intelligence at Cognos; Chief Executive Officer at Juice Software, and President, SAS Institute Canada.
Eric holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science/engineering from The University Of Waterloo in Canada.
As vice president of client solutions, Emily Grover-Kopec is responsible for the development of solutions and services that provide additional value around the RMS data and cat modeling assets. Previously, she has overseen the management of RMS business strategies and relationships with reinsurance intermediaries, focusing on the development of strategic relationships and collaborative programs of research with global reinsurers.
Prior to joining RMS, from Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Emily's work concentrated on the management of climate impacts in developing countries. She holds BS and MS degrees in meteorology from the University of Michigan and Penn State University.
Karen White is the chief executive officer for RMS. She is an accomplished leader in the technology industry, with a 25-year track record of leading, innovating, and scaling global technology businesses. Karen is an expert at bringing technology, innovation, data, and operations together to help drive digital transformation.
Karen started her career in Silicon Valley in 1993 as a senior executive at Oracle reporting to CEO Larry Ellison. Her global responsibilities included business development during a time of massive transformation in the computer industry. During her seven years at Oracle, the company’s revenue grew to $10 billion, profits increased nearly 65x, and the market valuation grew to more than $150 billion. Most recently, Karen was president and chief operating officer at Addepar, a leading fintech company serving the investment management industry with data and analytics solutions that are replacing decades old legacy systems with leading-edge tech.
Addepar's SaaS platform now supports $800 billion in total assets, and the company counts some of the world's leading global financial services firms as customers and partners. Prior to Addepar, Karen was chief executive officer and chair of the board at Syncplicity, a leading enterprise file sync and management SaaS business aimed at enterprises as well as the mid-market. She led the company from first product launch to 30,000 customers, culminating in the acquisition of Syncplicity by EMC in 2012. Previously, Karen led worldwide corporate and business development at SolarWinds, a top IT and network management software company whose customers included the Fortune 500. The company was listed on the Nasdaq with a successful IPO in 2009, valuing the business at nearly $1 billion.
Karen is currently on the Board of Directors of Varo Money, a mobile banking fintech that seeks to be the first fintech national bank in American history and has applied for a national bank charter.
Andrew Siffert is vice president and senior meteorologist on the BMS Re U.S. catastrophe analytics team. He works closely with clients to help them manage their weather-related risks by adding value through catastrophe response, catastrophe modeling, product development, and scientific research and education. With 16 years of industry experience working in the energy and insurance industry, Andrew uses his meteorological knowledge to enable companies to better manage their weather risks.
Prior to joining BMS Re U.S., Andrew worked for Flagstone Re as a cat project manager/meteorologist. He has also worked at ACE Group as well as Aquila Energy Corporation. Andrew holds a master’s degree in meteorology from the University of Utah and was a member of the 2002 Olympic weather support team.
Robert Muir-Wood is the chief research officer of science and technology at RMS. He leads the branch of the company that's responsible for identifying models for new areas and novel applications of risk.
Based in London, Robert has more than 20 years of experience in developing probabilistic catastrophe models across a wide range of perils and has most recently focused on models for the clustering of catastrophic events, insurance loss amplification, time varying activity rates, and "mega" catastrophes.
He was the lead author of insurance, finance, and climate change for the 2007 and 2011 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports and has written seven books – the most recent was The Cure for Catastrophe published in 2016 – along with numerous papers and articles in scientific and industry publications.
Robert is chair of the High Level Advisory Board of the OECD International Network on Financial Management of Large-Scale Catastrophes. He is also a visiting professor at the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction at University College, London. Robert holds a first-class degree in natural sciences and a Ph.D. in earth sciences from Cambridge University.
Jeff Goodell was born and raised in Silicon Valley, and has worked as a blackjack dealer, glazier, janitor, bartender, editor at a Russian literary journal, and a technical writer at Apple.
Through his years of research, he has established himself as an expert on the coal industry, geoengineering, and climate change. His newest book, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Reshaping of the Civilized World, is an insightful look at the global crisis of rising oceans.
As a commentator on energy and environmental issues, Jeff has appeared on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.