ACE’s Merrill, CFC’s Newman win Advisen’s Cyber Risk Industry Person of the Year awards

By Chad Hemenway on June 17, 2015

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    Toby Merrill, division senior vice president, global cyber risk practice, ACE

Toby Merrill, division senior vice president, global cyber risk practice, ACE

ACE’s Toby Merrill and CFC Underwriting’s Graeme Newman were each voted by their peers as Cyber Risk Industry Person of the Year at Advisen’s second annual Cyber Risk Awards in New York City.

Merrill, division senior vice president of ACE’s Global Cyber Risk Practice and Newman, chief innovation officer, won the awards representing the US and London, respectively.

Voters said Merrill, appointed about a year ago to lead ACE’s Global Cyber Risk Practice, has been a thought leader and innovator in the cyber insurance market. One person nominating him for the award said: “Toby continues to spearhead growth and innovation in the cyber marketplace by creating a clear and concise product emphasizing innovation and state of the art services for insureds,” and another added that as an educator and speak on the topic of cyber Merrill “likely has reduced the number and impact of cyber events.”

Graeme Newman

Graeme Newman

Newman’s supporters said he has put together multiple facilities for cyber in London and he has “moved CFC forward in manuscripting extremely useful coverages beyond data and privacy liability, including network interruption for the energy sector.”

Newman emceed this year’s awards show with Tom Srail of Willis and Jeremy Gittler of XL Catlin.

Determined by People’s Choice voting, additional awards were given to AIG for cyber insurer and cyber vendor of the year; Marsh for best cyber broking team; Beazley for event-response team of the year; and NetDiligence for pre-breach team of the year.

Other than the award to Merrill, ACE took home two more trophies. ACE’s Marcel Van Peenen won Cyber Risk Industry Person of the Year in the international category and ACE’s Loss Mitigation Services won for Cyber Risk Innovation of the Year.

Additionally, Richard J. Bortnick of law firm Traub Lieberman Straus & Shrewsberry received the Cyber Risk Network 2015 Person of the Year award for his outstanding support and contributions to the network. Bortnick has provided content, insight, and has been a reliable, accurate source for stories since the Cyber Risk Network’s inception.

“Advisen’s Cyber Risk Awards signify the highest level of peer approval and recognition indicated by the largest number of votes from the P&C community,” said Rebecca Bole, SVP, Editorial at Advisen. “Given the extent of Advisen’s loss and pricing datasets together with the reach of our Cyber Risk Network and our global Cyber Risk Insights Conference series, we are fortunate to interact frequently with virtually all of tonight’s nominees.”

“We had 30 percent more cyber risk professionals participate in the voting this year than in 2014 in 10 categories,” added Advisen CEO Bill Keogh. “The dinner is both an appropriate way to recognize the achievements of industry leaders as well as a premier networking opportunity. We congratulate all the winners and thank everyone who participated in this year’s event.”

Chad Hemenway is Managing Editor of Advisen News. He has more than 15 years of journalist experience at a variety of online, daily, and weekly publications. He has covered P&C insurance news since 2007, and he has experience writing about all P&C lines as well as regulation and litigation. Chad won a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Single Article in 2014 for his coverage of the insurance implications of traumatic brain injuries and Best News Coverage in 2013 for coverage of Superstorm Sandy. Contact Chad at 212.897.4824 or [email protected].