AIR launches new initiative to focus on disaster risk resilience

AIR Worldwide has launched a new practice group to be focused on disaster resilience and disaster risk reduction initiatives around the world, which will ultimately help insurance, reinsurance and capital or ILS markets better provide risk financing capacity.

Catastrophe risk modelling and analytics firm AIR Worldwide announced this new practice group today, with the appointment of Dr. Daniel Kaniewski to serve as Vice President Global Resilience, and with the aim of developing solutions that aid society’s efforts to better prepare for and recover from catastrophes.

Kaniewski is a crisis, risk, and resilience leader with 20 years of experience as a management consulting executive, working as a Presidential advisor, thought leader, educator, and first responder. He was a senior advisor at the White House during a number of major crises and has acted as a trusted security expert to both governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

“I’m extremely excited to join an innovative company like AIR and take on the challenge of developing the company’s public risk strategy,” commented Kaniewski. “I look forward to assisting organizations in applying catastrophe modeling to financing disaster risk and to expanding AIR’s already strong collaborations with the United Nations, the World Bank, the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program, insurance regulatory bodies across the globe, and distinguished research groups.”

The AIR Worldwide global resilience practice has been established to meet a number of priorities, including helping to develop solutions to help the world better prepare for catastrophes, help companies and organisations to apply catastrophe modeling to disaster risk financing, set up alliances with organisations that can provide data for further AIR risk model development, while also advancing the science of risk modeling and helping society better manage natural hazard risks. The practice will also help AIR to strengthen its relationships with regulatory bodies and rating agencies globally.

“As the leader in providing risk modeling services and software, AIR’s capabilities can be harnessed to inform public disaster financing, risk pooling and other risk mitigation activities,” said Rob Newbold
, executive vice president, AIR Worldwide. “We’re pleased to have Dr. Kaniewski lead our global resilience practice, which will be critical in advancing AIR’s position as a foremost authority in developing solutions that aid society’s efforts to better understand and prepare for catastrophes.”

Any efforts by risk modelling firms and other service providers to the insurance, reinsurance and ILS fund sectors, in helping to increase the world’s disaster resilience will be welcomed. The move will also ultimately help risk capital, including ILS and reinsurance capacity, to be more intelligently be deployed into natural catastrophe risks.

The application of science and risk modeling are key to the expansion of reinsurance and ILS sectors, and the application of efficient risk capital is key to building global resilience. Therefore initiatives such as AIR’s resilience practice will both help society and the markets we cover.