Weather Risk Management Association (WRMA) announces officers & board for 2016-2017

The Weather Risk Management Association (WRMA), a global trade organisation with a focus on promoting the weather risk management industry, has revealed that it’s appointed new board members and officers for the 2016-2017 year, at its 2016 annual meeting in Miami, Florida.

Elected to the organisations Board of Directors for two-year terms were Jens Boening of EDF Trading, Brian Beebe of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, Mike Marano of CME Group, Sandeep Ramachandran of Axis Capital, and Bill Windle of Munich Re.

WRMA noted that of the elected members to its Board of Directors for 2016 through 2017, CME Group’s Marano and Swiss Re’s Beebe are new to the board. While Neil Bird of Risk Solutions International, Claude Brown of Reed Smith, Brad Hoggatt of MSI Guaranteed Weather, Chris Hyde of MDA Weather Services, Ralph Renner of Endurance Global Weather, and Claire Wilkinson of Willis, will remain on the board for a term of one year.

Richard Betts will serve in the Past President position, announced the WRMA.

As well as announcing new and remaining positions to its Board of Directors at the organisations annual meeting on 12^th May 2016, the WRMA revealed that certain Board officers, also with a term of two years were elected.

This includes MSI Guaranteed Weather’s Hoggatt as President, Renner of Endurance Global Weather as Vice President and Hyde, of MDA Weather Services as the Treasurer. Previously, Hoggatt served as Vice President and replaces Richard Betts of Uniper Global Commodities, who now takes up the position of Past President, said the WRMA.

Below are more details on elected Board members and officers:

Brad Hoggatt, Chief Portfolio Manager, MSI Guaranteed Weather

In his current position as Chief Portfolio Manager of MSI Guaranteed Weather, LLC (MSI GW – a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Ltd), Bradley Hoggatt is responsible for the financial performance of the company’s global weather derivative, insurance, and commodity portfolios. Moreover, he spearheads the development of new risk quantification techniques for implementation within the weather-modulated financial continuum. Since 2013, Bradley has served on the Weather Risk Management Association (WRMA) Board of Directors.  Prior to joining MSI GW, Bradley Hoggatt was Portfolio Manager, Europe for Aquila Energy’s Weather Derivatives Group where he was one of the founding members of the team. Mr. Hoggatt’s role at Aquila grew from a pure trading position where he focused on quantifying weather variability on a variety of time and space scales to maximize the risk/return profile of the global portfolio. Mr. Hoggatt has been involved in the weather risk management market since 1999. Before entering the weather market, Bradley was employed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a researcher with emphasis on numerical weather prediction and data assimilation. Mr. Hoggatt received his Masters and Bachelors of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Ralph Renner, Director of European Origination, Endurance Global Weather

Ralph Renner is director of European Origination for Endurance Global Weather and responsible for developing and implementing structured solutions with EGW’S European and Asian clients. He was formerly head of power trading at Macquarie Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Investment Bank and Centrica Energy. With over a decade of energy trading and risk management experience in the European power, gas, coal and CO2 markets, Mr Renner has an excellent understanding of the evolving requirements of utilities, traders, renewable energy companies and financiers.

Chris Hyde, Director Weather Marketing, MDA Weather Services

Christopher Hyde is an Energy Weather Consultant (Meteorologist) and Director of Weather Marketing at MDA Information Systems LLC in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Mr. Hyde has been employed with MDA Information Systems LLC since 1998. As an Energy Weather Consultant (Meteorologist), Mr. Hyde is responsible for contributing to the consensus 30/60 day and seasonal forecasts. Phone consultation with industry traders and meteorologists about the latest forecast view is part of the daily routine for Mr. Hyde. Besides forecast responsibilities, Mr. Hyde manages a team responsible for marketing MDA Information Systems LLC Weather Services energy and agricultural products by letting current clients know about new products and finding perspective energy and agricultural clients. Over the past decade, Mr. Hyde has tripled the amount of weather clients that subscribe to various services and products.

Brian Beebe, Senior Vice President and Head of North America Origination, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions

Brian Beebe is Senior Vice President and Head of North America Origination for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions.  He is based in Houston, Texas. Brian oversees a Houston, New York City, and Atlanta team that specializes in global weather, weather-commodity, and power plant forced outage and capacity related transactions. Before joining Swiss Re in early 2012, he worked in a variety of management, energy trading, and new product development roles with Trumarx Data Partners, Merrill Lynch Commodities, Occidental Petroleum, ACES Power Marketing, Mirant (Southern Energy), and Louis Dreyfus Energy.  Brian received a B.A. from Amherst College, and an MBA from Emory University’s Gozuieta School of Business.

Michael Marano, Director Energy Products, CME Group

Michael Marano, Director Energy Products at CME Group. Michael is a Director at CME Group focusing on Weather & North American Natural Gas & Power Products. Prior to CME Group Michael held various commercial roles at Hess & Direct Energy, with a focus on operations, trading and portfolio development efforts across the natural gas, power and weather markets. Michael has an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and an Undergraduate Degree from The College of the Holy Cross.