Spreading the Risks: Insuring the American Experience - Hardcover

Bogardus, John A.; Moore, Robert H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 188927416X ISBN 13: 9781889274164

Publisher: Posterity Pr Inc, 2003

Synopsis

"Spreading the Risks" tells the story of how the American insurance industry evolved from colonial times through periods of war and economic transformation into the twenty-first century where it now faces open-ended liabilities from terrorism, asbestosis and environmental pollution. John A. Bogardus Jr., former chairman and CEO of Alexander & Alexander, uses his decades of business experience to explore the role of major twentieth-century American brokers. He provides an informed overview of American commercial insurance and offers memorable stories about the world's leading brokerages whose triumphs and failures reflect an ever-changing business.

About this title

About the Author

John A. Bogardus Jr. joined Alexander & Alexander in 1950 as a trainee. Rising through the ranks, in time he held the positions of president, CEO and chairman, and he served on the board from 1963 to 1995. Active in several national insurance organizations, he was also on the boards of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc; Security Capital Corporation; and United States Surgical Corporation.

Robert Moore, Ph.D., worked for Alexander & Alexander from 1977 to 1995 in various executive capacities, including president of Government and Industry Affairs, Inc. in Washington, DC. He also served as the Emerging Issues Coordinator for the Conference Board in New York.

From the Inside Flap

Insurance, like banking, has been a mainstay of the American economy since the nation s birth. Within this huge segment of the country s financial services business, the role of insurance brokers has been indispensable.

With unique access to brokerage leaders and records, "Spreading the Risks" tells the story of how the insurance industry evolved through disasters and economic transforma-tions into the twenty-first century. Today brokers work with businesses of all kinds in evaluating and protecting themselves from such open-ended liabilities as terrorism, asbestosis, and environmental pollution.

John A. Bogardus Jr., former chairman and CEO of Alexander & Alexander, uses his decades of business experience to explore the role of major twentieth-century American brokers. He provides an informed overview of American commercial insurance from colonial times through periods of war and economic transformation into the twenty-first century where we face emerging risks such as those dramatized by September 11, 2001.

With the current crisis of confidence in corporate management, Bogardus offers an instructive perspective on success and failure patterns in companies that have undergone rapid expansion and diversifica-tion. Alexander & Alexander s own challenges with globalization foreshadowed problems plaguing some of today s major corporations. In this context, the author reports on his participation in bringing some of the problems at Lloyd s of London to public attention.

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Joseph Ellis calls Spreading the Risks "a paradoxical and fascinating story." Emory Elliott of the University of California notes that it "is filled with personal narratives anecdotes of heroes and villains" and "engages the reader in a remarkable epic struggle."

Edition details

• Publisher: Posterity Pr Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 188927416X
• ISBN 13: 9781889274164
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 408