A Letter from the Divisional President: Mark Vuono

As we welcome 2020, we look forward to a new decade full of new opportunities that lie ahead. Before we launch into a new business year, it is important to reflect on a successful 2019 – made possible by our dedicated network of business partners. Below highlights just a handful of what we have accomplished.

• Participating in a variety of charitable events such as annual IICF events, the Wall Street Run & Heart Walk and the Castillo Theatre Benefit. We also took part in Lord’s Pantry of Downingtown Adopt-A-Family Program and the Mystic River Watershed Association’s Annual Mystic Herring Run and Paddle, raising funds to go toward restoration and protection of the river.
• Continuing the tradition of our focus on teambuilding throughout the year, including a wide variety of events from an outing to a historical dairy farm to our recent murder mystery at our yearly divisional meeting retreat.
• Strengthening our relationships with key brokers and clients through memorable outings such as the NY Fishing Charter, the San Francisco Giants outing, the Cincinnati Reds outing, the Northeast golf outing and the Great American Boston Broker Event…just to name a few!
• Developing new relationships with many brokers across the country and the continued success of our broker rewards program.
• Continuing our efforts to recruit and integrate talented people to our growing team to better enable us to provide best in class service to our customers.
• Enhancing our already industry noteworthy claims team led by Greg Kelder. 
• Increasing our media presence in an effort to communicate the importance of environmental insurance for commercial customers.
• Being featured in various panels and presentations throughout the industry including: the Brownfield Coalition of the Northeast; Society of Environmental Professionals (SEIP); Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy; the CLM Annual Conference; EECMA’s annual conference
• Expanding our geographical reach with the opening of an office in Los Angeles and deepening our staff in our Exton, New York, Boston and Cincinnati.
• Announcing a new Special Risks program to allow us to expand our underwriting appetite to classes of business that can be higher exposure due to the nature of their operations.
• Continuing to tailor products to specific industry needs, such as our Commercial Lender product. Not familiar? Check out this short video for more information.
• Growing the resources of our resident technical experts including – white papers, available water management plans, industry hot topics, timely regulatory articles, various riskopolis landscapes and the Response & React Program – with even more educational content slated for 2020!
• Exceeding our financial goals despite a very challenging and ever-changing insurance marketplace as well as regulatory and legal landscape.
• Recognition by executive management at Great American Insurance Group for outstanding service and performance to the company for nine consecutive years (based on prior year results).

For 2020, we are excited to feature upcoming business expansion opportunities beyond our traditional offerings. A few examples of new programs that you will hear more about throughout the year include:

• Developing a stand-alone Products Pollution policy targeting certain manufacturing classes.
• Working with New Empire to offer pollution coverage to various association groups.
• Continuing the expansion of several existing programs, implemented with key specialty broker partners. We are delighted to continue these mutually beneficial relationships and look forward to the success of these programs in 2020.

As we started to plan for this new decade, we identified our keys to success you will see outlined below. Focusing on strategic growth in which we ensure our culture remains at the forefront of any business decisions, these “keys” will help to guide us in best serving our customer needs for the next decade and beyond.

• Professionalism: To work with all people in an ethical and respectful manner
• Quality: To ensure that our work product is complete, accurate and meets the needs of our customers
• Service-Oriented: To constantly exceed the needs of our customers as best as possible
• Ownership: To take responsibility for our actions and commitment to a strong work ethic
• Change: To adapt to change which remains a constant within our industry
• Collaboration: To work as a team, because we’re stronger together than we are individually

Only by excelling in these core principles will we be able to “climb the mountain” and maintain our position as one of the industry’s premier environmental insurance carriers.

As we start 2020, we remain proud to be one of only a handful of carriers who have achieved success during the last decade – we fully recognize that our successes and achievements would not have been possible without the strong support that all of you have given to us since our inception in 2008.

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I extend my sincere wishes for a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to all of you. We look forward to working with you in 2020 and for many years to come!

Sincerely,
Mark Vuono

Mark Vuono, Divisional President
Great American Environmental Division

Mark is Divisional President after holding the position of Chief Underwriting Officer since the start of Great American’s Environmental Division. Along with his extensive experience in the insurance field including business planning, product development, underwriting and training, his background also includes experience as an environmental specialist as well as a health & safety officer. He is based out of our Exton, PA office.