Less than a month into Lance J.Ewing’s job as a risk manager for Harrah’s Entertainment, HurricaneKatrina caused about $1.6 billion in damage to the company’s GulfCoast casinos.

Talk about being thrown into the deep end.

Considering the experience gained through that trial and in theyears since, it seems appropriate that Ewing would be selected toguard against risk for Chartis as head of its new Hospitality andLeisure Industry Practice Group.

Ewing says he has the “battle scars” from handling multiline,complex claims at Harrah’s resorts and casinos and that Chartis hasassembled a seasoned, veteran group with the “wherewithal to knowthe needs of clients and provide them with innovativesolutions.”

The Hospitality and Leisure Group will be charged with findingspecialized insurance and risk-management solutions for casinos,high-end restaurants, quick-casual restaurants, resorts, cruiselines, theme parks, zoos, circuses and professional sports—to namea few.

“Holding them all together is the fact they each deal with thepublic in some tangible way,” Ewing notes. “We think we cancontinue to grow in this area and create new products.”

The hospitality and leisure industries are always “looking to[seek out] people who understand their risk. We want to be thatresource for this industry and build long-term relationships,” headds.

Ewing says a number of brokers have units dedicated to this riskclass and that Chartis wants to align with these producers, so whenthe latter are presented with a risk to place, they immediately“know we understand the nuances.”

Ewing, a past president of RIMS, is also starting aclient-advisory board within the Hospitality and Leisure Group tofind out “what’s working and what’s not working” in order to betterunderstand clients’ needs and to help shape new products, headds.

Chartis now has 11 such industry-practice groups, focusing ontransportation, health care, public entities, financialinstitutions, higher education and real estate, among others.