The founder of Boston-based catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide announced this morning that she is launching an independent firm.

Karen Clark announced that the new firm–Karen Clark & Company, also in Boston–will help companies better use catastrophe models as sophisticated tools for making important risk management decisions.

In a press statement, Ms. Clark, president and CEO, said, “While the catastrophe models and applications will continue to evolve and improve over time, the bigger challenges now are in helping companies get full value from these tools.”

In her new company, Ms. Clark will work with senior executives and boards of directors to make sure their companies have in place effective risk management processes that conform to best practices, she said in a statement this morning.

Karen Clark & Company will offer:

o Consulting services

o Independent reviews of company internal processes

o Executive briefings

The executive briefings will provide senior managers and their boards with specific information they need to know about catastrophe risk, catastrophe models, and using model results to manage the risk.

“Senior executives and directors of companies exposed to catastrophes realize they need independent information about catastrophe risk and best practices for managing that risk because every year the financial exposure to catastrophe loss increases. Companies have asked me for more insight, so I am very excited to be taking on these new challenges and working with industry leaders to develop more effective and holistic risk management processes,” she said.

Ms. Clark, known for groundbreaking work in 1987 to develop the catastrophe modeling industry, created Applied Insurance Research (later known as AIR Worldwide) after identifying a need for probabilistic modeling techniques and better catastrophe risk assessment tools for the insurance industry.

Today, Ms. Clark believes the need for independent external review of internal risk management processes is critical and will draw on more than 20 years of experience working with meteorologists, seismologists, engineers and other experts to develop and validate scientifically advanced catastrophe models for all type of natural hazards in 50 countries.

“As rating agencies, regulators and other stakeholders take an increasingly active interest in how companies are assessing and managing risk, independent information and reviews of those processes are becoming much more important,” she said.

In February, AIR Worldwide announced that Ms. Clark would leave her post as CEO to become vice chairman of AIR's board, with S. Ming Lee succeeding her as president and CEO.

In a statement released at the time, Ms. Clark said the time was right to rebalance her activities and pursue new challenges.

Mr. Lee, who joined AIR in 1996, had served as executive vice president immediately before taking the CEO title. He was also the director of operations of AIR's Consulting and Software Services Group, encompassing software product management and testing, technical support, and catastrophe loss analysis services.

For more information on Ms. Clark's new consulting firm, visit www.karenclarkandco.com.

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