NU Roll Call
There aren't too many things you can depend on in the property-casualty insurance business. You know that pricing is always going to be cyclical rising and falling too quickly for the industry's own good. You know you are always one hurricane, earthquake (or, these days, a terrorist attack) away from another hard market. And you knew that our longtime Washington editor, Steven Brostoff, was going to deliver the goods about what was really going on in our nation's capital.
After a quarter-century of outstanding service for the National Underwriter, with the bulk of that time spent covering Capitol Hill, the White House, the U.S. Supreme Court and the various federal regulatory agencies, Steve is going the way of the entrepreneur, taking over as editor and publisher of his own newsletter Liability & Insurance Week.
It's amazing and ironic how much must-read copy Steve produced out of Washington, covering an industry that was supposedly state-regulated. It goes to show you that regardless of all the talk these days about optional federal chartering and "road maps" for a federal role in regulatory reform, Uncle Sam has had his huge hand in the insurance industry for a long time.
Mr. Brostoff was always front and center to document what the feds were up to, often getting the inside dope before the rest of the press corps. As a true player on the Washington scene, valued as much for his wry, insightful commentary as he was for his dogged news reporting, he will be sorely missed. We wish him well.
Luckily for us, our parent company recently acquired a highly respected insurance data division from Thomson Financial that had an e-newsletter component including an experienced Washington bureau. Arthur D. Postal (known to just about everyone as "Dave"), editor of the weekly Insurance Chronicle, is a highly qualified replacement for Mr. Brostoff as our new Washington Bureau Chief. Two other seasoned Chronicle editors Matt Brady in Washington, and Steve Tuckey, here in Hoboken are also welcome additions to our editorial staff.
You'll notice some other changes on our masthead.
I am pleased to announce the promotions of Dan Hays and Caroline McDonald, who are now senior editors. Dan is a news hound who consistently scoops the competition and breaks the most proprietary stories each day as editor of our NU Online News Service, while also covering fraud and workers' comp for the weekly newsmagazine. Caroline, who launched and edits our monthly Corporate Insurance Buyers Report, is the industry's leading reporter on the alternative markets, while managing our daily Web news service in Dan's absence. Both have helped set NU apart with their outstanding work and initiative.
I also returned from vacation to meet a new boss! Tom Fowler is now group publisher and vice president of our Insurance Magazine Division, replacing Peggy Walker, who left NUCO to pursue a terrific opportunity in her hometown of Chicago.
Peggy was a gem, but once again we were fortunate to recruit someone with the credentials of Tom Fowler to take over and hit the ground running. Tom is no stranger to this industry. Indeed, he headed up the Investment Management Group of Thomson Media, where he was in charge of many leading financial services magazines, including at least one very familiar to this p-c insurance and risk management audience Employee Benefit News.
So as you can see, NU remains in good hands.
Sam Friedman
Editor-In-Chief
Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, July 29, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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