Leadership Team

Dr. Jayanta Guin is Executive Vice President and AIR’s Chief Research Officer, responsible for the strategic direction and management of the Research and Modeling group. Under his leadership, the group has developed a global suite of models for assessing and managing extreme risk from both natural and man-made perils, continually pushing the boundaries of the state-of-the-science. Jayanta also provides strategic input into AIR's future direction in conventional and emerging areas of growth, which includes leading the development of a set of solutions for analytics in casualty and cyber risks.

Jayanta has more than 20 years of experience in probabilistic risk analysis for natural catastrophes worldwide and is well recognized in the insurance industry for his expertise in the financial risk posed by natural perils. His expertise includes a wide range of natural and man-made phenomenon across the risk spectrum that encompasses underwriting and tail risk. He received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Jadavpur University in India. He earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the State University of New York, Buffalo, with a specialization in dynamic soil-structure interaction and computational mechanics.

Jayanta is a member of the governing board for the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) initiative. He is also a member of the International Society of Catastrophe Managers, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

Rob Newbold is Executive Vice President of Business Development, Marketing, and Client Services. He is responsible for the Americas and Bermuda business development team, the global marketing team, and for providing support and client service to AIR clients in the insurance, reinsurance, securitization, and intermediary markets in the Americas and Bermuda. Rob has been involved in a wide range of consulting engagements at AIR, including loss analyses, portfolio optimizations, economic impact analyses, and the management of over 125 catastrophe bonds. Early in his career, he coordinated all facets of catastrophe modeling for one of the largest property and casualty insurers in the industry. Rob earned a B.S. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia and an MBA and an M.S. in Information Systems from Boston University’s Graduate School of Management. He has achieved the designation of Certified Extreme Event Modeler by completing the requirements of the AIR Institute Certified Extreme Event Modeler Program.

Sudhir Potharaju is an Executive Vice President managing Products at AIR. He is responsible for AIR's product vision, strategy and execution of our roadmap for suite of products. He provides the overall direction to global software development, product management, quality assurance and software R&D teams. Prior to joining AIR, Sudhir worked at the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd., where he led various projects in the corporate software R&D and Telecommunications divisions. During his tenure, Sudhir was responsible for the development and delivery of software and hardware solutions. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from IETE, India, as well as an Advanced Degree in Computer Applications, with a specialization in high-performance computing and scalability.

Dr. Praveen Sandri is the Executive Vice President and Managing Director of AIR Worldwide India. He has 20 years of experience in probabilistic risk modeling of natural and man-made catastrophes and has been instrumental in the development of various catastrophe models worldwide. He is responsible for the strategic management of AIR India operations, including services in the areas of software development, model implementation, GIS, model and product testing, and analytics and data services, as well as client services and business development initiatives in India and the Middle East. He has authored many articles on the subject of catastrophe risk modeling and management and is a regular speaker at industry events worldwide. Prior to joining AIR, Praveen was a Research Associate and Manager at the Wind Engineering Research Center (WERC) at Texas Tech University. He earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering at Osmania University in India, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at Texas Tech University, with a specialization in the application of expert systems and artificial neural networks in Wind Engineering. Praveen has also completed the Executive Program in General Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Peter Lewis is a Senior Vice President in the Information Technologies and Services group. He is responsible for developing and executing information technology initiatives in support of AIR's business operations. He also leads the Technical Support and Integration Solution teams, which are responsible for the maintenance and support of AIR's hosted and desktop applications in addition to custom integration with customer's systems. Peter is a Microsoft^® Certified Professional specializing in systems support and database administration. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Northeastern University, with a concentration in finance.

Boris Davidson is a Senior Vice President in the Software Research and Development group and Chief Software Architect. He shares responsibility for AIR's product vision and strategy and is directly responsible for leading R&D activities on next generation computing platform initiatives. Boris specifically focuses on technology selection, system architecture, high-performance computing, and core loss analytics aspects of AIR products. Since joining AIR in 1994, he has contributed to the development and evolution of AIR's software product suite—from the earliest days of CATMap to AIR's next generation risk management platform Touchstone. Prior to joining AIR, Boris worked as a software engineer for two software companies: SYTRON (archival systems) and Dragon Systems (speech recognition technology). He earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Northeastern University.

Dr. Roger Grenier is Senior Vice President of AIR’s Global Resilience Practice. He is responsible for developing AIR’s public risk strategy and leading risk reduction and resilience initiatives across the globe. Roger has close to 20 years of catastrophe modeling experience. Prior to his return to AIR, Roger was director of catastrophe research and development at Liberty Mutual, where he was responsible for developing the Liberty view of catastrophe models and developing techniques to evaluate non-modeled catastrophe risk. Roger began his career in the engineering consulting field, working on a wide array of models for environmental, flood, and coastal engineering projects. He joined AIR in 1999 as a research engineer and member of the team that developed the AIR Coastal Flood Model for Great Britain. Roger went on to other leadership roles within the company, including managing the Client Service and Consulting group and AIR’s Product Management team responsible for product strategy and innovation. Roger received his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, an M.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Tufts University.

Paul Devlin is a Senior Vice President in the Operations group and General Counsel for AIR Worldwide. He manages the legal, financial, human resources, and administration needs of the company. Previously, Paul served as Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel to the Institute for Business & Home Safety, a non-profit corporation funded by the property and casualty insurance industry. He has been a licensed attorney since 1982 and is a chartered property casualty underwriter. Paul earned a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College and graduated from Boston University School of Law.

Peter Bingenheimer is Senior Vice President responsible for the day-to-day leadership of AIR’s business development, consulting, and support efforts for AIR’s insurer, insurance broker, reinsurance broker and reinsurer clients in the Americas and Bermuda. Peter began his career at AIR in the consulting area, where he executed a wide range of projects including full-scale insurer and reinsurer portfolio analyses, rate-making and mitigation studies, catastrophe bond risk analyses, model evaluation studies, and new client implementations. He went on to lead AIR’s consulting and support efforts for U.S. insurers and brokers, and he now oversees account management and business development for these segments as well. Prior to joining AIR, Peter worked as a Case Manager for John Hancock Financial Services. He received a B.A. in Economics from Colby College. He has achieved the designation of Certified Extreme Event Modeler by completing the requirements of the AIR Institute Certified Extreme Event Modeler Program.

Dr. Cagdas Kafali is a Senior Vice President in the Research and Modeling group. He oversees vulnerability and damage/loss uncertainty research and modeling for various insured assets subjected to natural hazards. Cagdas has more than 15 years of experience in probabilistic modeling of performance of structural and nonstructural systems subjected to multiple hazards. He holds an M.S. in Structural Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Cornell University with a minor in Applied Mathematics.

Robin Wilkinson has more than 20 years’ experience in legal risk management and has been developing risk models for the aviation industry, legal compliance, early predictive models, portfolio accumulation tools and policy models. She was the founder and CEO of Arium Risk Architecture. Following the company’s acquisition by Verisk Analytics, she became Vice President and Managing Director of Casualty Analytics at AIR Worldwide. Robin began her career as a corporate lawyer, serving as Head of Legal Services at British Airways Plc. Robin earned her B.A. in Philosophy from Reed College and graduated from New York University School of Law.

As Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Global Business Development at Verisk Insurance (including AIR), Dr. Milan Simic is responsible for business development and strategic growth initiatives in Europe and Asia-Pacific. During his previous tenures as Managing Director of AIR’s International and London operations, he oversaw AIR’s significant growth in those markets. MilanHe has 30 years of experience in risk assessment, engineering consulting, teaching, and research. Prior to Verisk and AIR, he worked at Benfield and in engineering consulting. Milan is a Chartered Engineer through the UK Institution of Civil Engineers, a regular speaker at catastrophe-related conferences, and he has authored numerous papers and articles on insurance loss assessment and soil-structure interaction. He is also a Member of the OECD’s High-Level Advisory Board on Financial Management of Large-Scale Catastrophes. Milan earned an M.S. in Hydraulic Structures from the University of Belgrade and a Ph.D. in Earthquake Engineering from the University of Bristol.

Yörn Tatge is Senior Vice President and Managing Director of AIR Worldwide Munich. He oversees client services, business development, and marketing efforts in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia, and CEE countries, and provides strategic input to AIR's research efforts in Europe. Yörn has more than 25 years of catastrophe modeling experience, including eight years in the reinsurance industry. He was a member of the AIR research team that developed the first ever European winter storm model in 1994, and headed the AIR London office for its first two years. He studied both in Germany and the United States, and received an MBA in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Hannover in Germany. Yörn has authored many articles on the subject of catastrophe risk management, and he is a regular speaker at industry events. From 2017, Yörn has also taken a wider role within Verisk Analytics, managing the Munich team of Verisk Insurance Solutions.

Giovanni Garcia is Senior Vice President and Managing Director of AIR Worldwide London. He is responsible for business development, marketing, and client services in the UK, as well as Western and Southern Europe. Giovanni previously served as Director of Client Relations for AIR Worldwide London and helped establish AIR's reputation for outstanding service and support in the London market by providing software support, training, and catastrophe modeling services to Lloyd's syndicates, brokers, and global reinsurers. Prior to joining AIR, he served as a Manager for a UK insurance intermediary where he was responsible for the office's Sales and Client Services teams. Giovanni received a B.E. with Honors in Civil Engineering from Queen Mary, University of London. From 2017, Giovanni has also taken a wider role within Verisk Analytics, managing the London team of Verisk Insurance Solutions.

Adrian Bentley is a Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Analyze Re. He oversees the development of Analyze Re, a standalone, real-time analytics and portfolio optimization platform built to integrate with and extend the analytical capabilities of catastrophe risk modeling platforms. Prior to co-founding Analyze Re, which was acquired by Verisk Analytics in 2016, Adrian served as the Director of Software Development at Flagstone Reinsurance. At Flagstone, he spearheaded the buildout of the company's core risk management platform to provide a single view of risk across the organization, including the integration and automation of key risk data capture within the pricing, portfolio management, and risk management systems. Prior to Flagstone, Adrian developed risk-based decision support and straight-through processing systems for West End Capital Management, a Bermuda-based hedge fund, and Rathgar Capital Corporation, a structured investment vehicle specializing in trading of credit risk.

Dr. Kazuya Fujimura is Vice President and Managing Director of AIR Worldwide Tokyo. He is responsible for business development, marketing, and client services in Japan, and has also been involved in research and development of the earthquake and typhoon models for the region. Kazuya previously worked as a Structural Engineer for Kajima Corporation and a Senior Modeler for another catastrophe modeling firm. He received a B.S. and an M.S. in Civil Engineering from Kyoto University, and earned a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering and an M.S. in Statistics from the University of California, Berkeley, with a specialization in structural reliability.

From 2017, Kazuya has also taken a wider role within Verisk Analytics, managing the Tokyo team of Verisk Insurance Solutions.

Ashish Jain is Vice President and Managing Director of AIR Worldwide Singapore. He is responsible for overall management of AIR Singapore operations, including client services, research, business development, and marketing in Southeast Asia and Australia/New Zealand. Ashish has over 12 years of experience in catastrophe risk management and has worked extensively with insurers and reinsurers to perform catastrophe analyses, interpret analysis results, optimize modeling workflows, and ultimately improve risk management practices. He earned an MBA from ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad, India with specialization in Insurance and Risk Management. Ashish has also achieved the designations of Associate in Reinsurance (ARe) and Associate in Risk Management (ARM) from the American Institute of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters.

From 2017, Ashish has also taken a wider role within Verisk Analytics, managing the Singapore team of Verisk Insurance Solutions.