Leadership Team

Dr. Jayanta Guin is an executive vice president and chief research officer for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team, where he’s 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 the team’s future direction in conventional and emerging areas of growth. He also oversees an emerging area of Verisk’s business, casualty risk.

Jayanta has 25 years of experience in probabilistic risk analysis for natural catastrophes worldwide. His previous roles at the company include senior vice president and vice president of research and modeling. In those capacities he grew and developed the research team, managed model development, liaised with product development, established external partnerships, and laid the foundations for Verisk’s next generation of catastrophe models.

He’s 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 phenomena across the risk spectrum that encompasses underwriting, financial modeling, and aggregation risk.

He holds a PhD and an MS in civil engineering from the State University of New York, Buffalo, with a specialization in dynamic soil-structure interaction and computational mechanics. He also holds a BS in civil engineering from Jadavpur University in India.

Jayanta is a member of the governing board for the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) initiative and 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 and chief operating officer for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team. He’s responsible for the strategic direction and oversight of the Americas and Bermuda business development group, the Americas and Bermuda consulting and client services group, Verisk’s global insurance-linked securities practice and Verisk’s global resilience practice. Rob also leads the operations group, as well as groups responsible for developing and executing information technology initiatives that support the business operations, including infrastructure, application technical support, integration solutions, and security. He also oversees and provides strategic leadership for the global marketing function, as well as the group who builds and supports Analyze Re. Rob helps all the groups he leads to maintain their high levels of service and support and all client-facing groups find new and better ways to work side by side to offer a holistic experience.

Rob’s been involved in a wide range of consulting engagements since joining the company in 2002, including loss analyses, portfolio optimizations, economic impact analyses, and the management of more than 125 catastrophe bonds. He has achieved the designation of Certified Extreme Event Modeler (CEEM) by completing the requirements of the Verisk Certified Extreme Event Modeler Program. Rob holds an MBA and an MS in information systems, both from Boston University’s Graduate School of Management, and a BS in systems engineering from the University of Virginia.

Outside of work, Rob spends his time coaching youth sports in his community and chasing the automatic qualifying time for the Boston Marathon.

Sudhir Potharaju is an executive vice president for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team. He leads the creation and implementation of the team’s strategy for Verisk’s suite of extreme event models, providing comprehensive direction to the product management, software development, quality assurance, documentation, user experience, and software R&D teams globally.

He’s committed to creating a deeply passionate, customer-focused culture that accentuates delightful user experience, continuous innovation, and calculated risk taking. His focus is on developing and delivering software and hardware solutions that overcome obstacles and enable simplicity and tech-driven partnerships.

Prior to joining Verisk, 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, he was responsible for developing and delivering software and hardware solutions.

He holds an MTech in computer applications, with a specialization in high-performance computing and scalability, and a BTech in electronics and telecommunications, both from the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) in Hyderabad.

Outside of work, apart from spending time with his family, Sudhir enjoys running, gardening, and watching sports.

Dr. Praveen Sandri is the executive vice president and managing director of Verisk’s insurance solutions office in India. He’s responsible for strategic management of the company’s operations in India, 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.

Praveen 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.

Prior to joining Verisk, Praveen was a Research Associate and Manager at the Wind Engineering Research Center (WERC) at Texas Tech University.

He’s authored many articles on the subject of catastrophe risk modeling and management and is a regular speaker at industry events worldwide.

Praveen holds a PhD and an MS in civil engineering from Texas Tech University, with a specialization in the application of expert systems and artificial neural networks in wind engineering, and a BS in civil engineering from Osmania University in India. He’s also completed the Executive Program in General Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

He supports and participates in activities promoting the Hyderabad Nachiketa Tapovan, a school that offers basic education, supports nutrition and health, and provides classes in the arts.

Boris Davidson is a senior vice president and chief software architect in the software development group for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team, where he guides the team’s product vision and strategic technology roadmap. Boris has been directly responsible for leading R&D activities on next generation computing platform initiatives with a focus on technology selection, systems architecture, high-performance computing, and core loss analytics aspects of Verisk products.

Since joining AIR in 1994, before its acquisition by Verisk, he’s contributed to the development and evolution of the extreme event solutions team’s software product suite—from the early days of CATRADER to the current generation of risk modeling platforms such as Touchstone and Touchstone Re. Before joining Verisk, Boris worked in the software engineering group at Dragon Systems, a leading speech recognition technology.

Boris holds a BS in computer engineering from Northeastern University.

Outside of work, he spends time at hockey rinks and basketball courts supporting his kids in their athletic pursuits.

Dr. Roger Grenier is senior vice president of Verisk’s Global Resilience Practice. He’s responsible for developing the extreme event solutions team’s public risk strategy and leading risk reduction and resilience. Through his work, Roger helps governments and NGOs prepare for disasters, promotes awareness of the “Protection Gap,” and helps clients make better informed decisions about resilience strategies. Roger also contributes to Verisk’s climate change strategy and leads Verisk’s regulatory and rating agency consulting group.

Roger has more than 20 years of catastrophe modeling experience. Prior to his return to Verisk in 2018, Roger was director of catastrophe research and development at a large multi-national insurer, where he was responsible for developing a bespoke view of catastrophe models and developing techniques to evaluate non-modeled catastrophe risk. During his first tenure at Verisk, Roger held various leadership roles within the extreme event solutions team, including managing the consulting and client services and group and the product management team responsible for product strategy and innovation. He first joined the team in 1999 as a research engineer and member of the group that developed the AIR Coastal Flood Model for Great Britain. Roger is trained as a civil engineer and began his career as a consultant working on a wide array of models for environmental, flood, and coastal engineering projects.

He’s frequently invited to speak to public sector audiences on topics related to natural hazards, resilience, and insurance. He serves on the advisory board at Tufts University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Roger holds a PhD from North Carolina State University, an MS from Stanford University, and a BS from Tufts University, all in civil engineering.

He’s worked on the board of directors for EVKids, which runs tutoring programs for students to help them achieve college success, and the Scituate Alliance of Natural Disaster Services (SANDS), which focuses on community preparedness and resilience.

Paul Devlin is a senior vice president and general counsel for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team.

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’s achieved the professional designation of chartered property casualty underwriter (CPCU).

Paul holds a JD from the Boston University School of Law and a BA in economics from Dartmouth College.

He’s been active in his town as a coach of several youth sports.

Peter Bingenheimer is a senior vice president for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team. He’s responsible for the day-to-day leadership of the team’s business development, consulting, and support efforts for (re)insurer and intermediary clients in the Americas and Bermuda.

Before taking on his current role, Peter led Verisk’s consulting and support efforts for U.S. insurers and brokers. He began his career on the team 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. Prior to joining Verisk, Peter worked as a case manager for John Hancock Financial Services.

He’s achieved the designation of Certified Extreme Event Modeler (CEEM) by completing the requirements of the Verisk Certified Extreme Event Modeler Program.

He holds a BA in economics from Colby College.

Outside of work, Peter enjoys spending time outdoors with friends and family, most commonly on sports fields, at the beach, or on the ski slopes.

Dr. Cagdas Kafali is a senior vice president in the research and modeling group for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team. He oversees the risk modeling for natural catastrophes with a focus on the impacts of various natural perils on the built environment.

Cagdas has nearly 20 years of experience in the probabilistic modeling of the performance of structural and nonstructural systems subjected to multiple hazards. He’s assumed several roles and responsibilities at the company, including research and model development with a particular focus on the Europe and Asia regions, and more recently focusing on North American models. Before working at Verisk, Cagdas was a graduate student.

Cagdas has been awarded the “Modeler of the Year” honor by Verisk’s research department and has received the Verisk Citizenship Award.

He holds a PhD in civil engineering from Cornell University with a minor in applied mathematics, an MS in structural engineering from Case Western Reserve University, an MBA from the Harvard Extension School, and a BS in civil engineering from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. He completed Verisk’s Data Analytics Bootcamp, held at the University of Virginia.

Outside of work, Cagdas likes practicing his euro step and three-point range on basketball courts.

Eric Gesick is an insurance expert with nearly three decades of experience in the global (re)insurance industry and over the last two years has been examining climate risk issues and solutions through academic research and advisory services. He is primarily responsible for leading Verisk's casualty modeling and analytics team and overseeing the development of the Arium platform.

Eric has most recently served as the Global Chief Actuary of PartnerRe and as the Global Chief Actuary, Global Chief Risk Officer, and Global Chief Underwriting Officer of AXIS Capital, with leadership responsibilities including pricing, portfolio management, underwriting standards, reserving, ERM, natural catastrophe modeling, exposure management, and capital modeling for multiple lines of business, including liability, property, and specialty insurance.

Through academic research as a Visiting Scholar at the Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, and in collaboration with a research team at Brookings Institution, he has co-authored 2 papers, Flying blind: What do investors really know about climate change risks in the U.S. equity and municipal debt markets? (2020) and Inviting danger: How federal disaster, insurance and infrastructure policies are magnifying the harm of climate change (2021), and a New York Times guest essay We’re Not Ready for the Next Big Climate Disasters (2021).

Eric is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a CFA Charterholder.

As Executive Vice President and Managing Director of EMEA, APAC and Strategy at Verisk Extreme Event Solutions (formerly known as AIR Worldwide), Dr Milan Simic is responsible for business development and strategic growth initiatives in Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Milan has 35 years of experience in risk assessment, engineering consulting, teaching, and research. Prior to Verisk and AIR, he worked at Benfield, in engineering consulting and universities. 

Milan is a Chartered Engineer through the UK Institution of Civil Engineers, a regular speaker at catastrophe-related conferences, and 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. 

Yörn Tatge is senior vice president and managing director of Verisk’s insurance solutions office in Munich. Since 2006, he’s overseen client services, business development, and marketing efforts in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia, and central/eastern (CEE) countries, and has provided strategic input to Verisk's research efforts in Europe.

Yörn’s 28+ years of catastrophe modeling experience include eight years in the reinsurance industry leading various analytical initiatives and building hands-on underwriting expertise. Since 2017, he’s managed the company’s Munich team and shaped the market strategy for growing the company’s presence in large parts of Continental Europe.

In 1995, he opened and headed the London office for its first two years, successfully building the company’s market presence in Europe. He joined AIR in 1993, before its acquisition by Verisk, as a member of the research group that developed the first-ever European winter storm model, bringing it to market as product manager in 1994.

Yörn has authored many articles on the subject of catastrophe risk management and is a regular speaker at industry events.

He holds an MBA in business administration and economics from the University of Hannover in Germany and has studied international marketing in Germany and the United States at Harvard University.

Outside of work, Yörn likes to play guitar and is interested in all kinds of music. Weather permitting, he also enjoys riding his bike in the Alps, still wondering why some mountains are that steep.

As a senior vice president, Giovanni Garcia leads Verisk’s insurance business development in the UK. He’s responsible for sales of extreme event and core underwriting solutions into the specialty markets within Lloyd’s and London’s company market, sales of claims solutions into the UK domestic market, and coordinating and collaborating across Verisk’s insurance business units within the UK.

Giovanni previously served as managing director for Verisk’s insurance solutions office in London, where he was responsible for business development, marketing, and client services. In this role, he helped establish Verisk’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. Before joining the company, he was a manager for a UK insurance intermediary, responsible for his office’s sales and client services teams.

During Giovanni’s tenure, his team significantly grew its footprint within the UK and was named “Best Risk Modelling Services Provider” at the Intelligent Insurer Global Awards.

Giovanni holds a BEng with honours in civil engineering from Queen Mary, University of London.

Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family, eating out, and watching his kids play sports.

As vice president and managing director of Verisk’s insurance solutions office in Tokyo, Dr. Kazuya Fujimura is responsible for business development, marketing, and client services in Japan and Korea. He’s also managed the Tokyo team since 2017.

Kazuya has been involved in the research and development of earthquake and typhoon models for the region for many years. Before joining Verisk in 2007, he worked as a structural engineer for Kajima Corporation and a senior modeler for another catastrophe modeling firm.

His work contributed to his team being named a “Service Provider of the Year” at the 2020 Asia Insurance Industry Awards.

He holds a PhD in civil and earthquake engineering with a specialization in structural reliability and an MA in statistics, both from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MEng and a BEng in civil engineering, both from Kyoto University.

Ashish Jain is vice president and managing director of Verisk’s insurance solutions office in Singapore. He oversees all the office’s operational aspects and leads the extreme event solutions team’s business development and consulting and client services groups across South and Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Australia/New Zealand. He also drives Verisk’s relationships with regional insurance regulators, associations, and governmental/non-governmental bodies in the field of disaster risk management.

He works extensively with insurers and reinsurers to perform extreme event risk analyses, interpret analysis results, optimize modelling workflows, and ultimately improve risk management practices. Ashish helps grow Verisk’s presence across Southeast Asia and ANZ, to the point that his team was named a “Service Provider of the Year” at the 2020 Asia Insurance Industry Awards.

Since 2017, Ashish’s role has included managing the company’s Singapore team. He was selected to open the Singapore branch in 2012, having led the client relationship team after joining the India office in 2004 as a risk analyst.

He’s a Fellow of the Singapore Insurance Institute (FSII) and has achieved the designations of Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Associate in Reinsurance (ARe) and Associate in Risk Management (ARM) from the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters.

Ashish holds an MBA from ICFAI Business School (IBS) in Hyderabad with specialization in insurance and risk management and a BCom with honours in accounting and finance from Gauhati University, India.

Outside of work, Ashish helps special needs education organizations and enjoys exploring new places with his family.

As a vice president and the managing director of Verisk’s extreme event solutions team in London, Shane Latchman is involved in many of Verisk’s extreme event models and Touchstone initiatives, such as the integration of third-party data and models, expanding Verisk’s capabilities in marine and energy, climate change quantification, and the Next Generation Financial Module. He interacts frequently with rating agencies and regulators on topics such as stress tests, climate change, and the Solvency II directive on EU insurance regulation.

Shane joined Verisk after receiving his master’s degree in 2008. His educational career included internships at Goldman Sachs, Fairfax IS, and RepsolYPF, and working as a trainee consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers for two years.

Shane sits on and collaborates with various industry working groups, committees, and boards, including Bank of England, Open Data Standards, Insurance Development Forum, and Cass Business School. He writes and speaks frequently on topics related to catastrophe risk and climate change.

He’s achieved the designation of Certified Extreme Event Modeler (CEEM) by completing the requirements of the Verisk Certified Extreme Event Modeler Program.

Shane holds an MSc in mathematics from the University of Cambridge and a BSc with honours in actuarial science from City University.

Outside of work, he enjoys woodworking, sketching, reading, and scrapbooking.