In Focus
In Focus contributors are distinguished subject matter specialists from AIR's multidisciplinary teams of scientists and engineers, actuaries and statisticians, software developers and business analysts. Our internationally respected experts come from many different backgrounds, with a wide range of perspectives and experiences, but they are all innovative thinkers at the leading edge of their chosen professions.
Following are contributors for our blog:
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Dr. Peter Sousounis is vice president and director of climate change research. His current responsibilities include ensuring that current and future catastrophe model development at Verisk accounts for climate change, identifying products and tools to help clients address their climate change concerns, assisting with global resilience projects, and providing thought leadership in various forms of oral and written communication. He has been responsible for overseeing all global atmospheric model development, including hurricanes, extratropical cyclones, and severe thunderstorms, as well as for building the first numerically based storm surge model and the first ever tsunami model. Peter has authored nearly 100 publications on various topics of weather, climate, climate change, and catastrophe modeling, and holds graduate degrees in Meteorology from MIT and Penn State. |
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Philip Camp joined AIR in 2016 as a Scientist in our Research and Modeling department. Philip graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Masters in Geography. Additionally, Philip has earned his B.A in Biology from Eckerd College. Philip was also a Research Staff Associate and Lab Manager at Columbia University, assisting dynamic research teams with various lab-related tasks. Philip is no longer with AIR. |
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As a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Verisk, Pooja Yara lead global marketing campaigns for Cyber, Insurance Linked Securities, Global Resilience, and various Asia-Pacific related natural catastrophes. Prior to joining Verisk, Pooja held various roles in the risk management and insurance industry. She holds a BBA in Finance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and an MBA in International Business from Temple University. Pooja has left Verisk. |
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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. 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. |
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Rachel Wisch is a senior writer in Verisk’s marketing and communications group. She earned a BA from Brandeis University, an MS in communication and public relations from Lasell University, and a Certificate in Mediation from Mediation Works, Inc. |
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Raulina Wojtkiewicz is a senior principal engineer and senior manager in the research and modeling group on the extreme event solutions team at Verisk. She is responsible for developing and enhancing the vulnerability component of Verisk’s flood models. She has also been involved in updating and creating exposure data for multiple countries and developing building vulnerability functions for the Verisk Caribbean tropical cyclone model. Raulina holds an MS in civil and structural engineering from Northeastern University and Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) in Santiago, Dominican Republic. |
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Rebecca Arias is a director, product marketing in the marketing group within Verisk’s extreme event solutions team. Before joining Verisk, Becky worked for Amadeus as a product manager responsible for the mobile product portfolio for the North American market. Becky earned a BA in accounting and business administration from Muhlenberg College and an MBA from Bentley University. |
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Dr. Richard Yablonsky is a principal scientist and manager in the research and modeling group on the extreme event solutions team at Verisk. He manages members of the group focused on the storm surge hazard. He researched hurricane-ocean interaction and contributed to the development of the ocean component of NOAA’s and the U.S. Navy’s operational hurricane models as a marine research scientist at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography in Narragansett, R.I. Richard holds a PhD in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island, as well as an MS in atmospheric science, a BA in chemistry, and a BS in meteorology from North Carolina State University. |
 | Rob Savitsky joined AIR in 2016 and was a Senior Product Marketing Manager in our Marketing group. Previously, Rob worked in various digital marketing and product management roles at several entertainment, media, and technology companies. He holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Babson College. Rob left AIR in 2019. |
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Robin Wilkinson is senior vice president and managing director of Casualty Analytics for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team. She has more than 20 years’ experience in legal risk management and has developed risk models for the aviation industry, legal compliance, early predictive models, portfolio accumulation tools and policy models. Robin founded and served as CEO of Arium Risk Architecture, which was acquired by Verisk in 2017. She began her career as a corporate lawyer, working first in private practice and last serving as head of Legal Services at British Airways Plc. Robin holds a JD from the New York University School of Law and a BA in philosophy from Reed College, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. |
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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. 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. |
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Dr. Ruilong Li was a principal engineer and senior manager in the research and modeling group. Prior to Verisk, Ruilong worked as a research assistant/lab technician for Florida International University. Ruilong earned his PhD in civil engineering from Florida International University and MS in engineering mechanics from Harbin Institute of Technology, China. Ruilong has left verisk. |
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Samyadeep Ghosh is a team lead in Verisk’s flood research team. He has contributed to the development of the U.S. Inland Flood model and India Flood Hazard model. His day-to-day activities include simulations of multiple hydraulic and hydrologic models and he also develops tools to streamline in-house workflows. He holds Master’s degree in land and water resources engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. |
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Santhosh Kumar Choori was a research engineer in Verisk’s flood research team. His responsibilities included the collection and compilation of hydrologic data and its quality checks, as well as the calibration and simulation of the hydraulic model. He contributed to the development of flood hazard maps for India and Canada and holds a Master of Engineering in civil engineering with specialization in water resources and environmental engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He has left Verisk. |
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Sara Gambrill is director of communications at Verisk. She is responsible for Verisk publications, marketing collateral, and other client communications. She earned her AB in Latin literature from Bryn Mawr College and her Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Emerson College. |
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Dr. Sarah Bobby is a senior engineer and manager for Verisk’s extreme event solutions team. She is primarily responsible for developing and updating Verisk’s wind vulnerability models in North America and the Gulf of Mexico. Prior to joining Verisk, Sarah conducted research on probabilistic risk assessment and optimization methodologies geared toward the design of structures under wind and seismic hazards. She holds a PhD in structural engineering and a BSc in civil engineering from the University of Notre Dame. |
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Saurabh Mishra leads the business development and client services group in Verisk’s India office. He looks after the business development efforts and client services for entities based in India. Saurabh is responsible for leading consulting projects, managing client and stakeholder relationships and engagement, and representing Verisk at various venues in India. He holds a post-graduate diploma in management (PGDM) from the Institute of Insurance and Risk Management, has studied business analytics at the Indian School of Business, and holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering. |
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Scott Stransky was Vice President, Emerging Risk Modeling in AIR's Research and Modeling group. He was responsible for cyber risk modeling and analytics for all cyber solutions across Verisk and lead AIR’s Statistics and Applied Mathematics group, which is responsible for cyber risk modeling, supply chain modeling, life and health modeling, and stochastic catalog generation for various wind perils. He managed the research and development of AIR’s most recent tropical cyclone models for the Caribbean and Hawaii, and severe thunderstorm models for the US and Canada. He participated in damage surveys for severe thunderstorms, tropical cyclones, and wildfires. Scott earned a B.S. in Mathematics with Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Atmospheric Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His Master’s research involved numerical modeling of rotating fluids in the laboratory setting and extrapolating the results to real-world weather models. He joined AIR in 2007 and left the company in 2021. |
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Serge Gagarin is senior director of product marketing on the extreme event solutions team at Verisk. He is responsible for leading marketing campaigns for international model updates, new model launches, and Verisk offerings related to insurance-linked securities. Serge is also responsible for developing marketing materials for Touchstone®, Verisk’s platform for catastrophe risk management. He holds an MBA and M.S. from the Boston University School of Management and a BS in mathematical sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. |
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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 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. Shane holds an MSc in mathematics from the University of Cambridge and a BSc with honours in actuarial science from City University. |
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Shimon Sugiura is a senior risk consultant in Verisk’s Tokyo office. Prior to joining Verisk, Shimon Sugiura worked for the Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan, as a member of the team managing decontamination in the Kanto region from nuclear pollution caused by the Fukushima nuclear power plant failure. He previously worked for a GIS company, the Pasco Corporation, on projects to develop GIS systems for forestry, agriculture, and road management. He earned a Master’s degree in environment from the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences at the University of Tokyo and a Bachelor's degree in geology from Tohoku University (Miyagi). |
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Sid Sasanian joined AIR in 2013 as a Scientist in our Research Department and was in charge of AIR fund designation, which is a portfolio optimization service for our crop insurance clients. He was also responsible for the update of the U.S. crop model and involved in research and development of crop models for other regions. Before joining AIR, Sid worked as a Geotechnical Engineer at Hatch Ltd., where he participated in risk assessment, modeling, and optimization of multi-billion dollar mine development and operations. Sid earned his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Engineering Science from the University of Western Ontario. He also has a MBA degree with a Graduate Diploma in Financial Engineering from York University in Toronto. Sis is no longer with AIR. |
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Srinivas Kondapalli is a senior manager with Verisk’s flood research team. He contributed to the development of Verisk’s inland flood models for Germany, the United States, Poland, and Japan and flood hazard maps for China, Thailand, Brazil, Canada, and India. He has also worked on the enhancement of DTM quality for future models and contributed to the development of Verisk’s cyclone model for India. He holds an MS in water science engineering from UNESCO-IHE, Delft, Netherlands and an MBA specializing in finance from IGNOU, New Delhi. |
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Dr. Stefanie Meul is a senior risk consultant in Verisk's Munich office. Previously, she worked at the Free University of Berlin as a scientific staff member with a focus on future climate projections. Stefanie received her PhD in meteorology from the Free University of Berlin. |
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Dr. Stephanie Higgs was a research associate in Verisk’s London office. Her primary roles involved working on model evaluation, documentation and communicating technical scientific principles to clients. She earned an MPhys in physics from the University of Reading and a PhD in atmosphere, oceans and climate, also from the University of Reading. Stephanie has left Verisk. |
