Bobby joined IMA in June of 2021 as the Director of Technical and Engineered Risks and a leader in the enterprising Houston chapter of IMA. Bobby’s role as a Senior Vice President includes performing as an Account Executive for clients with complex property exposures and as subject matter expert within IMA’s Energy Practice for complex, engineered property risks.
Before IMA, Bobby was an AVP and Underwriting Manager in the construction property practice at Starr Companies. Bobby spearheaded the growth of Starr’s Houston Builder’s Risk practice and worked closely with the Starr Technical Risks team to facilitate transitions of insured’s coverage from construction and testing to operational coverage. While underwriting, combining his knowledge of risk engineering with an underwriting perspective and authority resulted in the successful and rapid growth of Starr’s builder’s risk book and capabilities, while establishing Bobby’s reputation as a respected lead underwriter for complex construction property risks, particularly in the energy space.
Bobby’s reputation within the insurance community did not begin with the underwriting pen. Originally recruited to join Starr Technical Risk’s Engineering and Loss Control team, Bobby joined Starr’s Houston office as a Sr. Loss Control Consultant focusing on Insurance Risk Engineering (IRE) review of operational oil, gas, and petrochemical facilities. While Bobby’s role evolved to underwriting swiftly after joining Starr, this was facilitated by his time and experience dedicated to IRE.
During Bobby’s tenure as a dedicated Insurance Risk Engineer (at Starr and BakerRisk) he participated in surveys (both as a participant and as a lead engineer) at major refineries across the US, midstream facilities such as gas plants, terminals, import/export facilities, and chemical plants and complexes. Prior to joining Starr, Bobby’s career began at Baker Engineering and Risk Consultants (BakerRisk) after completing a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
At BakerRisk, Bobby’s engineering efforts were divided into the two major areas, those of Process Safety Management (PSM) consulting, and Insurance Risk Engineering (IRE). Bobby was formally trained within BakerRisk’s Insurance Risk Engineering (IRE) group. Led by John Panariello and Joseph Zanoni, Bobby participated in surveys and reporting for refineries and chemical complexes globally, attending surveys for major operators including Phillips 66, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, and Enterprise Products. Within PSM, Bobby’s work included Vapor Cloud Explosion (VCE) modeling, Facility Siting Studies (FSS), Quantitative Risk Analyses (QRAs), and pipeline High Consequence Area analyses (HCAs).
September 2024