Page 4 - Simkiss Rough Notes FlipBook

The Surety Team.
From left: Arlene Ostro , Senior Surety Representative; Sam Sherlock, Visiting Intern; Daniel P. Dunigan, CPCU, AFSB, Vice President—Surety; Lois E. Eshleman, Surety Represen- tative; Theresa Bassett, Senior Surety Representative.
Sam Sherlock, Management Intern with Aramark Global Risk, visits Simkiss & Block. Simkiss & Block hosts Aramark’s summer interns each year so
that they can learn the inner workings of the work S&B does for Aramark. Aramark is a leading global provider of outsourced services with annual rev- enue of over $14 billion, and has been a surety client of the rm for decades.
Michael Bailey, a partner with the private equity rm of Argosy Capital, remembers one of his early exposures to Simkiss & Block. “We invited them to be part of our due diligence team and Brian was the principal contact. We specialize in buying controlling interests in smaller companies with revenues of $15 million to $100 mil- lion. Insurance is always one of the areas where we like to take a fresh look, so prior to a transaction, we retain industry experts to help us pro- fessionalize the governance.
“It was one of the rst transac- tions where Brian was involved that
I remember realizing that we’d found
a partner for life,” Michael continues. “Brian evaluated the insurance pro- gram and came back to us and said the incumbent agent had done a good job and that the program was essentially sound. He recommended that we keep the incumbent agent after the trans- action. We knew we’d found a trusted advisor that we could count on to pro- vide us with an honest opinion.
“Since then, Simkiss has helped us on numerous occasions and taken over the insurance for several of our
acquisitions, including one where there was a big legal issue that Simkiss showed us how to handle with effective insurance coverage.”
There when needed
Always do what’s best for the client is virtually a mantra for this agency
of 50 people and, as noted above, that could even mean leaving business with another agency. It also spills over into the service that Simkiss provides to clients and, once again, “It’s not any- thing extraordinary; it’s our way of doing business. When a client needs us, we’re there,” Brian says.
Andrew Sutor, senior vice presi- dent and general counsel for Entercom Communications Corp., one of the largest radio broadcasting companies in the United States with approxi- mately $500 million in revenue, says it is the “outstanding service that keeps us from going anywhere else. Simkiss & Block is super responsive. There was a case where one of our drivers was involved in an accident at 6 a.m. on a Saturday. I was on the phone with Brian before 8:00. I love working
with them because they’re all about client service. They were our agency when I joined Entercom 14 years ago, and I’ve never had cause to question that decision.”
Brian points out that, “While our goal is to become the agency for all
of our clients’ insurance, we will still work with organizations that want
to try us out on one policy because
I’m sure we will eventually win the account.” And Simkiss also has a num- ber of surety-only accounts where its expertise is needed, including some Fortune 500 companies that have the rest of their property/casualty cover- age with one of the big brokers but use Simkiss for surety because its exper- tise is greater than that provided by those aforementioned big brokers.
A clear example of how important the Simkiss surety relationship is was provided by Christine Morgan, direc- tor of risk management for Bimbo Bakeries, the largest bakery company in the United States, with approxi- mately $6 billion in revenue. Its holdings include two of my favorites, Entenmann’s and Thomas’. (Love those nooks and crannies.)