Ivan Maddox

Ivan Maddox is a Geomatics Engineer (University of Calgary, ’96), who has performed surveying and remote sensing projects all over the world. Before settling in Denver, he lived in Lyon, London, Montréal and Brisbane. He is the Product Manager for InsitePro at Intermap, and is the Executive Vice President for commercial solutions. When not leveraging data, Ivan enjoys leveraging the mountains, books, all things culinary, and playing with his kids.
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Recent Posts

When It Comes to Wind, Location-Based Risk Info Is Not Important

Posted by Ivan Maddox on May 14, 2015 10:39:00 AM

One of the main recurring themes of The Risks of Hazard blog is the importance of location-based risk information. However, there is one major peril that does not require such property-specific data: wind.

Wind is one of the most destructive perils that can be insured against. Thus, it is very well modeled around the world, including USA hurricane, European windstorm, Asia/Pacific cyclone, and straight-line wind in convective storm. Wind does not include tornadoes, which are associated with convective storm models.

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Topics: Natural Hazard Risk, Location-Based Intelligence, Other Risk Models

RIMS 2015 Highlights Reveal Insights on Natural Catastrophe Risk

Posted by Ivan Maddox on May 12, 2015 11:12:27 AM

I have been watching some of the videos published by AM Best from the RIMS annual convention in New Orleans last month. The city hosted the event to mark 10 years since Katrina and Rita devastated the region. I couldn’t make it to the show, so I wanted to catch up on some of the current thought leadership surrounding natural catastrophe risk. 

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Topics: Natural Hazard Risk, Location-Based Intelligence, Flood Insurance, Property Insurance

Is trying to predicting mega-disasters a waste of time?

Posted by Ivan Maddox on May 7, 2015 3:36:25 PM

In publications and websites devoted to risk, there is a distinct sub-genre of articles that can be called “Predicting Mega-Disasters.” A mega-disaster is a natural catastrophe that wreaks unprecedented destruction — either by an event of never-before-seen force, or a severe event that impacts an increasingly vulnerable population. Here are just three recent examples of these mega-disaster prediction articles:

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Topics: Natural Hazard Risk, Insurance Underwriting, Natural Catastrophe

3 Ways to Gain a Competitive Edge in a Flat Rate Property Insurance Market

Posted by Ivan Maddox on May 5, 2015 1:04:42 PM

While reading Gallagher’s CEO first quarter synopsis (Best’s, subscription required) I was interested by his thoughts on the flat rate market in property insurance:

"I've never lived this way before," he said. "It's either one way or the other, where you've got rates coming down substantially and you're shopping everything, or rates are going up and you're scrambling to get the coverage you want."

He continues by describing how comfortable he is in such an environment because his company is built for competition: “Give us a stable rate environment and … we will drive organic growth."

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Topics: Insurance Underwriting, Property Insurance

Spicy Crab and Nat Cat Risk: What I Learned on My Asia Risk Tour

Posted by Ivan Maddox on Apr 30, 2015 2:02:56 PM

As you may recall, a few weeks ago I mentioned I was planning a trip to Asia to try and find out how insurers, brokers, and reinsurers are handling their risk assessment, particularly for flood risk.

As I sit on the flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco, I have the memories from my 10-day Asia Risk Tour still fresh in my mind. Foremost are the warm welcomes we received everywhere we went, with immaculate hospitality from all our hosts. The food is also still vivid in my mind, from the Under Bridge Spicy Crab in Hong Kong to the famous street food stalls of Singapore, filled with sate and spicy seafood. Coffees and cocktails were enjoyed both under the ground and hundreds of feet in the sky.

I also learned a lot about how the insurance market in Asia manages location-specific risks, especially from natural catastrophes (nat cat), which of course is what I was there to do.

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Topics: Natural Hazard Risk, Insurance Underwriting, Risk Management, Natural Catastrophe, Flood Risk

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Welcome to The Risks of Hazard, brought to you by Intermap Technologies®. From the latest industry news and trends, to insight from thought leaders around the globe, stay tuned for a variety of content aimed at helping you better understand the role of location-based intelligence in the world of insurance underwriting and risk assessment.

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