(Click name to view bio)
Richard H. Hobbie III, President& CEO
Andrew J. Garger, Vice President, Legal & General Counsel
Harry Diamond, Vice President, Claims
Russell D. Brown, Executive Vice President / Chief Underwriting Officer
Anthony J. Gerone, Assistant Vice President of Underwriting
John Hassett, Chief Financial Officer
Peter Wiswell, Manager, Response and Marketing
Richard H. Hobbie III, President & CEO
Rich has worked in the marine industry for over thirty years and is a
recognized expert in marine pollution liability issues. A graduate of
Columbia University, former U.S. Coast Guard officer, and WQIS underwriter
in the late 70s, RIch is serving his second term at WQIS.
Rich is active in the marine community. He is also the President of Wall Street Marine, Inc, CEO of Greenfish Software LLC, a Director of American Marine Management Services, Inc. and a Commissioner on The Board of Commissioners of Pilots of the State of New York. He is also a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States serving on the Marine Ecology and the Navigation and Coast Guard Committees, Association of Average Adjusters of the United States, Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, American Society of Naval Engineers and the American Institute of Marine Underwriters serving on the Liability Committee.
Rich is an advisor on the U.S. delegation to the International Conference
on Liability and Compensation for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage of the International
Maritime Organization. He has been an instructor at the U.S. Coast Guard
OSC Crisis Management School and has given numerous presentations on insurance
related environmental issues.
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Andrew J. Garger, Vice President, Legal & General Counsel
Andy joined the Water Quality Insurance Syndicate as general counsel in 1997. His duties include supervising outside litigation counsel; advising WQIS management in all legal areas, including personnel, contracts, and corporate compliance; and overseeing WQIS’s legislative efforts.
Andy served for several years as a deck officer on American flag tankers for Chevron Shipping Company. He holds an unlimited chief mate's license and a limited tonnage master's license. He was also a member of the United States Naval Reserve. Andy has clerked for a federal court of appeals judge and practiced admiralty law at law firms in Seattle, Washington and New York City. He is a member of the Maritime Law Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the American Bar Association, the New York Bar Association, and is the Chairman of the Legal and Liability Committee of the International Union of Marine Insurance. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law and the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
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Harry Diamond, Vice President, Claims
Harry has worked in the insurance industry for over 30 years starting
as a company broker and underwriter and eventually becoming claims manager
for a major American flag tanker operator. Since 1995, he has been Vice
President of Claims for WQIS. He is a member of the Association of Average
Adjusters and the Marine Insurance Claims Adjusters. He holds an Associate
in Risk Management degree. He graduated from LaSalle University with BA
degrees in Social Studies Education and History. He resides in a suburb
of Philadelphia with his wife Kathy and two sons.
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Russell D. Brown, Executive Vice President / Chief Underwriting Officer
Russ Brown is the EVP CUO of WQIS and EVP of both Wall Street Marine Inc., and Greenfish Software. Russ, a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, has been with WQIS since November 1997. He holds an unlimited third mates license and served in the United States Naval Reserve. He is a member and served in the board of directors for the American Marine Insurance Forum. He resides in Long Island with wife Chrissy and their three children.
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Anthony J. Gerone, Assistant Vice President of Underwriting
Anthony, a graduate of Stony Brook University, has been with WQIS since August 1999. He is a member of the American Marine Insurance Forum. He has taken numerous post graduate Marine Insurance Management classes. As well as managing the Underwriting Department, he is also involved with claims handling and marketing.
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John Hassett, Chief Financial Officer
John J. Hassett is the chief Financial Officer and Secretary of the Water Quality Insurance Syndicate and Wall Street Marine, Inc., a WQIS subsidiary. Mr. Hassett has been with WQIS since March 1996. Prior to joining WQIS, Mr. Hassett worked as a financial analyst at the Continental Insurance Company from 1988 through 1996 and as an accountant at E.F. Hutton and Company from 1986 until 1988. He received his B.S. in economics from Rutgers University in 1986 and his MBA from Rider University in 1994. Mr. Hassett is a member of the Society of Insurance Financial Management.
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Peter Wiswell, Manager, Response and Marketing
Peter is a graduate of Middlebury College and Tulane University School of Law, where he was a member of the Board of Editors of The Maritime Lawyer. Thereafter Peter practiced with a New York maritime firm becoming a full member of the firm. He also acted as commercial correspondent for one of the International Group P&I Clubs.Peter joined WQIS in 2005.
His duties at WQIS include responsibility for response operations and the WQIS network of response related vendors, a range of strategic projects, and a significant involvement with the launching of new products and marketing of WQIS.
Over the past 25 years Peter has been closely involved with the handling of a substantial number of significant spills and other major casualties, and numerous other major hull, P&I and pollution incidents worldwide. In response to those losses his responsibilities have included casualty investigation, legal and commercial representation, public relations, response management, claims handling, cost/resource management, NRDA negotiations, and implementation, structuring and execution of natural resource restoration programs.
Peter is a member of the bar of the State of New York, a Maritime Law Association Proctor in Admiralty, and a Member of the Society of Maritime Arbitrators, Inc.
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