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Holborn Honors Tom Lehrke

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As Holborn closed its 2015 Fiscal Year, another important chapter closed as well. After 43 years in the industry, and with the past three of those years at Holborn, Tom Lehrke (EVP & Director) has retired as a broker; however, he continues on as a key member of Holborn’s Board of Directors. Dedicated to the end, Tom even worked on Leap Day, February 29th – a Monday.  In clastomLsic Tom Lehrke fashion, he quipped, “Holborn’s corporate year normally ends on February 28th…figures I retire at the end of corporate year that is also a Leap Year!”

For those privileged to work with and know Tom, it was a bittersweet day. Tom joined Holborn in 2013 with the merger of his firm, W.J. Lehrke Co. with Holborn Corporation. It was a seamless transition made possible by his strong leadership. He worked tirelessly to transition his account relationships and to develop Holborn’s younger talent right through to his scheduled retirement as a broker.  In yet another typical Tom Lehrke-like display of altruism, he assures us, if needed, he is just a phone call away.

His illustrious career began in 1973, when he and his father, Walter, founded W.J. Lehrke Co., following graduation from the University of Colorado (Boulder). Tom’s early days were spent in the Accounting department and as a facultative broker. He is widely seen as an expert in the reinsurance industry and is, in fact, a contributing author on the topic of aggregate/stop loss reinsurance for Strain Publishing. Tom rose through the ranks, finally being named President of W.J. Lehrke in 1998 upon his father’s retirement.

Tom enters retirement with the support of his four children, two grandchildren and his wife of 40 years, Colette. His interest in downhill ski racing, flying single engine planes and any number of summertime outdoor activities are sure to keep him busy. Plans are underway to volunteer his newfound time with Habitat for Humanity as well as to become an assistant ski coach for the local high school.

Holborn formally honored Tom with a reception and dinner in Minneapolis, which was attended by friends from far and wide, including clients, reinsurers from Germany, Lloyd’s and the U.S., as well as his loving family.

Congratulations Tom and all the very best from all of us at Holborn!

Holborn Honors Tom Lehrke

Risk that is understood, managed, and clearly communicated in a way that is consumable to everyone in your organization encourages a strong risk culture. Governance, training strategies, metrics & controls, and capital allocation are techniques to ensure day-to-today adherence to your ERM program and corporate strategy. Leveraging Holborn’s comprehensive tool suite, we help tailor an ERM framework that supports managing your risks. 

One of the key objectives of an insurer’s operating strategy is to maintain an acceptable target financial strength rating. Holborn has extensive experience in helping clients balance the sometimes-conflicting objectives of growth, profitability, portfolio optimization, capital adequacy, and multiple return metrics. Our robust financial analytics enable our clients to assess multiple key performance measures and analyze how various strategic decisions could be expected to impact the company’s financials and underlying qualitative and quantitative rating factors. 

By their very nature, catastrophic property losses can wreak havoc on businesses and personal property, as well as the balance sheet. Media coverage of the devastation from a hurricane or tornado often makes these events seem “unexpected.” Even though recorded weather history is relatively limited (on a geologic scale), it’s clear that outliers, storms of extraordinary magnitude, have occurred before and will again. 

It shouldn’t be a surprise that some of the largest insured events we see are not property, but liability-driven. Losses stemming from workers’ compensation, mass tort, clash, runaway defense costs, product liability, and punitive damage judgments can quickly add up to amounts greater than most weather or fire damages. Holborn monitors the litigious US landscape, tracking the latest judicial rulings and regional and local hotspots.

Contract wordings are continuously evolving to stay on top of emerging risks such as cyber, intellectual property, and labor laws. Working together, we ensure that the proper coverage and limits are maintained.  

Holborn’s Reinsurance Security Committee (a select group of our senior managers across multiple disciplines) meets regularly to review the financial condition of each reinsurer. Each entity is closely monitored for financial and operational performance through meetings with management, rating agency activity and news releases. Our monthly newsletters keep clients informed of any noteworthy changes. 

Holborn can provide clients with access to RiskRater®, a proprietary reinsurance pricing engine designed (but not limited) to manage portfolios of mutual insurers. RiskRater® employs a systematic approach to pricing that is consistent across client companies. Smaller companies with sparse rating histories are rated with the support of defined cohorts and compared with industry information to enable a more informed view of risk. Developed to be nimble and flexible without proprietary software installations, RiskRater® requires only a connection to a centralized database, where all data (present and historical) is stored and archived, allowing access to detailed information for year over year pricing. 

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Our way includes giving the client peace of mind of knowing they can “shake the same hand” again and again over time, and that our team is uniquely positioned to represent their interests in the marketplace, given our in-depth knowledge of their operations, business plans and issues, nuances, history, and the way they like to receive service from us and from their reinsurers. This is how we define our “client intimacy strategy.”

Our Mission

The mission of Holborn Corporation is to provide efficient tailored risk assessment and reinsurance solutions to US insurance organizations, using markets of appropriate quality. Services include risk analytics, contract and claims management, and the maintenance of trading relationships with high-quality reinsurance markets throughout the world.