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AGENDA
THE CORNER OFFICE
PURE-LY BUSINESS
Insurance superstar Ross Buchmueller can’t control the weather or the crime rate, but he can control whom he sells policies to: the affluent few who do their best to protect their assets.
Last fall, as Superstorm Sandy was bearing down on Westchester County and the rest of Northeast, the PURE Group of Insurance Companies was a whirlwind of activ- ity. Employees assembled in the glass-walled “war
room” of PURE’s White Plains offices, tracking the storm on monitors and identifying clients in its path. The Communications Team then sent out emails to policyholders with advice on protect- ing their homes. The seven-person Member Advocate Team worked the phones, offer-
ing last-minute coaching to deal with the
oncoming maelstrom and lining up tem-
porary living situations, if needed. The
Risk Management Team was marshaling
resources for the cleanup—particularly
arborists—and the Technology Team was
getting its connectivity ducks in a row.
Finally, the all-important Claims Team was bol-
stering the number of adjusters in advance of landfall, lining up contractors to help with the cleanup, and preparing itself for the onslaught of claims to come.
“We’re the calm before the storm,” says Ross Buchmueller, president and CEO of the six-year-old insurance company, which covers affluent homeowners and their valuables: jewelry, cars, watercraft, Picassos. Sandy was the second costliest storm in US history, accounting for 125 deaths, $62 billion in damages (mostly to New York and New Jersey), and costing $25 billion in claims for insurers. For its clients, PURE was the calm after the storm, too, as its claims adjusters fanned out across 10 states and Washington, DC, investigating the approximately 1,300 claims that came in, restoring order, making things right.
Buchmueller, 47, can see the “war room” from his cor- ner office on the sixth floor of the Westchester One building. Casual in a sweater and khakis, he resembles Mark Ruffalo’s white-collar cousin. Photographs of his wife, Pamela, and two children abound; they live in Larchmont, where his son and daughter attend public schools. A plaque from 2004, when Crain’s New York Business named him one of its “40 Under Forty,” has pride of place on a wall by his desk. At that time, he was 38, best known for launching AIG Private Client Group and growing it into a half-billion-dollar divi- sion. Now, he is the captain of his own ship, employing 175 people, half in White Plains, the rest in offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Scottsdale, Charleston, and Fort Lauderdale.
Since Sandy, PURE has weathered Winter Storm Nemo and a tornado in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, along with the assorted mishaps that befall people and their possessions: theft and fire, accidents and injury. Down on the street, police sirens sound, a reminder that mayhem—to steal another insurance carrier’s tag- line—happens, and, when it does, it’s nice to have backup.
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