Background
David Dybdahl writes the IRMI.com Expert Commentary column on environmental
insurance.
Mr. Dybdahl is a licensed excess and surplus lines insurance broker,
insurance consultant, and expert witness specializing in environmental
insurance and risk management. He has served on the US Environmental Protection
Agency's Contractor Indemnification Technical Review Panel, where he
created the first contractors pollution liability insurance policy in 1986. He
has provided technical guidance on environmental insurance issues to the US
Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, the US Justice
Department, and the US Department of Energy. Mr. Dybdahl has successfully
placed insurance programs on many of the world's toughest environmental
risks, including developing the first environmental insurance policies for
Superfund contractors, placing the first wrap-up insurance programs on the US
Department of Energy's nuclear weapons facilities at Hanford, Washington,
and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and insuring the containment operations of the
Chernobyl nuclear disaster for the World Bank in London.
His work experience includes risk management consulting for a major
manufacturer of asbestos, creating the Global Environmental Practice and
serving as the chief knowledge officer of Willis, and forming a national
award-winning wholesale environmental insurance brokerage firm where he is
currently employed. He founded the nonprofit Society of Environmental Insurance
Professionals in 1999 to advance global knowledge-sharing on environmental risk
management and insurance.
Mr. Dybdahl is a frequent speaker and published author. He is an approved
instructor for the errors and omissions loss prevention curriculum of the
national Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers Association and Certified
Insurance Counselors classes on environmental insurance. He has made
presentations at the national conventions of the Risk and Insurance Management
Society and the Society of Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters, in
addition to presenting to more than 400 other technical and education seminars
in the insurance industry. His writings have appeared in numerous journals
including IRMI and have been used in over 30 insurance textbooks, including the
chapter on environmental insurance in the Chartered Property and Casualty
Underwriter (CPCU) 4, Commercial Liability, Risk Management
and Insurance textbook, and the chapter "Environmental Loss Control”
in the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) textbook.
Mr. Dybdahl has served as an expert witness and provided technical research
and advice on the customs and practices in the insurance business in over $13
billion of litigated insurance coverage matters.
Mr. Dybdahl received his bachelor of business administration with a major in
risk management and insurance and a master of business administration with
majors in risk management and finance from the University of Wisconsin—Madison.
He has been a guest lecturer in the business, engineering, and law schools at
the University of Wisconsin—Madison for 37 consecutive years. His professional
designations include the ARM and CPCU.