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 contractors pollution liability insurance in 1986. He has provided
technical information on environmental insurance issues to the US Department of
Defense and Department of Energy. He is the former chairman of the
Environmental Task Force of the National Association of Insurance Brokers. 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
remediation of Chernobyl for the World Bank in London.
His work experience includes risk management consulting for a major
manufacturer of asbestos, insurance brokerage, creating the Global
Environmental Practice, serving as the chief knowledge officer of one of the
world's largest insurance brokerage firms, and founding the Environmental
Insurance Professionals (SEIP).
Mr. Dybdahl is a frequent speaker and has made numerous presentations at the
national conventions of the Risk and Insurance Management Society and the
Society of Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters, in addition to making
presentations to more than 400 other technical and education seminars in the
insurance industry. He has published numerous articles in journals and
textbooks, including the chapter on environmental insurance in the Chartered
Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) 4, Commercial Liability, Risk Management and Insurance textbook, authored and
edited the chapter "Environmental Loss Control” in the Associate in Risk
Management (ARM) textbook, and published many other articles.
Mr. Dybdahl received his BBA with a major in risk management and insurance
and an MBA 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 32 consecutive
years. His professional designations include the ARM and CPCU.