Building the towers of power: hotel risk manager wields rare property placement to lead company toward future.

David Little has perhaps had more time on his job than other Risk Innovators to make an impact on his company and his profession. He's been with Hilton Hotels Corp. for more than 19 years. Recently promoted to senior vice president of risk management, though, Little's greatest accomplishments have come within the last couple years.

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It was in February 2006, after all, that HHC bought Hilton International, transforming itself from a smaller North American hospitality operation into a global phenomenon with more than $8.14 billion in revenues.

When the smoke cleared, Little was left with a vastly changed playing field to operate upon. Before the Hilton International acquisition, it's estimated that his total cost of risk was $84.6 million. After, it approached $140 million.

"Overnight, he added 75 countries to his responsibilities," said Reiner Braun, managing director at Marsh.

Little didn't simply slap two programs into one to get the best value for his corporation. About 85 percent of that $140 million is lumped into three areas: global property, OCIPs for Hilton's timeshare business and workers' comp. Little tackled all three.

He implemented an owner controlled insurance program for Hilton Grand Vacation Club.

For the workers' comp exposure involving 58,000 employees and an estimated 40 percent of total cost of risk, Little brought in a new TPA (SRS), explored the possibility of an integrated disability plan, and went global with loss control and health measures, assessing and benchmarking as he went. His excellent team-building abilities helped to make this possible.

"It is very hard to control the hotels out there," said Braun, "so when it comes to loss control measures, you need to do a lot of convincing to get people to spend the money."

HHC's new property exposure represented about $21.8 billion in values in 684 locations, 75 countries and 35 U.S. states.

Little broke down the values by layer, by country and state. He split properties into catastrophe- and non-CAT--a two-towers approach not used by anyone save one other global hotel company.

Braun said that it's been the most complex property program to place and manage throughout the year in his 19 years in the business because of the sheer number of locations and size of some of the locations.

But it works because it caters to the appetites of the carriers, provides homogeneity of price for non-CAT hotels that didn't want to subsidize their brethren in Florida or California, and takes the guessing out of allocating premium for CAT-prone areas, according to Braun.

All this was done, mind you, in the post-Katrina, catastrophe-crazy environment. As recounted by Braun, Little had to line up every property insurance company in the world to pull it off.

"Dave was driving it," said Braun. He has such connections with the international underwriting community, cultivated over the last two decades, that he has the credibility to get their buy-in on Hilton's story. "People always go the extra mile for Dave," said Braun.

All the more amazing because Little had to call on them again when Blackstone Group bought out Hilton in October 2007 for $20-plus billion.

The lending rules required that Little have absolutely no holes in his two property towers, that he increase his overall wind and terror cover, and that all carriers involved have a certain rating--"100 percent insurance at almost any cost," Braun said. Mid-year, Little had to enhance certain carriers' credits with fronting companies. The whole process has become a yearlong endeavor.

"It never dies," said Little.

What's his secret? One thing Little pointed to is data, along with his obsessive collection of it. Why?

"So we can actually go out and control our own destiny," he Said. "I knew many, many years ago if you don't have the ability to control your data, then you're lost."

But another secret are the people around him. "I'll put my team up against anybody," he said.

That team must also include senior management, who have come to value and grasp Little's impact.

His direct supervisor, David Thompson, senior vice president and controller, said, "He's helped to lead us through a lot of change on risk management," adding that the new CEO has a "like mind" as Little's when it comes to ERM and that the new board "view risk as an important part of the equation."