Verisk climate division to specialize in weather analytics for insurers

Verisk Analytics Inc. recently announced it has formed a new division that specializes in weather and environmental analytics products for insurance carriers and other markets.

“The climate division was formed to introduce new weather and environmental analytics that will enable our clients to assess and plan for environmental impacts and implement strategies to differentiate and grow their businesses despite those impacts,” stated Scott Stephenson, chief executive officer of Verisk, in a press release Oct. 2.

“Advancements will be realized by creating integrated solutions that directly leverage the data and platforms of our other Verisk operating units.”

Other units of Jersey City, N.J.-based Verisk include risk modelling software vendor AIR Worldwide and Insurance Services Office (ISO) Inc., whose products include predictive analytic modeling software for insurance firms.

Verisk’s new climate division will be based in Lexington, Mass.

“Verisk Climate’s land surface terrain analytics are providing unprecedented information regarding a site’s risk characteristics, including property slope, complexity of terrain, and site accessibility, which can be used to further refine the 20 million property valuations conducted in Verisk Insurance Solutions-Underwriting platforms each year,” stated Neil Spector, president of Verisk Insurance Solutions-Underwriting, in a release.

Verisk Analytics uses data sets to provide predictive analytics and decision support products in several areas, including actuarial science, insurance coverage and catastrophe and weather risk.

The president of the new climate division is Kyle Beatty, the former senior vice president of Verisk’s Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER) unit.

“AER will operate as a unit of Verisk Climate under the leadership of AER President Ron Isaacs, with a continued focus on providing science-based services to government customers,” Verisk stated.

“The new Verisk Climate Division will leverage AER’s more than 100 advanced-degree scientists and software engineers, global environmental data resources, and satellite remote-sensing expertise to innovate new products for all the markets our division serves,” AER President Ron Isaacs stated in the release.

Isaacs added AER “remains deeply committed” to providing research and development support to several United States government departments, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy.