Risk and insurance manager
Noble Energy
Houston, TX
David Gresko has gone through what he calls the “technical” and “business” phases of his career, first managing the design and construction of oil & gas and petrochemical facilities before working in corporate finance. These phases paved the way for him to enter risk management armed with a good understanding of various aspects of business. In his current role, Gresko works closely with brokers and underwriting partners to help them understand Noble Energy’s technical and financial risks.
Along with many other risk managers, Gresko sees cybersecurity as a top concern for the coming years, though he admits that “every company handles cybersecurity risks differently” and that even the common risks “manifest themselves in different ways in terms of frequency and severity.” Thus, he and his team have worked hard “to demonstrate to the underwriters and their risk experts why [Noble] should be analyzed as a stand-alone risk rather than being lumped into a bigger pool of companies.”
Gresko sees insurers as important business partners for Noble, recognizing an underlying interdependence between the industries that requires artful compromise. “There are things that I want that the insurers can’t give me, and there are things that the underwriters want that I can’t give them,” he says. “In the end, though, working as partners, we come to a win-win result… if we drive the insurers into bankruptcy, nobody wins.”
