Marsh creates new North American energy infrastructure role

A market veteran will lead Marsh's Energy & Power Infrastructure strategy in the US and Canada

Marsh creates new North American energy infrastructure role

Insurance News

By Josh Recamara

Marsh has appointed Joanne Silberberg (pictured) to the newly created role of Energy & Power Infrastructure Leader, Marsh Risk, US and Canada. 

Silberberg will work with Marsh's Energy & Power, Construction and Specialty teams across the US and Canada to deliver sector-informed, integrated solutions to energy infrastructure clients. She has more than 20 years of experience in Marsh's Energy & Power practice in Australia and Canada, where she has held a series of senior roles. She most recently served as Energy & Power Leader for Canada.

Expanded remit across US and Canadian markets

The creation of a dedicated energy and power infrastructure role at regional level underscores how demand for new and upgraded energy assets is reshaping risk requirements. In North America, major projects now span conventional generation, renewables, grid modernisation and the fast‑growing data centre segment, often involving complex public–private partnerships and multi‑contractor structures.

That complexity is increasingly being managed on a portfolio basis, with linked covers for construction all risks, delay in start‑up, operational property, liability, cyber, political and environmental risk, rather than as stand‑alone placements. Marsh’s move positions Silberberg as a point of coordination across these disciplines for energy infrastructure sponsors and their lenders.

Energy infrastructure strain and insurance implications

The appointment comes against a backdrop of rising electricity demand in the US and Canada, driven in part by the rapid build‑out of power‑intensive data centers, the electrification of transport and industry, and ongoing energy transition investment. Many large power, grid and digital infrastructure projects are facing pressures linked to permitting, community acceptance, interconnection queues, equipment lead times and cost inflation.

These trends are visible in longer construction periods and more frequent schedule changes, with knock‑on implications for delay in start‑up and project finance requirements. There is tighter scrutiny of resilience, ESG performance and supply chains by investors, regulators and rating agencies, and a growing need to align insurance and risk engineering with lenders’ expectations around bankability, particularly for first‑of‑a‑kind or emerging technologies.

Brokers are being asked not only to place capacity but also to help structure risk allocation across complex contractual chains, blend traditional insurance with alternative risk transfer and captives, and provide analytics on catastrophe, climate and system‑wide failure scenarios.

Integrated support for complex projects

The role will involve working with Marsh’s construction specialists on issues such as contractor default, design risk and supply chain disruption, and with the firm’s power and renewables teams on operational risk, natural catastrophe exposure, equipment breakdown and outage risk. Cyber and technology exposures are also becoming more prominent as grids, plants and data centres operate with higher levels of digitalisation and interdependence.

“I look forward to working with colleagues across our Energy & Power, Construction, and Specialty Practices to help clients operating within the energy infrastructure sector prioritize the right investments, reduce execution complexity, and move energy projects forward with confidence," Silberberg said.

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