He succeeds Janice Kowell, who joined Marsh's Marine and Energy Practice in 1981 and has led the practice since November 2023. Kowell will remain part of the senior executive team. Brito joined Marsh in 2012 and most recently led the practice's Canada and US East Zone segment.
Pellegrini said Brito brings the expertise and perspective clients need in today's increasingly complex and interconnected marine risk landscape.
The US marine, cargo and logistics market is navigating two specific developments that have absorbed significant advisory time inside the practice over the past several months.
The first is the Supreme Court's May 2026 ruling in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, which removed the FAAAA preemption defense that freight brokers had relied on to defeat negligent carrier selection claims. Kowell hosted a Marsh webinar on the ruling in June specifically for freight brokers, shippers and logistics providers, and the practice's own client communications have framed it as the most significant legal development for logistics risk managers in years. The ruling changes how freight brokers and the carriers they select must be evaluated from a liability standpoint, making carrier vetting documentation and logistics liability program design active advisory conversations rather than background ones.
The second is the US-Canada tariff environment. Kowell's own client commentary published by Marsh earlier this year identified tariff uncertainty and its potential impact on vessel usage and cargo volumes as the top-of-mind concern for US maritime risk managers. With 50% US tariffs on Canadian goods now live and Canadian retaliatory tariffs effective from September 8, the cargo volumes, supply chain routing decisions and counterparty credit risk that underpin a marine cargo program are all in active flux.
Brito's appointment comes as Marsh has been building out its analytics infrastructure on the logistics side. The practice partnered with Convex, Blenheim and Altana on a $50 million data-driven trade disruption solution, which Kowell described as a real-world example of industry collaboration and technology addressing supply chain challenges. Marsh's Sentrisk platform is positioned to give clients earlier signals on trade disruption risk, connecting cargo and logistics advisory to a broader supply chain intelligence capability.
For retail brokers placing logistics and marine cargo business at Marsh, Brito brings East Coast market relationships and direct experience advising on both the US and Canadian segments of the cross-border trade book. His most recent role gave him direct responsibility for the same book he is now leading nationally - continuity in market access and client relationships rather than a reset.
The practice leads more than 160 dedicated specialists across the US and Canada. The mandate Brito is stepping into - advising American shippers, freight brokers and logistics operators through a changed liability landscape, a live tariff dispute with Canada, and a softening marine cargo rate environment - is meaningfully more complex than the one his predecessor inherited three years ago.
