The Alabama Department of Insurance launches the Office of Risk and Resilience

Contact: Jennifer Bowen
(334) 269-3550

10/2/2023

The Alabama Department of Insurance announces the launch of the Office of Risk and Resilience, an office dedicated to writing the future of mitigating various types of risk and keeping Alabama first in the nation in protecting residents and their property safe from severe weather.

The office will be led by Brian Powell, who has been promoted to the role of Deputy Commissioner and will hold the title of Director of the Office of Risk and Resilience.

Powell previously served as Director of the Strengthen Alabama Homes program, a grant program offering Alabama homeowners up to $10,000 to FORTIFY their home against windstorms like hurricanes and tornadoes.  More than 6,000 homes have been recipients of a Strengthen Alabama Homes grant and the program has helped Alabama become a more viable insurance market for both insurance companies and policyholders.

“Through his work establishing and growing the Strengthen Alabama Homes program, Brian has proven himself as an effective leader in risk and resilience. States across the nation have modeled their own programs from the success of Strengthen Alabama Homes,” said Insurance Commissioner Mark Fowler. “Alabama will be well served by expanding the reach of the office to address the whole spectrum of risk and resilience issues. We look forward to great accomplishments for the people of Alabama from this newly expanded office within the department.” 

Innovative in concept and design within a government agency, the Office of Risk and Resilience will actively seek opportunities to help solve issues within the insurance industry in Alabama.

By assessing insurance market issues and determining market vulnerabilities, the office is tasked to help develop and implement risk controls to help sustain a healthy insurance market in Alabama. This office fills a need of working to provide resources and expertise to the insurance industry and consumers in the ever-expanding space of risk and resilience.

“There has long been a need to assess and address vulnerabilities in Alabama’s insurance market and create solutions to solve them.  We now don’t have to wait until a disaster strikes. We are being proactive in our approach to identifying and creating solutions to real problems, ahead of time, before they impact us all,” Powell said. 

Responding to the challenges in today’s property insurance market, the establishment of the Office of Risk and Resilience is the latest step by the Alabama Department of Insurance to ensure Alabama sustains a healthy, stable insurance market for insurance consumers.

In 2012, the Alabama Legislature established an act creating the Strengthen Alabama Homes Program to address coastal mitigation. The benefits of mitigation were felt almost immediately, and the program has moved inland across the state of Alabama over the last several years.

The Strengthen Alabama Homes Program is a nationally recognized program that issues grants, mitigating homes to the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety’s (IBHS) Fortified Standard that hardens them against severe storms.  It has become a springboard for the Fortified program in the United States and is the model program other states are adopting to lessen the risk of loss and help create a healthy insurance market. 

About Brian Powell
Brian Powell serves as Deputy Insurance Commissioner and Director of the Office of Risk and Resilience. He has been with the Alabama Department of Insurance since 2006.

He represents the ALDOI on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Climate and Resiliency Task Force and the NAIC Modeling Center for Excellence Advisory Council.  Brian is ALDOI’s representative on the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC), and the Alabama Resiliency Council (ARC), recently established by Alabama’s Governor Kay Ivey. 

Brian earned undergraduate degrees in political science and business from Troy University, a Master’s Degree in Business (MBA) from Auburn University, and the Certified Public Manager (CPM) designation from the National Certified Public Manager Consortium. Brian is a United States Army Veteran and for the past 35 years, he has been in continuous public service roles for the State of Alabama.



Brian Powell
Director of the Office of Risk and Resilience

 

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