Click here for Part I & Part II

Helping construction firms intelligently manage their risk

Ron Ebert is the president of the Madison Risk Group, a construction insurance brokerage in the Philadelphia area. Established in 2013, MRG provides mid-market construction firms (contractors with annual revenues of up to $250–300 million) with cost-effective and flexible risk management services underpinned by industry expertise. The brokerage stands out not only for its unwavering industry focus, but also for its unique MRG Blueprint program, which offers clients hands-on support and education.

EDWIN WARFIELD: Tell us about MRG’s community involvement.

RON EBERT: In addition to employee involvement, getting our employees involved and giving them a career path, one of the things about owning your own organization is the opportunity to do good and the power to make that decision. We try to select charities that are of interest to us and make the most difference. It’s something we look at on a regular basis and we’re always open to look at the next one. Currently, we support the St. Jude’s Kids’ Chance and La Salle Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Kids’ Chance—Bill Burt heads that up for our organization and it’s a growing organization. It’s for kids whose parents got hurt in the workplace. Bill is on the OSHA’s Pennsylvania Governor Safety Council, and we work through Kids’ Chance for that organization. We spend time there and we donate money to Kids’ Chance.

St. Jude’s—that has always been a personal passion for me and my wife Kim. That’s a monetary donation. I think everyone knows the St. Jude’s story. They do wonderful things for families and they don’t charge expenses for the surgeries.

And then finally, La Salle Academy—I was introduced to La Salle Academy through one of my clients, Dale Lintner, Jr. La Salle Academy is a great school for underprivileged kids in the Philadelphia area. The parents either have been incarcerated or are below the poverty level. Sister Jean runs this school. It’s Grades 3 through 8 and the things they do for these children are wonderful. It’s a Catholic School, they go to school 11 months a year—one month off—and the kids that come out of there are just miracles. The stories they have… They have to earn their spot and there are only 15 kids in each class, so they’re very thrilled to be there, they’re lucky to be there, and Sister Jean does a great job with La Salle Academy.

Q. Where do you see MRG in ten years?

A. With the growth potential, we don’t want to be the biggest; we want to be the best. We have what we like to call “managed growth.” Most agencies start out with a bunch of salespeople and then try to add services. Because we started. with a lot of nice clients from our book of business at EH&D, we had to be more service-oriented. I was the only salesperson in the agency. For us to deliver our value proposition, we need service experts. That’s claims experts, that’s legal experts, that’s risk control experts—on staff—and insurance experts, so we have to watch the growth. I see us probably in 10 years from now being an organization of about 40 to 50 people.

As far as employees, we are still focused in construction. The outlook—everyone is waiting for the next recession; there hasn’t been one since basically 2009 or ‘10 and I think recessions are going to come back and construction gets hit, so I do believe in the next few years that the construction market place is going to change, although Philadelphia is wonderful—lots of medical facilities, lots of universities that are spending money and building, a lot of projects—but MRG is going to continue to grow. I have been through the downturn, when I had a construction book at EH&D. When 2008 hit what happened was, you might think since I was off construction there that the book shrank, but what happened was, since we specialized in commercial contractors, most of them were able to weather the storm. Their exposures went down along with our revenue; however, as things were slowing down, they started looking at their bottom line a little bit closer, and we started getting more opportunities, so we were able to offset that downturn.

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ABOUT NEWMARK KNIGHT FRANK

Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NKF's 15,000 professionals operate from more than 400 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.

With roots dating back to 1929, NKF's strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NKF's full-service platform comprises BGC's real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

NKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC's common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer  Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.

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