about us
Who We Are
Nir Kossovsky
Chief Executive & Director —Dr. Nir Kossovsky is an authority on business process risk, reputation and enterprise value. A seasoned speaker, he authors IAM magazine’s reputation series and last published the book Mission: Intangible. Managing risk and reputation to create enterprise value. He is also executive secretary of Intangible Asset Finance Society, the premier organization for operations executives, and edits the Society’s Mission:Intangible blog. Last, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of Excela Health Systems, a community medical center.
Previously, he served on the boards of Patent & License Exchange (sold to Access Integrated Technologies, (NASDAQ:AIXD)), and Littlearth, Inc.; was a consultant to FDA’s medical device advisory panels; and is featured in case studies from Harvard and Darden Schools of Business. Dr. Kossovsky earned an MBA from University of Southern California, an MD from University of Chicago, a BA in Philosophy from University of Pittsburgh and graduated from the US Navy War College.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Kossovsky was a tenured member of the faculty of the UCLA School of Medicine, Chief of the UCLA Medical Center’s Autopsy Service, and a Deputy Coroner in Los Angeles County.
Dr. Kossovsky has authored more than 200 articles and several books on topics ranging from reputation, risk finance, and intellectual property licensing to bioengineering, medical devices, and neuroanatomy.
Peter Gerken
Senior Vice President, Risk Transfer Agency & Insurance —A co-founder of Steel City Re, Mr. Gerken, has been instrumental in engineering the company’s core products. In this role he has designed reputation insurance policies and participates in arranging these solutions with insurers, reinsurers, brokers and potential customers. Mr. Gerken also heads underwriting for the company.
A 30 year veteran of the commercial insurance industry, Peter has specialized in intangible assets and intellectual property (IP) for the past 10 years. He has extensive knowledge and experience in IP value extraction, utilizing intellectual property in secured lending, and IP monetization.
Beginning his insurance career at Johnson & Higgins, Peter has held Account Executive positions in both the Broking and the Company side of the business, gaining experience with captive insurance companies along the way. He is the former Intellectual Property Practice Leader at Marsh where he interacted with clients and markets on a global basis. Mr. Gerken also has twelve years of entrepreneurial experience as the former Senior Vice President and Co-Head of U.S. operations at Oilmen’s Insurance.
Steel City Re has insurance licenses in New York and Pennsylvania and Mr. Gerken is sub-licensee. Peter holds an MBA in Management from Bernard Baruch College in New York, the CPCU insurance designation and is a former member of the Licensing Executives Society.
John Griggs
Chief Operations Officer. Mr. Griggs, comes to the company with 20 years of experience developing, re-engineering, launching and managing business processes, operations and software. Most recently, he was Senior Director, Patient Access Operations for Conifer Health Solutions where he managed a $96 Million P&L and approximately 1700 associates across 56 hospitals in 12 states. Prior to this role, he was Regional Director at H&R Block, where he led the operations and management of 170 offices across three states. During that time he oversaw 2500 tax and operations associates and a $48 Million P & L. While at H&R Block, Mr. Griggs also lead process and initiatives teams responsible for rebuilding H&R Block’s back end electronic filing systems, the reorganization of the IT organization and administration of the business development management process.
From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Griggs was the Director, Customer Experience for H&R Block’s Digital Tax Solutions group. In that role, he was responsible building a customer experience program that drove interaction between the teams responsible for designing, developing and marketing the company's digital tax products and the end user.
Prior to H&R Block, John served in multiple roles focused on turning the Voice of the Customer into financial, software, insurance and distribution products and processes at several companies such as Swiss Re, General Electric, Ingram Micro and The Patent & License Exchange. His quality and change management skills have earned him a Six-Sigma Black Belt certification from General Electric. John holds a bachelors degree in marketing and management from the University of Cincinnati.
Robert Rittereiser
Chairman of the Board — Mr. Rittereiser is a managing Director of 3DRS Advisors, Inc., a management consulting firm, and CEO of Zhi Verden, a global supply chain information and trading system firm. Previously, Mr. Rittereiser was Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of Merrill Lynch & Co., President and CEO of EF Hutton & Co., President and CEO of Nationar A Banking Services Company, and most recently Chairman and CEO of Gruntal Financial, LLC. In addition to other corporate directorships, Mr. Rittereiser has served as an Industry Director for the Depository Trust Co., The National Securities Clearing Corp., and the Chicago Board of Options Exchange, and as a Trustee of the DBL Liquidating Trust.
William McGinty
Director — Mr. McGinty is a Senior Managing Director of the NASDAQ Insurance Agency. The Agency is an insurance intermediary advising current and future NASDAQ companies concerning specialty insurance coverage including Directors & Officers liability, Errors & Omission Insurance, EPLI, M&A, and Patent Insurance, as well as other property and casualty insurance products. Mr. McGinty, a founding member of the agency, is responsible for M&A activities and strategic planning. Previously, he served as a founding partner and President & COO of American Wholesale (currently operating as AMWINS), a national property & casualty and Employee Benefits Insurance firm. Bill also served in various senior management positions for the Sedgwick Group, including New York Regional COO and Director of US Office Operations.
Alfred Fasola
Director — Mr. Fasola is the Chairman of Boardroom Specialists, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in advisory services and risk management for public companies where he has had a twenty-year history in restructuring and turnarounds. Clients included Xybernaut Corporation, RCN Corporation, Jumbo Sports, Herman Sporting Goods, Gateway Foodmarkets, Circle Express, Pilot Freight Carriers, and Purolator Corporation. In these engagements, he has held CEO, Chairman and/or Director positions and has been a member of various board committees including Audit and Compensation. Mr. Fasola is also currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Johnson and Higgins Private Equity Solutions which offers innovative health care finance and risk management solutions to clients in the private equity community. Early in his career, he was a Cabinet member in the administration of Governor Thomas H. Kean, New Jersey, and he served as Special Deputy to the Commissioner of Insurance for the State of New Jersey.
Robert Liscouski
Co-Founder — Mr. Liscouski, a founder of Steel City Re, is a seasoned risk analysis and mitigation professional with specialized knowledge in infrastructure, anti-terrorism, information security and crisis management. Mr. Liscouski was appointed by President Bush as the first Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, when the Department of Homeland Security was founded in 2003 and served in that position under Secretary Tom Ridge until 2005. As Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, Mr. Liscouski led the development and implementation of the nation’s efforts to protect its critical infrastructure from terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
Mr. Liscouski has served as President & CEO of Content Analyst Company, LLC, a developer of text analytics software, Director of Information Assurance at the Coca-Cola Company and Vice President of the Law Enforcement Division of Orion Scientific Systems, a developer of advanced analytic software tools. Earlier in his career, he served as a Diplomatic Security Service Special Agent with the U.S. Department of State and a Homicide and Undercover Investigator for the Bergen County Prosecutors Office.
He also is currently serving as a member of the Intelligence Science Board, an advisory board on Science and Technology reporting to the Director of National Intelligence and is a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies as Washington DC based think tank.
He holds an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and a BS in Criminal Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.