GRM Co-Chair Bill Ramonas

William F. Ramonas, Chairman & CEO of Global Risk Consultants, has over 35 years of experience in the area of loss control, global risk management counsulting and insurance.  Currently, he directs a comprehensive range of property loss control and other core engineering services for Global Risk Consultants’ worldwide offices.

GRM Co-Chair Kit Miyamoto

Kit Miyamoto is President & CEO of Miyamoto International, one of the largest structural engineering companies in California.  Kit is a recognized expert in the field of Performance Based Engineering and Energy Dissipation systems for dynamic loads.  He was a member of the Technical Subcommittee in Base Isolation and Energy Dissipation for the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program and is an adjunct professor at California State University. He also serves on the Seismic Task Committee of ASCE 7 which produces a source document for the International Building Code.

Peter Yanev

Peter Yanev has over 30 years of experience in earthquake/structural engineering and risk management. Recognized as the co-founder and president of EQE International, Peter has visited and studied over 100 natural disasters worldwide since 1972.  Under his leadership, EQE became one of the largest risk consulting companies in the world. Its subsidiary, EQECAT, launched state-of-the-art catastrophe analysis software for the property/casualty and financial services industries. Peter has published extensively in the field of earthquake engineering and risk assessment and reduction, including the best-selling book, Peace of Mind in Earthquake Country. He currently serves as a technical advisor to the World Bank on risk mitigation and engineering.

Tom Chan, GRM Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Chan has 27 years of civil, structural and risk engineering experience.  He directs Global Risk Miyamoto’s risk engineering practice and consults with  corporations, financial institutions, utilities and governments on all aspects of natural hazards risk assessment and mitigation, and business continuity planning.  He is a licensed Civil and Structural Engineer. 

Prior to GRM, Tom was Executive Vice President of EQE, where he built and directed its risk engineering and consulting practice for 20 years.  Mr. Chan directed many of EQE’s pioneering risk engineering systems and practices, including its risk reduction program, PML reports, system reliability assessments, and business continuity and emergency planning.  Tom has managed and performed numerous risk assessment, mitigation and planning projects worldwide for major corporations, governments and utilities.  He is an expert with all construction types, including wood, steel, concrete, and masonry.

GRM Senior Staff

Rob Philbrick, Principal

Mr. Rob Philbrick has over 30 years' experience in the area of earthquake engineering, safety and risk analyses, and insurance consulting, and holds BS/MS Civil/Structural degrees from Cornell University (NY) and UC Berkeley (CA), respectively. He is an industry leader for earthquake engineering, safety and risk analyses, and insurance consulting. His preventive approaches have saved corporations and insurers millions of dollars in avoided physical damage, down-time, and retained insurance losses.

Chris Heaton, Principal

Mr. Chris Heaton has over 15 years' experience in the area of natural hazard assessment, analysis, training and consulting and holds BS Civil/Structural and BA Architecture degrees from Texas Tech University. He has conducted numerous specialized site evaluations for the purpose of defining, quantifying, and mitigating natural catastrophe exposures, both on an individual site and aggregate basis. Mr. Heaton directs the sales, marketing, and account coordination efforts for Global Risk Miyamoto.