Joshua Madson

Madson’s career in insurance and reinsurance began at Aon’s Reinsurance Solutions in March 2013 as a catastrophe risk analyst. His early work connected catastrophe modeling with the practical economics of reinsurance: applying Impact Forecasting and AIR Worldwide models to client portfolios, building event loss tables, examining probable maximum loss curves, and comparing how excess-of-loss and quota-share structures changed the risks retained by an insurer. Aon’s three-month, in-residence Fundamentals of Reinsurance program in Minneapolis added training in treaty and facultative design, pricing, reserving, and capital markets. This foundation made catastrophe analysis part of a wider commercial process, linking the measurement of physical hazards and insured exposures to underwriting decisions, contract terms, and the cost of transferring risk.

Over the following six years, he progressed through Analyst, Senior Analyst, and Associate Director to Director, Head of Analytics, U.S. Agriculture. He led six quantitative analysts working across catastrophe and production-risk modeling, econometrics, machine learning, software development, and data engineering. His responsibilities expanded from producing analysis to directing its use in client strategy, technical pricing, product development, and reinsurance placement. He developed joint simulations of crop yields and commodity prices, loss forecasts and reserving models, and analytical frameworks for allocating business under the federal crop insurance reinsurance program. Alongside analytics leadership, he worked as a broker and producer, helping structure transactions transferring more than $500 million in client limit. Weather derivatives, commodity hedges, supplemental crop coverage, forestry risks, and humanitarian risk financing brought different hazards, counterparties, and forms of capital into the same practice.

In July 2019, Madson joined AIG as a Vice President, working with Validus Research and AIG Re as an in-house specialist in agriculture and weather risk. His work supporting Crop Risk Services included annual loss-ratio forecasts, stochastic portfolio models, reinsurance structure analysis, and improvements to private-product pricing. Collaboration with underwriting, research, and actuarial colleagues in Decatur, New York, and Bermuda connected detailed modeling with portfolio management and underwriting judgment. He developed pricing tools for crop-hail products, combined severe convective storm observations with insurance loss data, and assessed hurricane exposure associated with the Hurricane Wind Endorsement. These assignments extended his understanding of how hail, damaging wind, hurricanes, production losses, and correlated weather conditions affect both individual policies and diversified insurance portfolios.

Through Molto RE and his subsequent work as Managing Director at Kairos Risk Solutions, he has continued to broaden that foundation across natural catastrophe and specialty risks. His current analytical and structuring work encompasses earthquake, hurricane, wildfire, severe convective storm, and flood, alongside weather, agriculture, forestry, trade credit, and surety exposures. Hurricane track and wind-field data, seismic event catalogs and ShakeMap grids, weather observations, and geospatial exposure data support trigger design, payout calibration, and basis risk analysis. The progression from catastrophe analyst to analytics leader, AIG Vice President, and advisory leadership has brought increasing responsibility for translating hazard knowledge into products, portfolio decisions, and transactions with rated reinsurers and collateralized capital providers. He previously held Series 7, Series 3, Series 79, and Series 63 registrations with Aon Securities LLC, complementing his insurance experience with securities, derivatives, and investment banking knowledge.

Madson’s early childhood was spent in Andover, Massachusetts, and Corvallis, Oregon, before his family moved to Barcelona and Sant Cugat del Vallès during 1995–1996 and subsequently to Singapore. Each move changed the immediate setting of daily life, from New England neighborhoods and the Pacific Northwest to a different language in Spain and the tropical environment of Southeast Asia. Singapore American School became the center of much of his formative education, within a community of classmates and families connected to many different countries. School life extended beyond lessons into football, swimming, rugby, music, and climbing club, with after-school activities often stretching the day into the evening. Outside the campus, neighborhood friendships, familiar journeys to and from school, and time outdoors gave the island a more personal geography. The childhood visit to Jurong Bird Park shown here belongs to that period: an upbringing in which ordinary school routines sat alongside a close familiarity with Singapore’s landscapes and a much wider international community.

Travel from Singapore made Southeast Asia a familiar region of exploration, encompassing Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Laos through family journeys, school activities, and football competition. These experiences ranged from major cities and historical sites to rural communities, border regions, tropical forests, and coastal environments. Youth baseball added another part of life in Singapore. Playing for the Fighting Terror introduced the routines of learning to throw accurately, field ground balls, and bat, with practice on red-dirt fields offering a different pace from football. Early machine-pitch and coach-pitch games emphasized the fundamentals: watching the ball, making a controlled throw, and responding quickly when a quiet passage of play became a run, catch, or fielding opportunity. Swimming and school sports brought their own forms of discipline and team participation. Travel elsewhere, including China, Hong Kong, Australia, and summer visits to the American West, added geographic and cultural breadth. Moving between these settings made travel part of childhood rather than a separate occasional experience, while later returns, particularly to Vietnam and Hong Kong, provided opportunities to see how familiar places had changed.

Football has been a sustained commitment across Madson’s international upbringing and subsequent education in the United States. In Singapore, he played for Singapore American School, beginning as a goalkeeper in fifth grade before developing experience in other positions, and competed through ANZA Soccer, ANZA Select, and the European Soccer Academy. Progression from the ANZA Warriors to representative competition brought more demanding training and selection, while tournaments in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand connected athletic development with regional travel. Informal matches with Singaporean neighbors were equally formative, making football a source of friendship and belonging beyond organized competition. His longstanding support for Manchester United is closely associated with these years, including memories of Ryan Giggs and a United shirt given to him by a neighborhood friend.

After moving to St. Louis, Madson continued his development at Ladue Horton Watkins High School, where he played during the 2003–2005 seasons and served as a team captain in 2005. His achievements included first-team All-Conference recognition in the Suburban South Conference, honorable mention All-Metro recognition in the St. Louis area, and honorable mention All-State recognition in Missouri, recorded for the 2005–2006 academic year. He also received the Ladue Soccer Scholarship. These distinctions recognized his performance at conference, metropolitan, and state levels, complementing his leadership within the team. His club involvement with Busch U18 provided an additional competitive setting alongside high-school soccer, and he subsequently continued playing at The College of Wooster, where he appeared as a defender. This progression from neighborhood games and international youth tournaments to captaincy, individual honors, and collegiate participation made football a significant part of his personal development. It required sustained conditioning, technical preparation, tactical awareness, and accountability to teammates. The game remains an enduring personal interest and a connection among different periods of his life, combining the experience of competing with the continuing loyalties of a Manchester United supporter.

Music, cycling, and time outdoors have remained recurring interests alongside Madson’s academic and commercial work. Childhood cello study included the Colorado Suzuki Institute and youth or school orchestral performance at Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore. Concertgoing also formed part of that musical education, including visits to hear the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and a memorable opportunity to obtain Yo-Yo Ma’s autograph. Mountain biking brought a different kind of concentration: exploring Singapore’s trails and offshore landscapes, choosing a line, and learning the mechanics of the bicycle. Summer employment at Treknology 3 Bicycles provided practical experience with tools, components, repairs, and customer service. Fishing with his grandfather Gordon on Lake Superior is another enduring memory, involving preparation for cold days on the water, attention to tackle, and the patient search for walleye. These experiences connect the fishing photograph with a broader enjoyment of outdoor pursuits and with family memories of learning through observation and practice.

Reading and writing have continued through later periods of study and urban life, providing a different pace from quantitative analysis and commercial responsibilities. In Raleigh, browsing the used shelves at Reader’s Corner led to an interest in Dashiell Hammett, from the Continental Op stories to novels including Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon. Finding an unfamiliar edition or following one author through several books made reading an activity pursued outside the demands of a syllabus. Moving to Chicago with friends from The College of Wooster carried established friendships into the beginning of professional life, while also creating new routines beyond college and graduate school. Music, books, outdoor activity, and time with his dog give the personal side of his biography a continuity across these moves. They sit alongside his longstanding engagement with football and travel as interests that have accompanied different stages of education and work, offering space for attention, curiosity, and everyday life beyond the professional focus on risk and markets.