2016-08-31 01.11.52aThe D&O Diary was on assignment last week in Australia, to attend and participate in the annual conference of the Australian Professional Indemnity Group (APIG), in Sydney. As a result of my travels to the conference, I once again experienced the miracle of modern technology. You can leave your home in, say, Cleveland, and less than 24 hours later you can be walking on a beach in Australia. I have made this trip or its equivalent many times now, but it still never ceases to amaze me.
Continue Reading Notes from Sydney

2016-03-04 11.27.08aThe D&O Diary was on assignment in London last week for meetings, a conference, and a reception. The itinerary allowed for some time abroad in the city, and included a weekend stopover in Paris. The main event for the London visit was the annual C5 D&O Liability conference, in which I participated as a panelist. In the picture below, I am standing with my good friends and fellow panelists, Nilam Sharma, of Nilam Sharma Limited; Stephen Reilly of Beale & Company; and Chris Warrior of Hiscox.
Continue Reading A Tale of Two Cities (Illustrated Edition)

2016-01-28 03.43.42aThe D&O Diary is on assignment in Germany this week, with the first stop for a meeting and a short visit in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg – “Free,” as a free Imperial city under the Holy Roman Empire, and “Hanseatic” for the Hanseatic League, the Northern European trading confederation in the late Middle Ages. Though Hamburg is 60 miles inland from the North Sea on the Elbe River, it is a seaport – the second largest in Europe, in fact. It remains a separate city-state within the present German federation. At 1.7 million people, it is also the second-largest city in Germany.
Continue Reading Two German Cities in Winter

Queen Victoria Kensington PalaceThe D&O Diary is on assignment in Europe this week, with the first stop over the weekend in London. When I arrived at my hotel on Saturday morning I learned for the first time about the Friday night terrorist attacks in Paris, which had taken place while I was in transit. Since the primary purpose for my trip was to attend meetings this week in Paris (to which I planned to travel next after leaving London), these developments certainly put my trip plans in an entirely different and unsettling light. I spent most of my weekend in London trying to decide whether I should travel on to Paris from London or just return home after the weekend.
Continue Reading London Weekend

prague castle on monday morningThe D&O Diary finished up its recent European sojourn with a weekend visit to Prague. After a four-hour train ride northeastward from Munich through forests, farm fields, and low mountains, and a final stretch through the Vltava River valley (the river is known as the Moldau in German), we reached Prague, or Praha as the city is known to the natives. The Czech Republic’s capital and largest city is a bustling river metropolis with a rich cultural heritage and a vibrant night life.
Continue Reading A Visit to Prague

munich english garden chinese tower beer gardenThe D&O Diary is on assignment in Europe this week, with the first stop in the southern German city of Munich, to attend Munich Re’s Global Casualty Claims Conference. This trip represented my first ever visit to Europe during the summer months. My prior visits have all taken place during other months of the year. Here’s what I discovered about visiting Europe in July; it is a lot more comfortable walking a city in the summer warmth than in colder months, and, even more importantly, a summer visit allows for very late evenings sitting at outdoor cafes and beer gardens in the warm and comfortable twilight that does not turn to darkness until well past 10:00 pm.
Continue Reading Munich in Summer

2015-06-18 13.22.54aThe D&O Diary was on assignment in São Paulo last week, for meetings and for a little bit of a look around. I had never before been to Brazil, or for that matter, to South America. São Paulo turned out to be a bit of a revelation. For one thing, São Paulo, the financial capital

004aThe D&O Diary rounded out its European visit last week with a quick weekend visit to Paris. In addition to a rendezvous with friends and family, the stopover included several long walks, two encounters with the Parisian contemporary art museum scene, and one extraordinary meal.

The best of the weekend’s walks was an energetic