Corporate Board Member

Some companies are gearing up. Gary S. Lynch, head of the business-continuity and risk-management practice at the large insurance broker Marsh, tells of contingency plans by various clients: A big hotel chain, figuring tourism would collapse, is studying how to rent its properties to governments as places to tend the sick. A hospital operator has contracted for refrigeration trucks. “Their in-house mortuaries are too small,” Lynch explains. A communications corporation has built a self-contained “clean facility” within its headquarters to house critical personnel and key operations. Other companies are asking the U.S. government to declare that what they do is “essential” so they can qualify for federal contracts or resources.

Damian Brew, a managing director with Marsh’s professional-liability practice, says the risk of a pandemic pales against other exposures, including oil-price fluctuations, and adds that underwriters of directors’ and officers’ liability coverage are more concerned with options backdating and CEO pay disclosure. “Boards have a limited amount of time, and there are financial issues that should take priority over something that’s not likely to happen,” he says.