2023 Maui Wildfires: Analysis and Impacts

Sarah Hartley Senior Manager, Event Response, Moody's RMS

Sarah leads the Moody’s RMS Event Response team, which is responsible for providing real-time guidance and modeling products across a wide breadth of global natural catastrophes.

She has a master’s degree in Applied Meteorology from the University of Reading.

Michael Young Vice President, Model Product Management, Moody's RMS

Michael leads a team that establishes requirements and features for all of the Moody's RMS North and South America climate models. Michael's responsibilities include overseeing the submission of Moody's RMS products to regulatory reviewers, such as the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology (FCHLMP).

Michael has led studies of insurance mitigation programs for the state of Florida, as well as the World Bank. In his past 14 years at Moody's RMS, Michael has also worked as a lead wind vulnerability engineer, a director of claims and exposure development, and as the head of the mitigation practice. He has worked in commercial wind-tunnel laboratories doing studies on wind loads for a variety of buildings.

Before joining Moody's RMS, he was involved in the development of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) HAZUS-MH software for hurricane risk assessment, and he taught courses on the use of HAZUS hurricane and flood components. Michael has also led studies on mitigation cost effectiveness for building codes such as the 2001 Florida Building Code and the North Carolina Building Code.

Michael holds a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and a master's degree from the University of Western Ontario in Canada in Wind Engineering.

Rajkiran Vojjala Vice President, Model Development, Moody's RMS

Raj Vojjala is the head of vulnerability & exposure modeling at Moody's RMS. He leads a global team of engineers, scientists, and modelers responsible for damage quantification across all Moody's RMS probabilistic risk models for wildfire, hurricane, earthquake, flood, tornado, hail, and specialty risks. He also leads the exposure and geospatial modeling teams at Moody's RMS responsible for R&D on economic and insured exposure data for property, casualty, auto, and terrorism lines.

Over the last 17 years at Moody's RMS, Raj has been involved in the design & development of many of Moody's RMS flagship probabilistic risk models such as its North America Hurricane, Offshore Energy, Global Marine Cargo, and US Flood models. More recently, he co-led the development of Moody's RMS high-definition North America Wildfire model.

Raj has authored several scientific publications, led numerous post-disaster field investigations and research collaboration projects with partners in the cat modeling domain. Raj did his Masters in Structural Engineering from Stanford University and is a frequent speaker at risk management industry events.

Auguste Boissonnade Vice President, Model Development, Moody's RMS

Dr. Auguste Boissonnade has more than 30 years of experience in managing and developing natural hazard risk models  around the world. He is currently leading the development of state-of-the art wildfire modeling capabilities. He has been working at Moody’s RMS since 1992 where he was the original architect of the RMS hurricane catastrophe loss model for the US and subsequently led the technical developments of hurricane, tornado, hail and wildfire catastrophe models, weather derivatives risk products, and the ‘Post Event Loss Amplification’ modules that explicitly consider the potential indirect economic impacts following catastrophic events on insurance claims.

Auguste was detached to Asia Risk Centre (ARC) between 2012 and 2016, as Chief Technical Officer leading the development of (re)insurance crop risk models and weather-based indices agricultural contracts with teams in the United Kingdom, California, Singapore and India. Before joining Moody’s RMS, Auguste was project leader at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), USA. Auguste received his Ph.D. from Stanford University.