Dave Chmiel: Brokers Cover The Gap

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Yvonne and Rafael sit down with Dave Chmiel, Chief Claims Officer at Hub International. Together, they engage in a great conversation about the broker's perspective on workers' compensation.

Episode Highlights

☕ The Core Message: Listening Changes Everything (00:02:38)

From day one in the brokerage world, Dave was taught to listen, to understand what economic buyers (CEOs, CFOs) actually care about. That skill transcends the boardroom. When you truly listen, you access perspectives you'd otherwise miss. In workers' comp, where we're managing human situations, that's everything.

🎯 A 35-Year Career Built on Perspective-Shifting (00:02:40)

Dave intentionally positioned himself to see the full ecosystem:

• Liberty Mutual (10 years): Claims management with major accounts; mastered total cost to risk
• Brokerage side (12 years): Kept managing claims while gaining the 30,000-foot view of client needs
• Hub International (14 years): Chief Claims Officer, bridging claims and sales

He didn't climb a ladder; he expanded his lens. That's the difference.

🤝 The Three-Partner Model: What Brokers Actually Do (00:11:00)

When asked what brokers can do that people don't realize, Dave explains the architecture: There are three partners in this equation: the client, the carrier, and the broker. The broker's job is to advocate for the client while maintaining a healthy relationship with the carrier. It's not zero-sum. It's about understanding all three positions and helping them work in alignment. That nuance matters.

🏢 From Middle-Market to Boutique at Scale (00:22:00)

Hub was originally positioned as a middle-market broker, but has evolved into an "upmarket and complex risk broker." What's their differentiator? Boutique-style service, the kind of personalized attention and deep expertise you'd expect from a small firm, delivered at the scale of the sixth largest broker in the world. That's the sweet spot David and his team operate in.

📈 The Broker That Grows With You (00:28:07)

"The best kind of broker is the one that's going to grow with you as an organization." A company that had two locations five years ago and now has forty is fundamentally different. The broker has to evolve too, more productive, more creative, more empathetic. That means understanding the distinctions: construction claims look nothing like transportation or sports and entertainment. And it means building trust-based alignment with carriers and TPAs, not just golf course friendships as we did 20 years ago. As Dave says, like a baseball manager whose team fights for you when they trust the vision.

🏒 Off the Ice: Goalie, Coach, Dad (00:40:30)

Dave still plays hockey as a goalie, sharing how much he loves the sport and the camaraderie between players. He gets the biggest kick, though, out of coaching his daughters: a 13-year-old softball pitcher and a 10-year-old who plays basketball and soccer. He didn't have sports in his own middle school years, so he's living through their growth and development. "That's where I relax now," he says. It's where the same listening, mentoring, and protective instincts that define his broker role show up in his life outside work.

✨ Rare Energy in a Mature Field (00:41:15)

"In the claims world, you don't often see the amount of energy that I think we collectively as a group have." When someone with 35 years still gets genuinely stoked about the work and the Elevate Work Comp conference community, it's not nostalgia, it's real.

The Nugget Worth Holding

How are you creating space to truly listen to what your stakeholders need? What assumption might you be missing about what matters to them?

Connect with David: He means it when he says reach out. Whether you have questions about the broker perspective, career advice, or just want to continue the conversation, find him on LinkedIn: Dave Chmiel. He's serious about helping and mentoring anyone who's open to it.

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp