Our Team

Joshua Weisberg is Chief Claims Officer and Managing Director of Risk Management Services (RMS) at Essential Services & Programs (ES&P). He joined ES&P in 2014, after more than a decade in private legal practice representing insurers and policyholders in complex general liability and insurance coverage matters.

In his role, Josh oversees all claims operations across the organization, including Workers’ Compensation claims oversight, contractual risk-transfer analysis, and loss-control services. He serves as a primary advocate for policyholders on high-exposure and disputed claims, working closely with carriers to resolve complex coverage issues and drive favorable outcomes for clients.

Josh has a strong record of securing significant insurance recoveries across a wide range of industries and coverage lines. His experience includes numerous high-value, seven-figure recoveries for clients, including general liability claims related to emergent property stabilization, hangar keepers’ liability settlements involving helicopter losses, and complex cargo claims for high-end manufacturers. He has also successfully compelled insurers to withdraw denials on large-scale, multi-million-dollar claims, including asbestos matters and Directors & Officers class actions involving substantial exposure.

As head of ES&P, Josh manages all aspects of claims handling and TPA-related services, remaining directly involved in the most complex and high-severity matters while overseeing contractual analysis, loss control, and broader risk management functions for clients.

A frequent industry speaker, Josh has served as a panelist at the Zywave National Casualty Conference for several years and regularly presents webinars on risk transfer, claims strategy, and legal issues affecting coverage outcomes. He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal on insurance-related topics and was named a 2025 “Risk All Star” by Risk & Insurance magazine. He also serves on the New York Insurance Academy Board and The Hartford Claims Brokerage Advisory Board.

Josh earned his Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from Yeshiva University. While at Fordham, he worked as an assistant to the General Counsel of the New York State Insurance Department (now the Department of Financial Services), where he prepared advisory opinions on state insurance laws and regulations. He is licensed as an insurance producer in New York and New Jersey and is admitted to practice law in New York, including all federal district courts.

As Coverage Counsel, Jake provides guidance to clients on a range of pre- and post-loss issues, including risk avoidance and management mechanisms, insurance coverage issues, contractor and vendor agreement wording, and claim valuation and submission. At ES&P, he also serves as an advocate and a liaison between adjusters, carriers, and other claim professionals on complex high value claims.

In his role as Coverage Counsel, Jake is adept at providing litigation monitoring and oversight, coordinating with assigned counsel to ensure that cases in suit are resolved as expeditiously and favorably as possible.

Jake joined the team in 2020, bringing with him 15 years of experience as an insurance coverage attorney and defense litigator, most recently having served as Associate Attorney at a global law firm with expertise in litigation/dispute resolution and advisory services. He received his Doctor of Law degree from Cordoza School of Law in New York, New York.

Tracey Nixon is a Senior Claims Specialist at Essential Services & Programs, managing liability claims within clients’ Self-Insured Retentions. She also assists management with departmental workflows, acts as liaison between vendors and ES&P, and oversees reporting obligations to carriers and clients under policy and contract rules. She is experienced in handling general liability claims for family entertainment centers, “big box” wholesale chains, supermarkets, shopping centers, and an array of other retail chains.

Tracey joined SterlingRisk in 2001 and is currently responsible for reporting claims to carriers and advocating for clients when necessary to help mitigate their exposure. She ensures that entitled coverage is afforded and assists clients through the claims process, whether first or third party. Adept at maintaining monthly loss run reports and reviewing and authorizing SIU assignments, Tracey also conducts quarterly department file reviews and coverage verifications. Among her notable accomplishments, she assisted a law firm in representing an insurance carrier in winning a $7 million recovery from a TPA who mishandled the carrier’s No-Fault claims.

Prior to joining SterlingRisk, Tracey served as a New York/Downstate No-Fault Examiner for Long Island Insurance Co./American Agents Insurance Co.; was a New York/Connecticut No-Fault/Med Pay Examiner with Prudential Property and Casualty Insurance Co.; and began her career in 1988 with General Accident Insurance Co., where her most recent title was Claim Loss and Recovery Recordkeeper.

A Licensed Property & Casualty Broker (NY) and Independent General Adjuster (NY), Tracey received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from SUNY College at Old Westbury in 1992. Additional studies and professional accomplishments followed, including Adelphi University, Huntington, NY, Lawyers Assistant Program; certification as a Licensed Auto Liability Adjuster in CT, VT, RI, DE, MD, NH, and ME; and completing a course at American Education Institute Inc., where she received certification as a Legal Principles Claims Specialist.

Helen Behek is a Senior Claims Examiner for Essential Services & Programs. Her responsibilities include serving as a client advocate from the time a claim is reported until its resolution. Helen reports the claim to the necessary carriers, monitors its progress, and keeps the client informed throughout the process. When an issue arises, it is her role to resolve the claim on the client’s behalf.

Helen’s Third-Party Administrator responsibilities include managing self-insured national accounts, including municipalities, residential real estate complexes, shopping centers, parking garages, and a wholesale chain store. Several accounts are managed by Helen exclusively. Other responsibilities include conducting claims reviews for clients, typically on an annual basis.

Before joining SterlingRisk in 2013, Helen served as a Senior Claims Examiner with Hereford Insurance Company. She began her career in 1982 at Liberty Mutual Insurance Company as a Claims Examiner before moving on to positions at Public Service Mutual Insurance Company, Lancer Insurance Company, The Hartford Insurance Group, and Geico Insurance Company.

Helen received her Associates Degree in Insurance Banking and Real Estate from Nassau Community College in 1982. A Licensed Arbitrator with Arbitration Forums Inc., she holds a New York State Brokers License in addition to a General Adjusters License in New York; Florida; Georgia; Arizona; Nevada; and Texas.

Brenda has been in the insurance industry for 26 years. She graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Albany and holds a Juris Doctor from Fordham University Law School. Following law school, Ms. Cohen worked as a Senior Litigation Associate for several major insurance defense firms in New York City, including Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker and Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold. She then became a Liability Claims Attorney for several hospitals and social service agencies in the greater New York metropolitan area. In her current position, Brenda manages claims and lawsuits for a variety of clients including commercial property owners, shopping centers, contractors, retail establishments and a large national chain of big-box stores. She has managed Rockland County’s self-funded liability program since 2005. She also oversaw a program of approximately 450 family entertainment centers nationwide. She is a Licensed Independent Adjuster in addition to being admitted to practice law in New York State and Federal Court, Eastern and Southern Districts.

Sharon Munro is a Senior Claims Examiner with Essential Services & Programs, where she manages liability claims and oversees all aspects of the claims process for two major clients. Her responsibilities include full claim handling, reporting obligations, and coordination with both clients and carriers as needed.

Prior to joining Sterling in 2025, Sharon served as a Senior Claims Examiner with the third party administrator Sedgwick. In that role, she handled claims on behalf of the New York Liquidation Bureau, The Trump Organization, JoAnn Fabrics, and other clients. She also contributed to claim evaluations and negotiations for Prince George’s County municipalities.

Sharon began her career more than 25 years ago at State Farm Insurance, where she represented the company at mediations, arbitrations, and settlement conferences. As a Claim Specialist, she delivered training modules, mentored new employees, led complex negotiations, and maintained strong communication with insureds, counsel, and internal stakeholders.

Sharon holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Dowling College in Oakdale. She also maintains Independent and General Adjuster licenses in New York and numerous other jurisdictions.

In addition to her professional accomplishments, Sharon also currently serves as President of her High School Alumni Association, where she leads multiple fundraising efforts and initiatives to support and enhance the school community.

Ronald Koehnke is a Senior Claims Examiner at Essential Services & Programs, LLC managing liability claims within clients’ Self-Insured Retentions. His responsibilities include investigating new losses, evaluating injuries and liability, reporting and securing settlement authorization when required, and negotiating claims to resolution.

Ronald has been handling insurance claims for over 30 years and has worked for major insurance companies and third-party administrators. He has handled claims for large self-insured national accounts, municipalities, commercial real estate complexes, shopping centers, parking garages, and small to medium sized commercial businesses. He has represented companies at mediations, arbitrations, and trials.

Ronald has a Bachelor of Arts from Long Island University in Southampton. He maintains General Liability Adjusters licenses in New York and multiple other jurisdictions.

Samantha Martino is a Senior Claims Consultant at Essential Services and Programs, and she joined the organization in April 2023. She leads file investigation and executes each file end-to-end. During the lifecycle of each claim, she actively oversees and coordinates with legal counsel to ensure effective communication and alignment on case strategy. She carefully selects and evaluates external attorneys, monitors their performance, and provides clear direction to facilitate efficient case management. By maintaining strong professional relationships with counsel, she is able to negotiate favorable fee arrangements, monitor legal spend, and identify opportunities to control costs without compromising the quality of representation.

Her approach emphasizes proactive management of litigation, including early case assessment, the exploration of alternative dispute resolution methods, and the pursuit of timely settlements where appropriate. Specifically, she is committed to staying ahead of potential challenges by conducting thorough early case assessments to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each claim at the outset. This enables the identification of key issues, the gathering of critical evidence, and the development of a strategic plan tailored to the unique circumstances of each case.

Samantha maintains a Property and Casualty Adjuster’s license in 20 states. She has supported complex casualty audits, including managing recommendations for multinational clients. Her experience expands handling a complex casualty portfolio including New York Labor Law matters.

She obtained a Master of the Arts in history at the University of Nottingham in 2016 and a Bachelor of Arts in History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2015.

Steven A. Markowitz is Director of Risk Control at SterlingRisk, where he develops and implements comprehensive loss control and risk management programs for clients to reduce claim frequency and severity. Steven also provides safety consulting services and technical support to clients, working to identify exposures with significant loss potential, evaluate loss trends, and develop safety management and loss control programs.

Since joining SterlingRisk in 2010, Steven has contributed risk control expertise to several primary lines of business, including Property, where he most often evaluates exposures and controls associated with fire suppression systems; Workers’ Compensation, where he evaluates loss runs for trends and identifies loss leaders; General and Products Liability, evaluating exposures and offering recommendations on physical hazards backed by written support and guides for improvement; and Auto Liability, offering comprehensive evaluations from fleet safety exposures and controls to DOT programs.

Steven began his professional career in 1980 at Consolidated Laundries, Inc. as Manager of Occupational Health and Safety. He later joined St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company (1985-1999) where his titles included Senior Representative, Risk Management Services, and Account Specialist, Loss Control Services. In 1999 he served as Manager, Loss Control Field Services, at RSKCo, and prior to joining SterlingRisk was Senior Risk Engineering Consultant with Zurich Services Corporation from 2000 through 2010.

Steven received his Bachelor of Arts degree from City College of New York before attending New York University, where he graduated in 1980 with a Master of Arts in Occupational Safety and Health. His professional designations include Certified Safety Professional; Associate in Risk Management; Associate in Loss Control Management; BCSP – Safety Trained Supervisor; and NYS Certified Safety Consultant.

Dennis Sturtz is Vice President/Director of Workers’ Compensation at SterlingRisk, responsible for all workers’ compensation audit reviews and client audit preparation.

As the in-house workers’ compensation resource at SterlingRisk for more than two decades, Dennis lends support to a variety of workers’ compensation-related issues. In addition to keeping abreast of changes in workers’ compensation law on a state-by-state level, he is most often called upon to perform workers’ compensation premium recovery for SterlingRisk clients and prospects; answer complex workers’ compensation questions; provide producers with relevant workers’ compensation information on prospects; review all workers’ compensation submissions, renewals, and audits; and obtain pertinent experience modification information.

Dennis is familiar with all NCCI rules as well as the rating board rules for those states not associated with NCCI. Recognized as “the authority” on class code analysis for workers’ compensation, he is equally adept at understanding, evaluating, and correcting experience modification ratings.

Prior to joining SterlingRisk in 2005, Dennis was employed at a workers’ compensation recovery firm performing audits and aiding in premium recovery. From 1990 – 1998, he was the owner of a Tropicana Juice Distributorship, increasing the business threefold and selling it as two separate distributorships. From 1972 – 1990, Dennis worked in the automobile leasing business, eventually managing and purchasing a family business which he sold in 1990.

A graduate of Georgia State University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Accounting/Marketing, Dennis is a licensed insurance broker.

Stevi Sanderowitz is Vice President, Litigation Analytics/Claims Counsel at Essential Services & Programs and lends her legal and claims expertise to some of ES&P’s largest clients, including retail, food/beverage, hospitality, manufacturing, real estate, nonprofit, entertainment, construction, professional services, transportation, and warehousing companies. Stevi also works with outside counsel and ES&P’s insurance carrier partners to obtain optimal outcomes and contain costs for ES&P clients. She has helped clients address and successfully navigate insurance coverage issues arising from highly challenging and unprecedented exposures, including COVID-19, civil unrest/riot activity, and electronic transfer fraud/cybercrime activity.

At ES&P, Stevi helps clients reduce overall claims costs and add efficiency to the claims management process by leveraging litigation, legal spend, reserves, and claims data analytics. Stevi also provides clients with guidance concerning risk transfer strategies and other loss control techniques. In addition, she monitors emerging legal and legislative trends and provides guidance on appropriate measures to address new developments.

Prior to joining SterlingRisk, Stevi served as an attorney at two prominent national defense law firms where she litigated complex claims in state and federal courts as well as arbitration/mediation. She received a J.D. from New York Law School, cum laude in 2011, and a B.B.A from Pace University summa cum laude in 2008. While in law school, she was a judicial extern for Hon. John M. Leventhal in the Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, Second Department. She also served as a staff editor for the New York Law School Law Review.

Stevi is admitted to practice law in New York State, the Southern, Eastern, Western, and Northern U.S. District Courts of New York, and the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition, Stevi is a licensed New York State Property and Casualty Insurance Broker and designated Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU). Stevi is an active member of DRI and serves as Chair of Construction Law Subcommittee of the Insurance Law Committee.

Lia Krautmanis is General Counsel for Essential Services & Programs (ES&P), responsible for legal and regulatory affairs for the organization. She ensures compliance with a range of corporate and insurance regulations, including licensing and cyber-security and data privacy protocol. Lia also provides strategic legal advice on a variety of business transactions, including all aspects of insurance law, litigation management, corporate governance, commercial transactions and contract negotiations, and employment-related matters.

Lia also serves as Associate General Counsel of SterlingRisk, one of the nation’s top independently owned insurance brokerage firms. Prior to joining SterlingRisk in 2013, she worked at an entertainment law firm in Manhattan, advising and representing clients in contract negotiations, defamation and breach of contract claims, technology transactions, and IP licensing and ownership matters.

Lia received her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. While at Brooklyn Law School, she was Associate Managing Editor of the Journal of Law & Policy and was awarded the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Advanced Legal Research. Lia graduated from Boston College with a B.A. in Communications and International Studies, where she was also a full-scholarship member of the Division I varsity volleyball team. In 2016, Lia was selected as an IBANY Emerging Leader by the Insurance Brokers’ Association of the State of New York.

Lia is currently admitted to practice law in the states of New York and New Jersey. She is also a licensed P&C Insurance Broker and holds a CPCU designation.

As President of Sterling Analytics, Marci Waterman oversees a team of skilled attorneys and paralegals who help companies manage legal expenses through a reliable and consistent process of review and analysis.

Responsible for the review of over two billion dollars in legal invoices annually, Marci brings more than two decades of legal practice to Sterling Analytics. Her rich background in law, business, consulting, and strategic sourcing helps ensure progress, process, and profitability on every engagement. She regularly participates in webinars on third-party legal bill review and is an instructor for the firm’s Continuing Legal Education class teaching ethics billing practices to attorneys.

Marci also serves as Chief Operating Officer of SterlingRisk — one of the nation’s top independently owned insurance brokerage firms — where she oversees the company’s activities, helps set strategic goals, and manages business infrastructure across all departments to achieve maximum results.

Prior to joining Sterling Analytics, Marci was a New York City prosecutor in the Major Narcotics Unit serving as a felony trial attorney in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. She successfully argued in front of the Appellate Division numerous times and was also a recurring commentator on Court TV, focusing on the death penalty sentencing phase of high-profile crimes.

A longtime supporter of not-for-profit charitable organizations, Marci serves on numerous charity boards, is the Immediate Past President of WIZO NY, and was recently named to the East End Power List for her charitable endeavors and contributions to the region’s business community. She is a Phi Kappa Beta graduate of Binghamton University and received her J.D. with distinction from Brooklyn Law School.

David began his career at SterlingRisk in 1978. Before joining the company, he studied Risk Management and Insurance at University of Wisconsin and received a degree in Finance from Hofstra University. In 1987, he became President and CEO. Since that time, David has guided SterlingRisk through extraordinary growth, expanding the company 25-fold and building a team of over 300 professionals across eight regional offices.

A respected authority in the insurance industry, David has been at the forefront of emerging issues such as cybersecurity and complex coverage design. His expertise spans every facet of risk management and claims handling, serving industries as diverse as real estate, aviation, healthcare, and financial services. Known for combining strategic insight with hands-on problem solving, he has helped position SterlingRisk among the most trusted names in the insurance industry.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, David is deeply committed to community service and philanthropy. Under his direction, SterlingRisk serves as the premier sponsor of the annual Long Island Imagine Awards, providing direct support to each of the 24 nonprofit finalists. David has also served on the Executive Board of UJA Federation of New York, where he has chaired the Long Island Campaign. He is a member of the Board of the Nassau County Police Reserves and has lent his expertise to the advisory boards of the Federal Drug Agents Foundation and the Homeland Security Foundation.

David is Treasurer of the American Friends of Rambam Hospital and serves on the National Board of AIPAC — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors at the Florence and Robert A. Rosen Family Wellness Center for Law Enforcement & Military Personnel and Their Families at the North Shore–LIJ Health System.

David’s achievements reflect not only his leadership in building a premier brokerage, but also his enduring dedication to strengthening the insurance industry and supporting nonprofits here on Long Island and around the globe.