“I moved to the United States from Cuba in 1990 and the trade industry was booming in Miami at the time. I was swept up in all of that excitement and quickly landed my first job in freight forwarding.”

Upon moving to the United States, Mr. Angel Mederos, Co-Founder and Senior Executive Vice President at ANOVA, was told that, in Miami, the future in logistics was bright.

“When I arrived in the U.S., I first enrolled at Miami Dade College and studied English as a second language, along with business administration. At the time, the trade industry in Miami was very popular and growing quickly. I was intrigued by the industry, and I was fortunate to land a job at Panalpina, a very large Swiss logistics company, in the ocean department handling traffic. Following Panalpina, I worked with other logistics companies in the area, focusing and honing my skills in freight forwarding, representing clients such as Whirlpool, the Royal Malaysian Air Force, Eastman Kodak, and eventually the ARCO Project (which was the installation of a submarine cable in the Caribbean by Siemens).”

Mr. Mederos had a natural ability for freight forwarding, which was recognized throughout Miami. So much so, he was recruited into logistics insurance for his innate skill in recognizing and preventing risk.

“While I was still working as a freight forwarder, a friend of mine proposed that I put my freight forwarding skills to use in logistics insurance. While I had always secured insurance for clients, it was a new, exciting field for me and I was surprised to learn how much my freight forwarding background applied to insurance risk. I started working for the Miami office of a large, German insurance broker - which was where I eventually met Bradford Boyd.”

Applying his expansive freight forwarding knowledge and his deep understanding of the Miami trade community to the logistics insurance field was a recipe for fast success. Mr. Mederos earned his Insurance License and not only went on to sell insurance to his prior employers and clients, but he also moved quickly into managing complex claims.

“I found that my background in freight forwarding not only gave me a special connection with my clients, but it also allowed me to visualize and quickly understand their claims files. This has allowed me to turn around claims quite quickly, which is appreciated by clients and our insurance partners.”

This thorough understanding of insurance claims has made Mr. Mederos sought-after by insurers, whereby he has been asked to speak at conferences, teach other underwriters about complex claims at insurer’s seminars, and has even been elevated to the role as Director of Claims for ANOVA.

Mr. Mederos joined Bradford Boyd and co-founded ANOVA after they found that they worked so well together in their prior positions. Their backgrounds truly complement each other and have provided ANOVA’s clients with a well-rounded, knowledgeable and professional service, unmatched by any other in our industry.