Minneapolis, August 11, 2008 -- James Long, a risk manager with experience in crop reinsurance modeling, weather derivatives, commodity price contracts and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, has joined Collins as vice president-commodity analytics.

Since its inception in 1987, Collins has been one of the leading reinsurance brokers for crop insurers. Collins President and Chief Executive Officer Pat Denzer said Collins' innovative modeling capabilities, coupled with the knowledge and experience of its brokers, have been the foundations of this leadership.

"We're pleased that an innovator with James' track record is joining our industry-leading crop modeling team, led by Dr. Peter Griffin," Denzer said. "Collins has always utilized industry leading analytics to provide value to our clients. James' strong combination of agriculture and financial risk management experience strengthens our analytical team and allows us to stay ahead of the needs of our agricultural clients."

During his career, Long has developed hedging strategies for the mitigation of market risk for agricultural and petroleum products, as well as geographical information systems for risk management.
Long has conducted independent valuations of securities in portfolios containing both OTC derivatives and exchange-traded securities, and developed software for measuring exchange rate, interest rate, commodity price, insurance product and reinsurance agreement risk.

Long most recently was Risk Analytics Manager for Genworth Financial, Inc. Previously James was part of the Commodity Risk Management practice at KPMG, LLP and assisted in the founding and operation of GlobalAgRisk, Inc., an agricultural risk consulting firm.

Long holds Master's and Bachelor's degrees in Agricultural Economics from the University of Kentucky.