For over three decades, Treacy Duerfeldt has worked in two industries that share responsibility for protecting projects and people, construction and insurance. As founder of Construction Insurance Risk Education (C.I.R.E.), Duerfeldt has made it his mission to close this divide, which he sees as both a training gap and a language barrier.
"In 1989, I was fortunate enough to receive a full year of in-person insurance training before I was allowed to work with clients," he recalls. "That kind of deep, hands-on learning is almost unheard of today." In contrast, most insurance professionals now fulfill their continuing education requirements by reading PDFs, clicking through online slides, and answering multiple-choice questions. "Imagine if construction workers learned only by reading theory," he adds. "You would not trust a plumber who had never actually welded a pipe."
