Employee spotlight: Donald McNelly

Don attended college at the Maine Maritime Academy, where he achieved a degree in Marine Systems Engineering and, in 2005, leveraged this to secure a position as an engineer in the power generation industry. From there, Don developed a specific interest in the function, maintenance and repair of turbines, launching a near 20 year career path which saw him operating not only across the U.S. but also around the world, including spending time in Japan for in-depth turbine training before deploying his skills as far afield as Indonesia, the Philippines and South and Central America.

This trajectory allowed Don to hone and develop valuable additional skills through roles in tendering, manufacturing, commissioning, maintenance and component repair. He also added to his Marine Engineering degree by becoming a licensed Professional Engineer and a subject matter expert in welding and metallurgy.

Then, early in 2021, Don developed in interest in renewable energy loss adjusting. "I was involved in the repairs needed to reinstate a turbine, where the damage had led to a major claim being made," he recalls. "Beyond the mechanics of the repairs, my involvement was also to work with and to shadow the external loss adjuster assigned to the claim. What resonated with me was the amount of technical knowledge that the adjuster needed for the role, while the policy itself was referred to only when terms of cover needed checking. With my own technical background, this seemed like something I could be good at."

So in 2021, Don applied for and secured a full-time loss adjuster position with Renewable Energy Loss Adjusters (RELA), based in Houston, Texas. In that role, he adjusted numerous property and business interruption losses for renewable and conventional power generation sites in the U.S. as well as several other countries. In addition, Don has grown his experience to embrace risk engineering, risk appraisal and root cause analysis and holds loss adjuster licenses for the states of Texas, California and New York. Regarded as 'point man' for renewable energy adjusting in North America, Don brought all these skills with him when RELA transitioned into Crawford in Oct. 2024.