Jerry Skees is the Executive Director of Global Parametrics and is also the primary founder and visionary behind Global Parametrics. With a career of 35 years as a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Kentucky, Jerry, and his previous firm, GlobalAgRisk, were at the forefront of many important innovations in low and middle-income countries. Several of those projects focused on protecting microfinance from natural hazards. Jerry was instrumental in developing the globally acclaimed Index-Based Livestock Insurance Program in Mongolia and in providing core research in Ethiopia that led to the African Risk Capacity facility. He was key in developing the world’s first regulated insurance product in Peru paying before a disaster, coined forecast insurance, and laying the foundation for ongoing global efforts on forecast-based-financing. Financing business interruption created by disasters is at the core of Jerry’s ongoing contribution to Global Parametrics.