Marsh

The story of Marsh begins not with a startup, but with a catastrophe. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 exposed a fundamental weakness in the insurance industry: many insurers were wiped out, unable to pay claims because their risk was too concentrated. Observing this, an enterprising Henry W. Marsh saw an opportunity. In 1885, he joined a Chicago insurance agency and began developing a new model. His idea was to act as a buyer of insurance for clients, spreading risk across multiple underwriters instead of just one. In 1904, Marsh partnered with Donald R. McLennan, an expert in the complex insurance needs of the railroad industry. They officially formed Burroughs, Marsh & McLennan in Chicago in 1905, which was renamed Marsh & McLennan a year later. This partnership created what was then the world's largest insurance agency. Their model was revolutionary, establishing the broker as a trusted advisor to the client rather than just a seller of policies. A key turning point came in 1962 when the firm went public, raising capital for further expansion. Just seven years later, in 1969, the company reorganized into a holding company, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. This new structure allowed for the creation and acquisition of separately managed businesses, transforming the firm from an insurance brokerage into a diversified professional services powerhouse. This led to the acquisition of human resources consultancy Mercer and the reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter & Company, which remain core parts of the business today alongside Marsh and Oliver Wyman.