Catastrophe Modeling Visionary Hemant Shah Joins FortressFire as Vice Chairman of the Board and Senior Advisor

Founder of RMS and Executive Chairman of Archipelago brings industry-shaping expertise to FortressFire's ignition-focused wildfire prevention platform

SAN MATEO, Calif., July 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- FortressFire^®, a leading provider of wildfire analytics and property-specific wildfire risk management services, today announced it named Hemant Shah, a trailblazing force in catastrophe modeling and climate risk analytics, as the company's vice chairman of the board and senior advisor.

By joining the board of FortressFire, Shah brings his transformative mindset to one of the most urgent insurance challenges our society faces today: wildfire.

Shah is renowned as the founder and former CEO of Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the world's leading catastrophe risk modeling company, which was acquired by Moody's Corporation in 2021. He is currently the co-founder and executive chairman of Archipelago, a technology startup helping commercial property owners and their insurance brokers harness data to better manage risk.

"Hemant's bold leadership fundamentally reshaped how our industry understands catastrophe risk," said Michael Ashker, chairman and CEO of FortressFire. "His decision to join the board of FortressFire is a tremendous endorsement of our vision – and a clear signal that structure-level assessment and mitigation is the future of wildfire risk management. With Hemant's guidance, we'll continue to advance tools and strategies that don't just model risk but eliminate it."

Shah's vision and leadership have been instrumental in elevating catastrophe modeling into a core function of modern insurance, helping insurers, reinsurers, governments and capital markets better understand and manage the financial impacts of natural disasters.

"Years of catastrophic wildfires have pushed segments of the property insurance market to the breaking point," said Shah. "Unlike conventional cat models, FortressFire's ignition-first, structure-specific approach is a breakthrough.  By focusing on modeling action on the drivers of mitigation and resilience, FortressFire changes the paradigm to restore insurability in places others have abandoned."

FortressFire's AMP Platform – Assess, Mitigate, Monitor, Protect – integrates advanced AI, physics-based fire behavior modeling, and in-the-field mitigation services to help property owners, insurers and communities reduce wildfire risk, safeguard structures and reopen access to insurance coverage in high-risk areas.

About FortressFire
FortressFire brings together wildfire scientists, insurance professionals, technologists and fire mitigation experts to help protect homes, businesses and communities from wildfire loss. Most wildfire risk tools estimate how likely a fire is to happen. FortressFire goes further, determining whether a structure will ignite – and then preventing it. Through its proprietary AMP Platform – Assess, Mitigate, Monitor, Protect – FortressFire provides structure-specific wildfire vulnerability analysis, mitigation guidance, onsite inspection and ongoing monitoring and protection services. Using physics, thermodynamics, fire behavior modeling, and structure-fuel analysis, FortressFire turns science into action with targeted protection that reduces loss. By quantifying ignition risk and validating mitigation effectiveness, FortressFire helps insurance carriers reduce loss, enables underwriters to improve precision and provides property owners with actionable next steps. Visit www.FortressFire.com to learn more.

SOURCE FortressFire