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RIMS Kicks Off RISKWORLD 2022 Honoring Top Risk Professionals

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SAN FRANCISCO—At today’s RISKWORLD 2022 opening ceremony and awards luncheon, RIMS recognized top risk management and insurance professionals with the society’s annual awards.

This year’s Risk Manager of the Year is Courtney Davis Curtis, assistant vice president of risk management and resilience planning for the University of Chicago. As reported in the cover story of the 2022 RIMS Awards Edition of Risk Management, Curtis oversees a small risk management team at UChicago that is responsible for insurance programs covering a wide array of risks, claims management and alternative risk financing and captive operations. In addition to weathering the pandemic and a couple of significant property losses in 2021, Curtis also co-led the sourcing and adoption of a new enterprise risk management framework. Additionally, she has made significant contributions to the broader risk community, serving as this year’s president of the University Risk Management and Insurance Association (URMIA), where she has instituted a new diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiative for risk professionals in the education sector.

“Courtney Davis Curtis’ risk management philosophy is spot on,” said RIMS President Patrick Sterling.

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“Risk professionals must make it their priority to deliver solutions and create pathways for strategic initiatives to move forward.
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Not only is Courtney’s tremendous success at the University of Chicago inspiring but her commitment to giving back to the global risk management community and sharing her experiences to advance this profession is beyond admirable. It is RIMS honor to present Courtney with the 2022 Risk Manager of the Year Award.”

Risk management legend and former RIMS President Lance Ewing earned the society’s most prestigious award, the Harry and Dorothy Goodell Award. Ewing, vice president of enterprise risk management and operations for the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, was honored for furthering the risk management discipline through outstanding service and achievement.

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In recognition of outstanding programs implemented within her organization, the newest inductee into the Risk Management Honor Roll is Jana Utter, vice president of enterprise risk management for Centene Corporation.

“Collaboration is critical to risk management success and it is apparent that Jana Utter’s ability to bridge gaps across her company has created opportunities to build a strong, cross-functional program that accentuates risk management’s value at Centene,” Sterling said. “Through her volunteer work serving on RIMS committees, this society has benefited directly from her expertise and we could not be more proud than to induct Janna into RIMS Risk Management Honor Roll.”

The society also honored excellence among its chapters, which have been particularly pivotal for engaging the risk community with professional development and networking opportunities amid the pandemic. Lori Seidenberg, director and global head of real assets insurance risk management for BlackRock, Inc., and the current president of RIMS New York Chapter, received the Ron Judd “Heart of RIMS” Award for outstanding performance in furthering the risk profession through the society’s chapters. Several chapters were also recognized for offering exceptional resources, programming and professional opportunities for local members, including RIMS Chicago, RIMS Nevada, RIMS Upstate New York and RIMS Washington. The Atlanta chapter was named RIMS Chapter of the Year, an honor accepted by Tamieka Weeks, Atlanta chapter president and manager of insurance risk for Southwire Company.

Among rising risk professionals, the RIMS Rising Star Award went to Charles Vu, enterprise risk supervisor for California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund, who was honored as an up-and-coming leader in the risk management community for “demonstrating exceptional initiative, volunteerism, professional development, achievement and leadership potential.”

For more information on this year’s award winners and their experiences in risk management, RIMS members can also check out the April 2022 RIMS Awards Edition of Risk Management, available as a digital issue here and a special print issue for those attending RISKWORLD.

Q&A: 2019 Risk Manager of the Year Luke Figora

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Luke Figora, senior associate vice president and chief risk and compliance officer at Northwestern University, was named the RIMS 2019 Risk Manager of the Year today.

With annual revenues of approximately $2.5 billion (reported in 2018) and nearly $700 million in sponsored research annually, Northwestern is among the country’s leading research universities. Figora has risen quickly through the ranks at Northwestern, where his enterprise risk management (ERM) framework has elevated its risk culture across three campuses—two in Illinois and one in Qatar.

Figora spoke with Risk Management Monitor about his experience as one of the youngest stakeholders among Northwestern’s leadership, his process of customizing an ERM matrix and his reaction to the recent college admissions scandal.

Risk Management Monitor: You and your department created an ERM matrix in the past year that united Northwestern’s compliance owners and that may even set a precedent in higher education. What went into its creation?

Luke Figora: We spent a lot of time defining risk appetite statements and tried to make our program a little more outcome-based and actually show how we’re moving the needle on uncertain key risks for Northwestern. And we avoided spending too much time aligning perfectly to one of the ERM frameworks like COSO or ISO. So I think if someone looked at our program from the outside, it might not check all the boxes from a typical model perspective, but it’s driving action here at Northwestern and it seems to be the right level for engagement with our stakeholders.

I think one of the biggest challenges for ERM at Northwestern—and maybe this is true across the industry—is that we don’t necessarily have one strategy right now. We have some pillars and values that Northwestern follows, but we’re ultimately a very decentralized institution that has a number of schools, and a number of units in each one of those have slightly different objectives and goals.

RMM: It seems that there is a degree of transparency, but not full transparency.

LF: Right. For example, athletics and the School of Medicine have very different risk profiles and neither one of them should know the other’s risks or operations. And it would be hard for someone in athletics to speak about the risks of animal research within the School of Medicine. I think that’s where our risk office plays a role in right-sizing the expectations and taking the feedback from all the units, but trying to do some triage through that.

RMM: Many of your colleagues are several years your senior—how has that impacted your work?

LF: I am probably the youngest person on the leadership team across the institution, but it has probably been beneficial. I have tried to bring different ideas and update the ways in which we think about risk. I’m not jaded by the insurance industry, and I think people are receptive because of that.

RMM: Since arriving at Northwestern nearly five years ago, you moved up the ranks relatively quickly, although you’ve maintained that was not your goal. How would you advise young risk professionals as they get their feet wet?  

LF: I think all of us at early stages in our careers can’t wait to be a manager and want that vertical growth and the chance to lead a team, but the bigger driving factor for me has been horizontal growth and expanding the portfolio. After that, I believe the other opportunities will come. That is a belief I try to hammer home in my work and when I make industry presentations.

RMM: The college admissions system is a hot topic due to the major scandal that broke in March. How might that have affected where the admissions process is on Northwestern’s risk register?

LF: Last year at this time, fraud in the admissions cycle wouldn’t have been one of our top 10 enterprise risks. But when things like this break, there is a tendency to go into reaction mode and examine whether we have similar issues. I always try to keep people level-headed and remind them that just because this hit doesn’t mean it moves to number one on our crisis management list for the year. It is worth doing a deep dive into the question or topic that’s in the news, but whenever scandals hit, I think we’ve tried to approach them with a rational view.

RMM: It sounds like the knee-jerk reaction is to go into crisis communication mode, even though it’s not your crisis.

LF: We know we’re going to get questions from our trustees, so there’s an initial all-hands-on-deck mentality. You have to make sure you have talking points that outline how we’ve thought about it because we know we’re going to get questions from the media. We do focus on crisis communications, but it becomes more about knowing if we have the right controls that could protect the institution from something like this happening to us.  

Figora was also the special guest on this week’s RIMScast, which you can download here.

Risk Manager of the Year: Q&A with Rebecca Cady

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Rebecca Cady, vice president and chief risk officer of Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC) in Washington, D.C. was named the RIMS 2018 Risk Manager of the Year today. CNMC is the largest freestanding pediatric academic medical center and health system in the greater D.C. area., with annual revenues of nearly $1.2 billion.

She was praised by her peers for her success in elevating CNMC’s culture of safety, addressing risk on an enterprise basis and lowering the system’s total cost of risk. Under her leadership, programs continually seek to benefit the system’s 6,000-plus employees, and ultimately, the services they provide to children and their families. Cady spoke with Risk Management Monitor about her journey to the profession and the combination of challenges she faces as a health care risk manager.

Risk Management Monitor: Your professional career began as a labor and delivery nurse. How did you make your way into risk management?

Rebecca Cady: I was a staff nurse at a small, rural hospital in Kingsville, Texas. During a shift, several co-workers were gathered at the nurse’s station, discussing a lawsuit that many senior nurses were anxious about having to take part in.

They didn’t understand what was going on. I remember thinking: ‘What if lawyers knew what it was like to be a health care provider or practice medicine and nursing?’ It would help them do a better job of guiding the nurses and doctors through the legal process. I thought, ‘I could go to law school.’ And I did. It turned out to be a great idea because it has made for a fulfilling and interesting career.

RMM: After becoming a lawyer—and eventually partner—at a law firm, what drew you to CNMC?

RC: I saw this as an opportunity to get in the practice of avoiding litigation in the first place. I was attracted to the idea of working more closely with providers and in a hospital environment where I felt I could have a greater impact on the organization and manage its risk.

RMM: What is one of CNMC’s top challenges?

RC: Recruitment is up there. Pediatric neurosurgeons are not working at Starbucks while they’re looking for a job.

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In some of the specialties, there are very few qualified people. Being able to recruit and hire the best and the brightest, which we think our kids deserve, is hard because we’re competing with pediatric hospitals that are part of other systems.

RMM: In 2014, you updated the reporting systems to include reporting from mobile phones. What inspired that change?

RC: Being able to report an incident and have it instantly make its way up the chains of command was more of a way to cut past the tediousness of logging a report on paper, or even on a computer. I’m not a techie but I recognize that technology has the ability to make us more efficient and effective. We really do believe that more reports are better, because knowing about the low-level events that don’t reach patients or cause immediate problems can still be useful. You can then identify latent issues that need correcting and prevent something serious. Plus, it was embraced by our employees.

RMM: You are widely regarded by peers and co-workers as a relationship-builder and a strong communicator. What is your management style?

RC: My office is in the hospital and I make it a point to be visible. I go to meetings wherever possible and am present wherever possible, I administer our calls and speak at staff meetings as well and to the new residents and nurses as they come on board. The whole risk team is also out and about among the organization constantly, because having relationships builds trust and makes your job easier.

We’re not the department of ‘No.’ We’re the department of ‘Yes, If…’ Helping folks solve their problems – even if they seem small to you – is huge for them. And once they stop seeing you as the policeman, they see you as a business partner.

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Then they’ll start to call you earlier in the game when they are strategizing. That applies no matter what industry you’re in.

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RIMS Presents Risk Management Industry’s Top Honors

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RIMS16_Award_Winners-7SAN DIEGO—During today’s RIMS 2016 Annual Conference & Exhibition Awards Luncheon, RIMS doled out its highest honors to several prominent members of the risk management industry.

The risk management society presented Christopher E. Mandel, senior vice president of strategic solutions at Sedgwick Claims Management, Inc., with its top honor, the Harry and Dorothy Goodell Award for outstanding service and achievement to the risk management discipline.

“The risk management community is filled with exceptional professionals but few have had the remarkable career achievements and broad industry impact as Chris Mandel,” said RIMS CEO Mary Roth. “To this day, Chris continues to give back to the profession through his involvement with RIMS and at Sedgwick. He is a wonderful example of the best this profession has to offer and it is our honor to present him with RIMS’ highest award.”

Mandel served as 2002 RIMS president, and has fulfilled 19 distinct roles for the society and delivered dozens of workshops for other risk professionals since becoming a RIMS workshop instructor 2010, with particular emphasis on enterprise risk management and strategic risk management.

This year’s Risk Management Hall of Fame inductees are David Mikulina and William H. (Bill) McGannon. Mikulina headed the risk management department at Hyatt Hotels Corporation for 23 years before his retirement in 2007, and still enjoys sharing his insights with rising and veteran risk management professionals alike as a longstanding RIMS member. McGannon was one of the first Canadian risk managers to establish a full-service risk management department that included loss prevention and statistical support at NOVA Chemical Corporation in Alberta. After his retirement in 1998, he frequently lectured at the University of Calgary and traveled to Scotland to participate in the Risk Manager in Residence program. While McGannon passed away in 2015, his legacy in the risk community lives on, particularly through the William H. McGannon Foundation, which provides scholarships, research grants and student involvement initiatives to advance risk management by way of education, research, mentorship and work experience programs.

“Although the risk management profession has evolved significantly, the achievements of its early pioneers continue to have lasting influence on the processes and strategies used today,” said RIMS Chief Executive Officer Mary Roth. “Whether it was enhancing their organization’s already complex risk program or devoting themselves to supporting the promising careers of future risk management leaders, this year’s Risk Management Hall of Fame inductees have unquestionably made substantial contributions to the profession and RIMS.”

“We are pleased to recognize Bill and Dave for significant achievement in their professional careers and their contributions to shaping the risk management discipline,” said Rob Schimek, CEO of AIG Commercial.

RIMS and Business Insurance presented Gus Fuldner, head of insurance for Uber Technologies, with the 2016 Risk Manager of the Year Award.

In recognition for her outstanding performance in furthering risk management with the RIMS Memphis Chapter, Sedgewick Senior Vice President of Risk Management Robin Joines received the Ron Judd “Heart of RIMS” Award.

RIMS also announced its first inductees into the RIMS Ambassador Group, which recognizes individuals for their continued service with the organization. Darius Delon, South Alberta Chapter member and associate vice president of risk services at Mount Royal Univeristy, and Daniel McGarvey, Western Carolina Chapter member and managing director at Marsh, both recived this award for going above and beyond to help strengthen and support the society’s strategic initiatives.

The RIMS Rising Star Award was presented to Alumine Bellone, director of risk and insurance for Broward Health, and Kathleen Crowe, account specialist II for Aon Risk Solutions were honored for demonstrating exceptional initiative, volunteerism, professional development, achievement, and leadership potential.

David Engel, director of risk management for AT&T, received the Cristy Award, presented to the individual with the highest marks on the three exams required to earn the Associate of Risk Management designation.