A former senior executive at disgraced energy trading company Enron, Brewer is one of those who eventually blew the whistle on the illegal and corrupt dealings at the company, which collapsed in December 2001. During her three years with Enron, she was responsible for risk management in energy operations, e-commerce initiatives for Enron's water subsidiary, and competitive intelligence for Enron's broadband services, Brewer has a unique grasp of risk in different dimensions and she is the Forum's guest speaker.
The Forum takes place on 18-20 September at the University of Keele in Staffordshire, and also features three keynote speakers who will discuss other aspects of managing disasters. Garon Anthony, a senior associate in the insurance and reinsurance group at solicitors Pinsent Masons, will speak on 'Surviving disasters, planning for the worst', with particular reference to the explosion at the Buncefield oil storage depot in December 2005, which destroyed or badly damaged 80 business premises and resulted in around $200m of insured losses.
Jonathan Clarke, senior vice president for quality and compliance at loss adjusters Crawford Global Property and Casualty, and Bill Durodie, senior lecturer in risk and corporate security at Cranfield University, are the other two keynote speakers. Clarke has worked with some of the world's largest corporations to develop crisis response programmes, and he specialises in financial losses, particularly those arising from contractual liabilities.
Durodie lists as his main research interest the causes and consequences of our contemporary consciousness of risk. He is going to speak on 'Towards Strategic Risk Management'.
The theme of the event is making risk work, and, according to conference organising committee chair, Simone Wray, the emphasis will be on knowledge transfer, especially of the technical and soft, behavioural skills needed to do so.
