SWERMA re-elects Ericsson’s Barnekow

Swedish risk management association, SWERMA, has re-elected Charlotte Barnekow as chairwoman.

Barnekow, who is also head of insurance and risk management at the Swedish communications group Ericsson, was re-elected by the association’s board of directors for a term of two years.

The decision was made during SWERMA’s annual Risk Forum event in Stockholm.

Barnekow said: ‘SWERMA will continue to encourage all our members to network and we will create smaller networking groups on identified topics.’

The Scandinavian based association has set up four topic specific networking groups focused on enterprise risk management (ERM), captive management, business continuity management and financial risk management/internal control.

“Risk managers have to define their job descriptions otherwise they could be cut off if they can not clearly demonstrate their role within the organisation and how they add value.

Charlotte Barnekow

Barnekow added that she hoped to ‘encourage risk managers to come up with new ideas to face up to the challenges they are facing’.

She said uncertainty surrounding the role and responsibilities of risk managers is their biggest challenge at the moment. ‘Risk managers have to define their job descriptions otherwise they could be cut off if they can not clearly demonstrate their role within the organisation and how they add value,’ she warned.

Communicating with the board effectively is another key challenge, indicated Barnekow. ‘Risk managers need to sharpen themselves and find new ways to report risks in order to catch the eye of the board.’

‘It is sometimes difficult to find interesting ways of reporting all the risks,’ she added.

More information about SWERMA is available here: SWERMA's website