‘What a great profession this is’

What are your fondest memories of your presidency?

The sheer joy of being part of a wonderful and diverse community that FERMA represents through its member associations.

I had been involved with FERMA for a while before being elected as president – I was on the board and had a term as vice-president. But it was having the opportunity to travel across Europe and meet our member associations that made me further appreciate what a great profession this is.

So, my lasting memory is one of privilege and honour to have had the opportunity to represent the profession with so many wonderful associations.

Another memory I will cherish is sticking true to the three words I used when I took over as president in Maastricht two years ago. Those three words were profession, innovation and diversity.

I’m particularly pleased that the Forum in Venice is upholding those three words – the sessions on Monday focused on the profession, Tuesday’s events are on innovation and Wednesday on diversity.

How else have you stayed true to these three words?

With the profession, there have been a couple of focal points. Certification is the banner of the profession. We’ve spent a lot of time and energy working with our members on certification – it is a programme developed by risk managers for risk managers.

Through the leadership of Michel Dennery, the certification steering committee, our member associations, the board, and the huge number of people engaged through various working groups held before my time at FERMA, we have made it happen. But certification was an idea that was conceived before my time and I cannot take credit for the idea.

I have taken every opportunity to represent the profession in a wide number of events across the world – from those held by our sister associations such as RIMS in New Orleans, the Institute of Risk Management South Africa, the Pan-Asia Risk and Insurance Management Association in Singapore, to the conferences hosted by our member associations.

I managed to attend 20 out of 22 of the annual conferences held by our member associations – some of them twice.

I’ve represented risk management at events by affiliated groups, such as the European Confederation of Institutes of Internal Auditors and the European Federation of Loss Adjusting Experts conference. It was wonderful to fly the flag for our risk management profession across the world.

In addition, our 40th anniversary seminar last year was a celebration of the profession.

Seeing risk management move from a discipline towards what I believe is a profession is a major highlight for me.

On innovation, we have worked closely with our partners – including insurers and brokers – to look for new and innovative solutions to managing risk.

We have made great inroads into thinking and challenging our partners and our own people to be more innovative. Examples of innovation can be in areas such as cyber insurance, in non damage business interruption insurance and in managing reputation.

On diversity, at our Forum two years ago in Maastricht, I noticed that the majority of the panellists were male and I said to myself back then: “If in two years’ time, at our next Forum in Venice, all of our panellist are male, I have failed”.

I’m very pleased to say that our panellists in Venice are not all made up of men and we have a good distribution of women.

We had diversity very close to mind when planning the Forum. So delegates will see a very good balance of women leading the workshops and a good balance of women on the panel.

In addition, the new leadership team of FERMA is very diverse. The executive team is made up of four women and four men and it is also a very interesting group in terms of age. We have maturity but we also have the future.

These two achievements make me very happy because it is tangible evidence that we have made progress.

But, of course, diversity is not

just about gender, it’s about age, race, religion, sexual orientation, and the diversity panel will focus on all these aspects.

This will be your last forum as president, so what are you most looking forward to?

One of the biggest things about the Forum is that it gives wonderful networking opportunities and we should not underestimate the value of networking.

I’m also looking forward to taking away new knowledge – because you never stop learning.

Any last words as president before you hang up your hat?

We owe a big debt of gratitude to the Forum programme committee. The Forum is not the work of one person, it is the work of a team. I would also like to thank the FERMA staff and the board for drawing together such a brilliant programme. And we should also mention our friends at ANRA, who have been there behind the scenes and a brilliant support.

I’m delighted that Jo Willaert is coming in as president and delighted that we’ve got a great board and executive.

However, in the enthusiasm of the future, we should not forget the importance of the past. When I became president, I inherited a great legacy passed on by people such as Pierre Sonigo and Florence Bindelle – past presidents and friends who are no longer with us such as Edwin Meyer and François Settembrino whom we lost this year. I’m happy to pass on the baton to the future. The journey will continue.