FERMA’s new chief executive has bold plans for the future

SR: It has been three months since you took on the role as chief executive of FERMA, how will you make your mark?

One of the first things I did when I officially joined FERMA in December was survey our member associations. I wanted to get their feedback on where FERMA can improve, as well as to understand their expectations and find out about their upcoming activities. This will help me determine what actions to take to meet our member’s expectations.

We have a diverse European membership, spanning from the north of Europe to the south. Our member’s expectations will, of course, differ from association to association. So we need to consider how we can target our services according to the needs of our respective member associations. For instance, FERMA is actively involved with the European Commission in Brussels, representing the interests of our EU member associations. But non-EU associations, [of which there are four], may want us to provide other services, such as networking and benchmarking.

But FERMA also needs to find a common denominator among all member associations so that it can offer core activities to its entire membership.

So my first step is to listen to our members. As such, I will be travelling across Europe to meet all member associations. So far, I’ve attended the annual conference hosted by the French risk and insurance management association, AMRAE, which was held in Lille at the beginning of February. At the end of February, I travelled across the Channel to meet the UK risk management association, Airmic, and in March, I’ll be in Sweden to meet the Swedish association, Swerma.

SR: What did your membership survey tell you about where FERMA can improve its offering?

We need to establish two-way communication between members and FERMA so that we are not only informing associations but involving them in key industry discussions. Improving our external communication with the media, stakeholders and EU institutions, is just as important.

In addition, we need to be more present in Brussels. In fact, this was one of the key findings of the survey. Respondents said that they see FERMA as the body that can represent their views at European level. So with Jo Willaert, president of FERMA, the Federation is looking to establish a policy committee, whereby each member association will nominate a policy representative who will then help FERMA choose a number of EU briefing priority dossiers on which we will develop a position paper.

SR: We know that education is a key focus for the Federation, with the launch of its long-awaited European certification programme in October 2015. So far you’ve awarded founder certificates to those involved in creating the programme, but when can others start enrolling?

We are at the stage of developing exam questions and supporting literature. We should have all of this ready by the end of June, which is when the first candidates will be able to take the exams and we expect to award the first certificates by the end of the year.

We believe that certification will help risk management gain recognition as a profession, providing a common body of knowledge which will be recognised across Europe. We aim to help risk managers position themselves in more strategic roles and the European certificate will help achieve that.