Meet the Risk Manager
Who will you be seeing at this year’s conference? Read these snapshot interviews with some of the delegates.
Adrian Smith
Cable & Wireless
Choose three adjectives to describe yourself:
Gregarious, different and supportive.
What’s your worst risk nightmare?
Any preventable incident that results in injury to others.
Who in the risk industry do you most admire and why?
No one in particular but anyone who sees risk in a different way, has a flexible approach and who doesn’t follow the general mould of our sometimes ‘stuffy’ profession.
Outside of this industry, what issue are you most passionate about?
The general discourtesy that appears to be overwhelming our society.
What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started in risk management?
That the general risk arena is pretty much the same here as in any other part of the world but that, however, people are culturally different and will approach risk management in a different way although they have the same goal. If you go in with an open mind you will generally learn a great deal.
What motivates you on a Monday morning?
The same thing that motivates me every other day which is to ensure I make someone laugh at least once a day.
How do you unwind at the end of the day?
Music, cooking, beer and all things rugby orientated.
What are you most proud of having achieved?
If it’s about your career then I think you can only answer this when it comes to an end otherwise you spend too much time looking at what you have done and not what else you can do.
Do you have a lucky charm/mascot?
A set of cufflinks given to me by my father. (Actually I am not sure he gave them to me.. I think I may have borrowed them and not returned them yet!).
Rebekah Heaven
Capita Group
Choose three adjectives to describe yourself:
Engaging, inquisitive and persistent.
What’s your worst risk nightmare?
Having the media all over an incident when you’re still establishing the facts.
Who in the risk industry do you most admire and why?
My boss, because he never overcomplicates risk management and he manages to juggle several risky events at once.
Outside of this industry, what issue are you most passionate about?
Global warming and what its effects will be on generations to come.
What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started in risk management?
That experience and passion about risk count much more than formal qualifications.
What motivates you on a Monday morning?
Knowing that every day is completely different in Capita.
How do you unwind at the end of the day?
There’s usually a glass of wine involved.
What are you most proud of having achieved?
Creating a risk framework for Air New Zealand’s schedule planning – and re-visiting two years later and seeing that it was still being used!
Do you have a lucky charm/mascot?
My Mont Blanc pen.
Graeme Lee
ITV
Choose three adjectives to describe yourself:
Tenacious, pragmatic and rational.
What’s your worst risk nightmare?
Multiple fatalities.
Who in the risk industry do you most admire and why?
Mike Ellis for his customer relationship skills.
Outside of this industry, what issue are you most passionate about?
Golf, fishing and family (maybe not in that order!).
What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started in risk management?
To keep the risk management message simple, and be flexible.
What motivates you on a Monday morning?
Variety – you never know what is coming next.
How do you unwind at the end of the day?
Golf, fishing and of course TV.
What are you most proud of having achieved?
20+ years in risk management.
Do you have a lucky charm/mascot?
Lucky cufflinks.
Andrew Bye
Home Retail Group plc
Choose three adjectives to describe yourself:
Passionate, challenging and risk-taking.
What’s your worst risk nightmare?
An unforeseen, uninsured major loss – which in hindsight could have been insured under the policy had the actual incurred loss scenario been envisaged and tested against the policy wording prior.
Who in the risk industry do you most admire and why?
That’s difficult because the industry has evolved so much over the years and many people have contributed to making this happen – so I suppose I admire those people who have taken some time out of their day to day work to make a strategic contribution to AIRMIC and the IRM.
Outside of this industry, what issue are you most passionate about?
Currently it’s fighting to keep my kids’ school open, (Sunnybank School) as it’s threatened with closure by the council land grabbers. Please see www.saveoursunnybank.co.uk.
What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started in risk management?
First, that being a risk manager can be quite lonely sometimes. Second, that it can be quite difficult to change jobs within risk management. There’s very little job movement in the industry which is a shame as it can lead to risk managers staying in the same job for years and getting somewhat ‘stale’.
What motivates you on a Monday morning?
That’s easy, I love what I do.
How do you unwind at the end of the day?
Turn up the music in the car on the journey home.
What are you most proud of having achieved?
Personally, it would be having three lovely children. Professionally, I’m proud that I’ve known when I’ve made a lasting contribution and it’s time to move on rather than outstaying my welcome and becoming a blocker rather than an enabler.
Do you have a lucky charm/mascot?
I don’t carry a lucky charm around with me as such. But I must admit that I have a couple of boxes in my loft filled with things I have collected over the years that I’m too superstitious to throw away because they’re associated with good experiences. And these range from a piece of coal to an old toy dog to a stuffed fish. So I suppose I’ve got boxes of lucky charms.
Douglas Ure
Primary Group
Choose three adjectives to describe yourself:
Enthusiastic, thorough and Scottish.
What’s your worst risk nightmare?
A combination of significant risks materialising at the same time that cumulatively have a catastrophic impact on the organisation.
Who in the risk industry do you most admire and why?
Although not strictly in the risk industry I really admired the leadership and courage of Rudolph Giuliani following the September 11 attacks in America. I think risk managers could learn a lot from his response to the September 11 attacks and also during his time as Mayor of New York. Closer to home I think David Gamble and his leadership of AIRMIC over the last number of years has been one that has raised AIRMIC’s profile within the risk profession.
Outside of this industry, what issue are you most passionate about?
Trying to play golf to a decent standard. Having played at county level as a teenager I have been failing miserably to try and get back down to my former handicap. If any readers have any bright ideas on how to putt (and chip) I would greatly welcome them.
What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started in risk management?
The importance of communication, selling the benefits of good risk management and getting buy-in from above at an early stage. Having studied risk management at university, I entered the industry assuming that everyone thought managing risk sensibly was a no brainer - how wrong I was.
What motivates you on a Monday morning?
The prospect of my worst risk nightmare becoming a reality.
How do you unwind at the end of the day?
Well it depends on how good or bad the day has been. I am currently training for a charity cycle so I try and get out on the bike a couple of evenings a week or go to the gym. The numerous bars in the City often call my name and sinking a couple of cold beers is another, often more appealing way to unwind.
What are you most proud of having achieved?
Establishing a risk function from scratch with my current employer. It was nice to come in with a blank piece of paper rather than picking up someone else’s handy work.
Do you have a lucky charm/mascot?
Nope.
Kip Berkeley-Herring
BT
Choose three adjectives to describe yourself:
Honest, straightforward and trustworthy.
What's your worst risk nightmare?
I hate ‘I told you so’ scenarios - where something that I've been concerned about actually happens before I've been able to persuade the risk owner to do something about the exposure.
Who in the risk industry do you most admire and why?
I always held Nelson Chanfrau in great regard after reading a magazine article about him some years back. He was risk manager of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and I just thought that that was such a great job And he came across as an intensely dedicated and motivated individual. Unfortunately I never managed to meet him, he survived being trapped twice in the debris of the World Trade Center but was killed in a motor cycle accident a couple of years later.
Outside of this industry, what issue are you most passionate about?
I'm a great fan of the English countryside and in particular the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset where I have a home and, at the other end of the country, the Lake District.
What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started in risk management?
That risk management is so much more than insurable risk. I came into risk management from an insurance and loss control background and it took some time for me to become fully involved with the wider, and often more important, issues.
What motivates you on a Monday morning?
Change - in risk management in a large organisation like BT there is always something new happening. The move away from traditional telephony business into the provision of content over broadband is a great example.
How do you unwind at the end of the day?
Often the drive home in the TT, but nothing better, on a summer's evening than sitting in the garden with Annie, my (much) better half. Occasionally perhaps a walk to the local for a beer and a chat with the neighbours.
What are you most proud of having achieved?
A good work-life balance. My very first boss suffered a nervous breakdown and it demonstrated to me at a very early stage the importance of being able to recognise one's limitations and not let work overtake the other important elements of life.
Do you have a lucky charm/mascot?
Not as such but we have a few cats and they remind me that, whilst they may have nine lives, I certainly do not.
