Alex Sidorenko named European Risk Manager of the Year

Alex Sidorenko, head of operational, investment risks and insurance at EuroChem, has won Risk Manager of the Year at the European Risk Management Awards, held by Ferma and Commercial Risk Europe. Sidorenko beat off competition from Charlotte Candy, associated director at AECOM, and Maxim Kondratenko, chief risk officer at VTB, to take the prestigious prize, sponsored by Allianz, at the virtual awards ceremony. Well known in the risk management community and considered a true European risk manager, the judges said Sidorenko has developed a strong risk culture and wide range of expertise over the years. There were 14 winners at the fifth European Risk Management Awards, sponsored by Allianz as headline partner, AXA XL, Belfor and Zurich Insurance. This included six other awards in the Excellence in Risk Management category. Béla Cluse, insurance manager at Knauf, was named Rising Star of the Year. Cluse started his career in risk management just four years ago and is already a board member at one of Knauf’s captives. The jury was impressed by his highly quantitative profile, great negotiation and communication skills, and ability to translate complex IT topics. The other finalists in this category, sponsored by AXA XL, were Dennis McNeill, solutions lead at Fusion Risk Management, and Radvile Ragozyte, specialist in the law and risk management division at the Lithuanian Transport Safety Administration (LSTA). Marina Tsokur, regional insurance manager at Cargill, won the Innovative Insurance Programme award, sponsored by Zurich. Tsokur restructured Cargill’s marine cargo and stocks insurance programme through a combination of a fronted quota share reinsurance structure and a collaborative effort from a cross-cultural team in different regions. The jury was impressed by her reinsurance captive structure and innovative approach. She pipped Gokce Citak, insurance general manager at Socar, and Dmitry Saveliev, head of insurance at EuroChem, to the prize. Systemic Risk Initiative of the Year went to Gintaré Rastené, head of law and risk management at the LTSA. Rastené was the initiator and main driving force behind the creation and implementation of LTSA’s risk management systems. The jury wanted to reward her ERM implementation as part of a systemic risk strategy. Gordon Darling, director of ERM WBCSD, and Dmitry Zhabin, head of ERM at VTB, were other finalists in this category. Pavel Zhesterov, deputy general director for risk management and anti-corruption fighting, and Yulia Pindyurina, director of internal audit and risk management department, both at Salair, came out top in the Collaboration of the Year category. They beat Ezinwanyi Kezieme from Aecom. The jury appreciated the winners’ holistic approach to Salair’s financing system, which relied on innovation to solve complex problems. Risk Resilience Initiative of the Year, which was decided by a public vote during the ceremony and sponsored by Belfor, was won by Cristina Martinez, group chief risk officer at Sacyr. "I’m very proud of the groundbreaking risk management framework we have created. It allows us to put people in the centre and enables project teams to anticipate, prevent, act and report alerts accordingly, with a comprehensive vision of risks, in the most practical way, regardless of the nature of crisis,” she said. Martinez beat off stiff competition from Ahmet Kirgic, business continuity master lead at Turkcell, and Giuseppe Sinatra, head of infrastructure, sustainability and general service at Universita Luigi Bocconi. The final winner in the Excellence in Risk Management category was Roberto Bosco, corporate risk manager at Mediaset, for his Outstanding Contribution to Risk Management. This award was also sponsored by Allianz. As ever, the goal of the awards is to further increase awareness of risk management throughout the European business community, by boosting its standing and promoting its value. “Resilience and risk management has never enjoyed such a high profile. These awards help with Ferma’s efforts to raise the profile of the profession. They help show the wider business community the value that professional risk management can bring. I’d like to thank all those who entered this year – once again we had a highly impressive collection of entries, and all deserve credit,” said Commercial Risk Europe’s Adrian Ladbury. The awards also reward excellence and innovation by core service providers, and excellence in training and education. In the Industry Excellence Awards category, Parsyl and Lloyd’s were winners of Insurer Innovation of the Year for their Global Health Risk Facility (GHRF) and Syndicate 1796. Parsyl is a data-enabled cargo insurer for shippers of perishable goods. It had been monitoring the distribution of routine vaccines in several developing countries prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, and saw first-hand the significance of insurance as a crucial risk management component, to enable global health supply chains to meet the challenge of the worldwide vaccination campaign. Parsyl then launched the GHRF, the world’s dedicated risk facility for Covid-19-related transit and storage risks. The judges said it uniquely brings together cross-industry public and private partners to enable a risk-sharing initiative. The GHRF and Syndicate 1796 were designed to offer cost-effective insurance policies and risk mitigation services to help store and transit vaccines and medical products to developing countries. This includes temperature-sensitive vaccines, diagnostics, PPE and cold-chain equipment. The Broker Innovation of the Year award went to Howden Insurance Brokers, Replexus, Mitiga and the Danish Red Cross for the Danish Red Cross volcano cat bond for disaster relief. Howden worked with the Danish Red Cross and other industry partners to create the world’s first volcano catastrophe bond, to mobilise humanitarian aid assistance from global capital markets. This initiative has introduced a completely new way of getting large sums of disaster relief funding to those who need it quickly and it is the first time a global charity has used insurance for the benefit of its disaster relief programme. The solution has the potential to be adapted for use across all types of natural disasters, transforming the way disaster aid is activated and deployed. FM Global’s climate resilience strategy saw it win Systemic Risk Solution of the Year. The insurer’s approach to climate resilience, which involves deep-rooted collaboration with risk management and scientific communities, as well as community groups, NGOs and policymakers, ensures it can help clients eliminate exposures and adapt to climate change, while reducing construction and future maintenance costs, said the judges. The Global Programme Innovation of the Year winner was AIG. The judges said AIG was able to demonstrate an impressive company-wide collaborative approach to meet the needs of one of its global clients that wanted 18-month policies, to align with the expiring policy period on its other insurance programmes. Origami Risk won Technology Innovation of the Year for its risk management information system. Origami Risk worked closely with the insurance and risk department at a leading producer of cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles, to design and implement a risk management information system to transform the department’s business practices and functions. Various process improvements implemented by the firm using Origami Risk have significantly driven down costs, boosted claims handling and improved the management of its global insurance programme management. This has resulted in time savings of more than 20%, the judges noted. Claims Innovation of the Year winner was Charles Taylor. It was able to demonstrate an impressive track record for innovation through launching Go-Trex, the UK's first full-service solution to hold travel and health claims and emergency medical assistance data on a single technology platform. And finally, Willis Towers Watson won Training and Education Programme of the Year for its training academy. Ferma and Commercial Risk Europe received an outstanding volume of high-quality entries for this year’s awards from national risk management associations, individuals, insurers, brokers and firms that provide a valuable service to the risk management industry. We would like to thank all who submitted an entry and congratulate our finalists on reaching this stage. Ferma and Commercial Risk Europe also thank our esteemed panel of judges for devoting their time to this initiative. A full list of the winners and finalists from this year’s awards is as follows. Excellence in Risk Management finalists Risk Manager of the Year Winner: Alex Sidorenko, chief risk officer, EuroChem Charlotte Candy, associated director, AECOM Maxim Kondratenko, chief risk officer, VTB Rising Star of the Year Winner: Béla Cluse, insurance manager, Knauf Dennis McNeill, solutions lead, Fusion Risk Management Radvile Ragozyte, specialist in the law and risk management division, Lithuanian Transport Safety Administration Innovative Insurance Programme Winner: Marina Tsokur, regional insurance manager, Cargill Gokce Citak, insurance general manager, Socar Dmitry Saveliev, head of insurance, EuroChem Systemic Risk Initiative of the Year Winner: Gintaré Rastené, head of law and risk management, Lithuanian Transport Safety Administration Gordon Darling, director ERM, WBCSD Dmitry Zhabin, head of ERM, VTB Collaboration of the Year Winners: Pavel Zhesterov, deputy general director for risk management and anti-corruption fighting, and Yulia Pindyurina, director of internal audit and risk management department, Salair Ezinwanyi Kezieme, Aecom Risk Resilience Initiative of the Year Winner: Cristina Martinez, group chief risk officer, Sacyr Ahmet Kirgic, business continuity master lead, Turkcell Giuseppe Sinatra, head of infrastructure, sustainability and general service, Universita Luigi Bocconi Outstanding Contribution to Risk Management Winner: Roberto Bosco, corporate risk manager, Mediaset Alex Sidorenko, chief risk officer, EuroChem Reiner Siebert, managing director, GVNW/Lufthansa Industry Excellence finalists Insurer Innovation of the Year Winner: Parsyl and Lloyd's – GHRF and Syndicate 1796 Swiss Re Corporate Solutions – Virtual captive Zurich Insurance Group – Zurich Resilience Solutions Broker Innovation of the Year Winner: Howden Insurance Brokers, Replexus, Mitiga, Danish Red Cross – Danish Red Cross volcano cat bond for disaster relief MDS Group – Digital transformation programme Marsh – Claims solutions, Marsh Advisory Systemic Risk Solution of the Year Winner: FM Global – Building a climate resilience strategy Pool Re – Pool Re Zurich Insurance Group – Zurich Covid-19 hospitalisation supplemental product Global Programme Innovation of the Year Winner: AIG – Implementation of a global integrated risk management programme Swiss Re Corporate Solutions – International programmes PULSE and Network Zurich Insurance Group – Zurich Global Program Support (GPS) tool Technology Innovation of the Year Winner: Origami Risk – Risk management information system Keoghs – Kuarterback artificial intelligence automated claims solution Wenalyze – Wenalyze Claims Innovation of the Year Winner: Charles Taylor – Charles Taylor Assistance Davies – Virtual adjusting technology LMA and Advent Insurance Management – Gemini expert management and settlement system Zurich Insurance Group – Claims ‘build back better’ initiative Training and Education Excellence finalists Training and Education Programme of the Year Winner: Willis Towers Watson Training Academy BELRIM Academy Risk Hub, Senscia

Alex Sidorenko named European Risk Manager of the Year

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