European risk managers take centre stage as crises deepen

French risk managers that took part in this year’s Risk Frontiers Europe survey all say their role has evolved significantly as corporations faced up to the huge challenges of the last few years driven by Covid-19 and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The risk manager role was already changing rapidly before the spate of recent crises as corporations responded to rising demands for a more risk-based approach from many stakeholders.

But as businesses woke up to their acute vulnerability in the face of Covid-19, the focus shifted to resilience and a greater appreciation of truly enterprise-wide risk and insurance management.

AMRAE present Oliver Wild summed up the big picture: “All of us who are here, and anywhere on the planet, we are on the front line. That is the reason why the duty of the risk manager is not to panic, but to warn and to escort governance to the land of solutions.”

AMRAE treasurer Alain Ronot is a firm believer in the need for risk managers to play a central role across both risk and insurance management, including employee benefits.

“The benefits of being in charge of risk and insurance management is mainly to be able to have a good view of group risk exposures and the evolution of the activities, understanding the key challenges in terms of risks so that you are able to put in place the right prevention plans, and to design and implement made-to-measure insurance programmes. It is also a way to manage risk in an efficient way, having in mind insurable and non-insurance risk exposures,” he explained.

Anne-Marie Fournier, risk manager for luxury goods group Kering, said that the risk manager role is now attractive for young people looking for a diverse and interesting job. She agreed that risk and insurance are best managed together.

“Young people should consider risk management as there are many opportunities to develop this know-how considering the even more risky environment in which we operate,” said Fournier.

“I’m involved in risk analysis as well as insurance issues, and both should be very close as you can’t ‘sell’ your exposures to the market if you have not closely looked at them and considered consequences and means to reduce the exposure,” she added.

Zaiella Aissaoui, risk and insurance director at Bouygues Construction, was another who started in pure insurance and then expanded her role to wider risk management. She too thinks that combining the two jobs makes a lot of sense.

“I have risk and insurance questions in my department. It is very important to have both of these activities because you can identify the major risks and then you can study and find all solution that you have and could put in place,” she said.

Sophie Mageur, head of risk and insurance at Tereos, the France-based global producer of food sweetening products, summed up why risk managers have become more important and central in recent times.

“Due to recent world events, including covid-19, the Ukraine war, inflation, energy crisis, cyber and the like, the risk managers’ role is becoming more and more important, and interesting. I think there is today a real awareness of the importance of analysing risks before making decisions,” she said.

“It is a transversal job, very diversified, and requires a spirit of analysis, an important intellectual curiosity, pedagogy and communication talent. In view of the rapid evolution of our world and its complexity, risk analysis is a major factor in the development of company strategies and provides a real opportunity to participate at the heart of the company,” added Mageur.