Author Archives: Morgan O'Rourke

About Morgan O'Rourke

Morgan O’Rourke is editor in chief of Risk Management magazine and director of publications for the Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS).
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RIMS and AIG Announce 2013 Risk Management Hall of Fame Inductees

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Robert Nighan (second from left) accepted the honor for Hall of Fame inductee David Sterling while the late Robert Spencer’s honor was accepted by his wife Charlotte (third from right) and daughter Libby (second from right). (Photo: Joe Zwielich)

David C. Sterling and Robert S. Spencer are the newest members of the Risk Management Hall of Fame, RIMS and AIG announced today. The Risk Management Hall of Fame serves as a means to maintain the history of the field of risk management and recognizes risk practitioners who have made significant contributions to advancing the discipline. Both honorees were officially inducted at RIMS 2013 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Los Angeles.

In order to be selected, the Risk Management Hall of Fame considers the following criteria: considerable contributions to the field; significant achievements, innovation and trend setting; demonstrated leadership, character and service; and the highest caliber of ethical and professional conduct.

So with this in mind, here are some of the accomplishments of the 2013 inductees:

DAVID C. STERLING

David C. Sterling joined The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. in 1964 after serving two years with the U.S. Army at Fort Kobbe, Panama Canal Zone.  He retired from The Hartford after 42 years as assistant vice president and senior risk manager, where he managed The Hartford’s worldwide risk programs and exposures to accidental loss including the placement of all insurance and non-insurance programs designed to protect the organization.

David is a risk and insurance pioneer. He purchased and implemented one of the first EPLI (employment practices liability insurance) programs in the insurance industry; purchased and implemented one of the first cyber risk liability, property and crime insurance programs; and implemented one of the industry’s first blended multi-year program for a financial institution and rolled the program over several times to achieve significant savings.

Throughout his career, he shared his professional experiences and expertise with students and risk professionals who expressed interest in advancing their careers.

At the West Hartford Branch of the University of Connecticut, he taught the Insurance Institute of America’s Risk Assessment program, one of three courses required for The Institute’s Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designation.

Additionally, he was a reviewer of The American Institute for CPCU (now called “The Institutes”) texts for the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation program which focuses on risk management and insurance, as well as a reviewer of other texts published by them. For more than 30 years, he served The Institutes on its CPCU Exam Review Committee. He also authored a CPCU monograph entitled “Environmental Liability: An Insurance Perspective.”

David is currently a member of RIMS Connecticut Valley Chapter, the CPCU Society and the Society of CIC. He holds 28 professional risk management and insurance designations, as well as a State of Connecticut’s producer’s license and a State of Connecticut’s certified insurance consultant license.

ROBERT SPENCER

During his 17-year career, Robert S. Spencer held numerous risk management positions including vice president of insurance for Fuqua Industries Inc.

At Fuqua, he was responsible for the development and implementation of the organization’s risk management program that included a very diverse portfolio that includes everything from the manufacturing of lawnmowers and sporting good to being the eighth-largest trucking company in the United States. In 1976, he co-founded Fuqua’s Bermuda-based captive, Fuqua Insurance Company Ltd.

Robert is credited with setting standards on the dealings of captives with reinsurance markets, both domestic and international. He was also responsible for a workers compensation self-retention program that was adopted by 31 U.S. states in the Fuqua program.

Robert served the Atlanta Chapter of RIMS in all officer positions including president in 1973. He also served as a vice president of RIMS from 1974 – 1977 and RIMS president from 1977 – 1978. He was a founding member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Most importantly, Robert was quick to share the knowledge he gained with others so that the principles of “good” risk management could be passed on without reinvention. He fostered numerous programs at both the Atlanta Chapter and international levels of RIMS to support students, and expose them to the risk management profession.

Thirty-four years after his death in 1979, his legacy continues to provide educational opportunities for young men and women seeking to advance their education in business, insurance, actuarial sciences, and the risk management fields through the Spencer Educational Foundation.  Established in 1979 in his memory, the Foundation funds the education of tomorrow’s risk management and insurance industry leaders.  Since 1999, the charitable organization has awarded $4.7 million in student scholarships and $2.2 million in educational grants.

Additionally, Robert was responsible for establishing RIMS’ Anita Benedetti Student Involvement Program in 1978.

Simon Sinek Addresses RIMS 2013 with Lessons on Neuroscience and Leadership

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Author and leadership expert Simon Sinek addressed the General Session at RIMS 2013 today with an inspiring keynote speech that looked at what makes good leaders and effective organizations so successful. But unlike a typical business presentation that relies on platitudes and buzzwords to state its case, Sinek turned to human biology to illustrate what motivates us and why we behave the way we do. According to Sinek, our actions boil down to the good feelings we get from four key chemicals in our body – endorphins, dopamine, seratonin and oxytocin – and that understanding these reactions may be useful for business.

For instance, endorphins provide a boost to complete physical tasks giving us the endurance to put in a little extra effort. Dopamine is why rewards make us feel so good.

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Seratonin inspires positive feelings of pride while oxytocin relates to generosity.

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These reactions are hardwired into us from the earliest days of primitive man and his search for food but they are still relevant in today’s business world as people still follow these instincts to achieve common goals. We basically traded life and death goals of the tribe for the business goals of our organizations.

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As a result, Sinek says that organizations need to understand that “business is not like a family, it is a family.” If leaders don’t understand these needs, people will not be motivated or loyal to their modern tribe. Even worse, if these chemicals are not balanced it creates stress in employees, which blocks oxytocin and its immune-boosting powers for instance, and actually makes employees sicker. “Our companies are murdering us, and murdering our children,” he said.

The key is to promote a work-life balance that isn’t only about time spent, but about about building quality relationships even within the organization, so that people will be inspired by their leaders to do the right thing, not for their own self-interests, but for the good of the group.

For Boston

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It has taken me a couple days to process what happened in Boston. As an editor for a risk management publication, you think it would be easier to be dispassionate about these sorts of things. After all, disasters, or at least potential disasters, are our stock in trade.

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If bad things didn’t happen, we wouldn’t need risk management and I wouldn’t have anything to write about.

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But every so often, words fail me.

Maybe it’s the visceral nature of a terrorist attack that conjures up memories of how it felt to be in New York on 9/11 or maybe it’s because I’m a runner who remembers how great it always felt to finally approach the finish line and the cheering crowds after a grueling race. Or maybe it’s because I’ve spent plenty of good times in Boston over the years and always considered it the place I’d love to live if I ever left New York.

But the truth is, all those reasons feel trite to me. It’s as if I’m trying to manufacture some kind of spurious connection to the tragedy to somehow make my shock over what happened more real than the next person.

The thing is, we all do it. The cynic in me wonders if it’s to garner additional sympathy or if it’s just a natural psychological tic that helps us cope.

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Really though, events like what happened in Boston affect us not because we remember 9/11 or because we’re runners or because we like the Red Sox. They affect us because we’re human. We need no excuses. It’s as simple as that. We care because that’s just what we do.

As my buddy and former boss Bill Coffin put it over at National Underwriter’s Property Casualty 360:

Even in a total loss, there is always recovery. Regeneration. And so it will be with Boston and its magnificent marathon, and with all those who have been so heartsick over the bombing. The humanity that was wounded will be the very thing that carries on and runs that next mile. And the mile after that, and the mile after that. For in the human race, there is no finish line. There is only the road, and the strength to go on, no matter how hard the course.

This tragedy will be dissected in the months and years to come, and we will learn new lessons and develop new plans for managing the risk of events large and small. In the end, we’ll be safer as a whole.

But for now, I think it’s enough, as the Boston College fight song goes, to just be “For Boston.”

(Covered below, for the heck of it, by Boston punks, the Dropkick Murphys.)

For Boston, for Boston,
We sing our proud refrain!
For Boston, for Boston,
‘Tis Wisdom’s earthly fane.
For here all are one
And their hearts are true,
And the towers on the Heights
Reach to Heav’ns own blue.
For Boston, for Boston,
Till the echoes ring again!

For Boston, for Boston,
Thy glory is our own!
For Boston, for Boston,
‘Tis here that Truth is known.
And ever with the Right
Shall thy heirs be found,
Till time shall be no more
And thy work is crown’d.
For Boston, for Boston,
Thy glory is our own!

Don’t Get Careless with Your Passwords

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With stories of identity theft and data breaches hitting the news on an almost constant basis, it’s no wonder that we all get a little tired of hearing how about how at risk we are from the prying eyes of cybercriminals. Of course, if you’re the victim of some sort of hacking incident, you’ll probably wish you paid more attention. The problem is that we have passwords for everything and keeping track of all of them is a giant hassle.

As the following infographic from security software provider ZoneAlarm demonstrates, this password fatigue tends to make us a little careless and puts us at greater risk. A strong password is the front line to keeping your data safe, so old standbys like “password” and “12345” are not going to cut it. There are many helpful guides out there for creating secure passwords that you can actually remember, so maybe it’s time to choose a new strategy. It certainly beats cleaning the bathroom (regardless of what 38% of people said below).

 

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