View from the top: Jennifer Santiago, Risk & Insurance Management Society

Advertising resilience and advocating for danger supervisors in the C-suite are important themes for Jennifer Santiago’s yearlong presidency of the Risk & Insurance coverage Management Society Inc. Ms. Santiago, director, risk administration & safety at Wakefern Meals Corp., a retailer-owned cooperative based mostly in Keasbey, New Jersey, discussed RIMS’ help for the development of a federal cyber insurance policies backstop and how possibility supervisors can navigate complicated market place disorders with Enterprise Insurance policy Deputy Editor Claire Wilkinson. Edited excerpts abide by.

Q: How did you get your commence in the industry?

A: There weren’t a good deal of courses for danger management when I arrived out of school. I experienced an internship as a healthcare legal responsibility agent for a clinical malpractice business and that seriously enabled me to get my initial massive occupation, which was at NYU Health care Centre in New York. I arrived in at entry stage and inside two many years was promoted to director, running a team, reporting to the CFO and engaging with the captive insurance organization. I was quite fortuitous to get that begin and that led me down the path of danger administration. I went to my very first RIMS meeting in 1999, and Colin Powell was the keynote speaker. And I try to remember thinking, wow, this is a quite unbelievable group. There were being 1000’s of chance supervisors all waiting around outside the house the auditorium to be ready to get in, and that genuinely drew me in. It is the local community that has constantly held me engaged.

Q: You’ve served in broking and danger administration roles throughout different industries. How has that motivated you?

A: I love the pivot and the obstacle and the improve of learning a new organization model, finding out about the important important risks of the procedure and then establishing solutions. It’s seriously the toolkit of the risk manager that goes with you. Which is what’s been exciting for me, constantly staying out of my convenience zone and often demanding and pushing. I did the broker stint for a minimal although and then determined chance administration was definitely my sweet location. I invested a large amount of time in risk management and insurance policies, organization risk, ethics and compliance, and possibility evaluation at Novartis Pharmaceutical Corp., Ingersoll Rand, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., and was chief possibility officer at Penn State University ideal just before my existing position. So I really diversified from an business standpoint and that is held it exciting.

Q: What are your ambitions for RIMS for the year ahead?

A: RIMS has a very long record of accomplishment and unbelievable leaders and threat management gurus that have been committed to the culture for a long time. We’ve arrive by way of the pandemic and the important term for me is resilience. What is important about resilience is coming out on the other side more robust and far better and ready for the next obstacle. My concentration is on obtaining our neighborhood again collectively — because COVID did improve the way people interact — and to reconnect and improve the group that we have. The pandemic genuinely shone a light on possibility management industry experts. All people is effective in their silo and the hazard professional is familiar with what goes on throughout the group, so it was logical that they would be suitable at the desk when the pandemic strike. There’s momentum there, and we have to have to seize that and push forward. We also need to advocate for the risk skilled to make sure that we’re obtaining into the C-suite in chief possibility officer roles, that we’re sitting down on boards and giving skills. The other thread is DEI, generating extra numerous, equitable, inclusive environments for people to be effective.

Q: RIMS is advocating for a federal cyber backstop. Why do danger managers want govt assistance for cyber coverage?

A: RIMS issued a remark letter to the Federal Coverage Workplace previous November. The dialogue is about building a federal backstop to deal with massive-scale cyber incidents. As chance administrators, we know when we’re placing cyber coverage that we’re looking at erosion of coverage, potential and price tag. That generates a quite difficult natural environment for the danger management experienced. There’s a dread that coverage will evaporate, so there’ll be less marketplaces keen to write cyber and a lot more exclusions — sort of a Swiss cheese plan. I think which is a true, authentic fear. There are concerns about systemic cyber threat and a strike to infrastructure producing a huge shutdown. That’s an vital piece but there is also the working day-to-day cyber pitfalls where the protection is eroding. We want to chat about a cyber backstop from the authorities not just currently being confined to important infrastructure and having a broader scope. Regardless of whether it is in some way attached to TRIA, the Terrorism Chance Coverage Act, or totally stands alone, requires to be identified. So, there is a ton of areas to it, but it would make feeling for the reason that as additional insurance plan companies pull back again the reins, the require for a federal backstop gets to be more vital.

Q: What can chance professionals do to leverage the best end result in a tough insurance policy market?

A: It’s been a tricky pair of a long time, and I do not suspect that it is going to get significantly superior, and for specific traces of insurance coverage, like cyber and property, we’re heading to keep on to be extremely challenged. So, assisting boards realize what the problem is, and understanding the danger appetite and tolerance at an organizational amount, is vital. How a great deal danger can we tolerate in-household? How a lot can we transfer? What do we want to fork out for that threat transfer? There’s a balancing act in between keep and transfer. The amount of captives is rising and individuals are seeking for approaches to self-insure. It’s genuinely the a few C’s of coverage, capability and price, and all three are staying challenged. There was a time when, as you elevated your deductible, your high quality went down and you experienced premium personal savings, so that was a system. Now you increase the deductible, and your rates are however 20{a652ac39cb023ff8fd1cc85f4393f5b1bb70bf2f880b7bee35f712e4bd8633f7}, 30{a652ac39cb023ff8fd1cc85f4393f5b1bb70bf2f880b7bee35f712e4bd8633f7}, 40{a652ac39cb023ff8fd1cc85f4393f5b1bb70bf2f880b7bee35f712e4bd8633f7} increased. What we hear as threat professionals from the insurance plan business is that it is truly getting driven by the reinsurers. So it is a knock-on impact from the reinsurance industry to the insurance marketplace to the possibility supervisor.