Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

In this episode, Justin interviews Cynthia Garcia about her career journey. She credits mentors and sponsors for paving the way for her success. Justin and Cynthia discuss the demands of the Chief Risk Officer role and how Cynthia works with stakeholders who have competing priorities. Cynthia shares her perspective on construction risk and safety. She is seeing more diversity in the rising generation of risk professionals, with amazing opportunities for all.

Cynthia shares how her Confucianist upbringing still makes it a struggle for her to receive recognition. Despite that, she posted on LinkedIn about receiving the 2025 Bill McIntyre Leadership Award at the International Risk Management Institute (IRMI) Construction Risk Conference. That post led Justin to reach out to her. Cynthia speaks of her involvement with the Spencer Educational Foundation, including being a Risk Manager on Campus. Justin and Cynthia talk about the March 6th Webinar, "Hard Hats & High Stakes: Women Leaders Shaping Construction Risk Management", that she joins as a featured panelist.

Listen for tips on careers in risk management for construction.

Key Takeaways:

[:01] About RIMS and RIMScast.

[:16] About this episode of RIMScast. Our guest is Cynthia Garcia, the award-winning Chief Risk Officer for Bernards. We will talk all about her career in construction risk and get some "inspirado." But first…

[:44] RIMS Virtual Workshops. On March 10th and 11th, we have a two-day course led by John Button for the RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep.

[:55] On March 17th and 18th, RIMS will align with AFERM for a two-day RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep Course.

[1:02] On March 4th and 5th, we have a virtual workshop, "Facilitating Risk-Based Decision Making", with Joe Milan. On April 15th, we have a virtual workshop covering "Emerging Risks", led by Joseph Mayo.

[1:20] Register today and strengthen your risk knowledge. RIMS members always enjoy deep discounts on the virtual workshops.

[1:27] Webinars. On March 6th, RIMS presents "Hard Hats & High Stakes: Women Leaders Shaping Construction Risk Management". We'll be joined by a Chief Risk Officer, an underwriter, and a broker.

[1:42] They will explore their career paths, risk and safety philosophies, and lend some insight as to why this is the time for the next generation of leaders to rise.

[1:53] On March 12th, Global Risk Consultants returns with "Don't Waste the Soft Market: Where to Reinvest Insurance Savings Before the Window Closes". Register for these and other webinars by visiting RIMS.org/webinars and the links in this episode's show notes.

[2:14] On with the Show! Our guest today is Cynthia Garcia. She is the Chief Risk Officer for Bernards.

[2:22] Cynthia made a big impact on the risk landscape in 2025 when she received the Bill McIntyre Leadership Award from the International Risk Management Institute during its Construction Risk Conference.

[2:35] I wanted to learn all about her career and what it's like to be the risk officer for a major construction company.

[2:42] Earlier, I mentioned the March 6th RIMS Webinar, "Hard Hats and High Stakes," and Cynthia will, in fact, be the Chief Risk Officer mentioned there.

[2:51] If you like what you hear in this episode and want to learn more about career development, construction risk, and why rising risk professionals should seize the opportunities in the construction sector, you can register for that Webinar.

[3:04] Cynthia is a fascinating individual, and I am so pleased to present this interview! Let's get to it!

[3:09] Interview! Cynthia Garcia, welcome to RIMScast!

[3:27] Justin and Cynthia are going to be collaborating on a RIMS Webinar on March 6th, "Hard Hats and High Stakes." It's all about how women have and can continue to thrive in construction risk management. Cynthia is the ideal Chief Risk Officer to have on that panel.

[3:46] Justin thanks Cynthia in advance for being on that panel and being a guest on RIMScast.

[4:07] Cynthia is the CRO for Bernards, based in California.

[4:33] Like many in her generation, Cynthia stumbled into risk management. She started as an administrative assistant for Morley Builders, an amazing employee-owned general contractor in Santa Monica, California.

[4:52] She was fortunate to have several sponsors and mentors within the organization. They helped her see that she belonged at the table. They saw something in her that she hadn't seen in herself, which is the beauty of a mentor.

[5:16] In spaces she was not in, they advocated for her and said, Why don't we give this to Cynthia? That's the beauty of a sponsor. Cynthia says she was blessed to be in the right place at the right time. She was able to lean in.

[5:32] Cynthia says that the thing that attracts her about risk management and what she does is finding the hard yes. Risk management doesn't say, "No."

[5:50] Risk management, when practicing its craft, is fully integrated with operations and understanding what the business needs. It is strategically aligned and helps make sure the organization is making those thoughtful business decisions that allow taking risks.

[6:11] Then, risk management takes it to the next step to ask how this adds to our shareholder equity, how this aligns with who we want to be as a company and as people. Risk management threads the needle between entrepreneurship and "cowboyism."

[6:28] Risk management leads with "Help me understand, and help us get to the hard yes. We can do it, but here are some of the things we need to do to make sure that it's successful."

[6:50] Cynthia always likes to start by making sure she is coming in with a lot of curiosity. She asks for help to understand what she's not seeing to try to connect the dots. If Cynthia doesn't understand the needs of her business partners, she's not creating value.

[7:11] Cynthia joined Bernards as Chief Risk Officer four years ago next month (March). Bernards created the position for her. She says she's blessed to work with talented people. She credits an amazing group of rockstar individuals. She says a rising tide lifts all boats.

[8:00] Cynthia says her team carries the weight and does it beautifully. She says the genius of true leadership is understanding we're paving the way for our replacement. Leaders who are afraid of talent need to pause and rethink what that means.

[8:26] Cynthia's Risk and Safety team has 13 staff members.

[8:45] Cynthia has a VP of Risk and Safety who is definitely a genius at making the wheels turn. He is Cynthia's only direct report. He does an amazing job setting the tone and the pace.

[9:03] Cynthia says, We focus on listening to the voices of our internal and external customers. As an employee-owned company, we try to understand what our business partners need, whether it's accounting, finance, human resources, operations, or estimating.

[9:22] Cynthia focuses on what our business partners need from risk management to help achieve mission success.

[9:27] Cynthia says, from day to day, it's everything from safety to claims, to insurance issues, to coverage questions, but a fair part of the job is when business teams proactively reach out with questions about issues that have come up.

[9:50] Cynthia says the beauty of being in a smaller organization is that Risk Management is not siloed. It's not just insurance and claims but also litigation management and contracts. Risk partners closely with the CHRO on policies and employment practices.

[10:13] Risk partners closely with Finance and Accounting on a variety of issues. Cynthia feels it is fortunate that Risk is viewed and valued as an internal resource to its business partners and part of the critical strategy to achieve the company's goals.

[10:41] Bernards has a little fewer than 400 employee-owners. Cynthia credits Finance and Accounting for paying vendors on time and treating trade partners fairly. She credits Marketing for helping the brand, highlighting company accomplishments, and creating community buzz.

[11:30] Cynthia credits the very customer-centric Tech team, who have helped her a lot, and the Virtual Construction Design team, who help with clash detection and getting ahead of constructability issues early on.

[11:59] She notes the estimating team getting ahead of what's out there and making sure we have the right projects to go after. It takes a village.

[12:14] Cynthia says we like to think all of us employee-owners have a vested interest in mission success. We're all in construction.

[12:27] Quick Break! RISKWORLD 2026 wi...

Risk Leadership on the Construction Frontlines with Cynthia Garcia