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

In this episode, Justin interviews Valerie Fox, the 2024 Donald M. Stuart Award Winner. Valerie and Justin discuss her receiving the Donald M. Stuart Award and what this recognition means to her. Valerie tells how her journey in risk management has evolved over her 42-year career. Valerie has held prominent roles across a diverse range of industries. She shares some highlights and challenges of her career. Valerie remarks on the education opportunities, taking on leadership roles, and networking, that ORIMS and RIMS provided for her that helped her develop and advance in her risk career. She shares details of a long-term international project that stretched her and that she is proud of. Valerie offers her expectations for the future of risk management and how today’s students can prepare themselves to be tomorrow’s risk leaders. Valerie hopes to continue her student outreach and offer them the knowledge to guide their paths.

Listen in for advice on resilience and lifelong learning to keep up with the evolving risk management industry.

Key Takeaways:

[:01] About RIMS.

[:15] About this episode. From RIMS headquarters in New York, I am delighted to be joined by Valerie Fox, the 2024 Donald M. Stuart Award Winner and a RIMS-CRMP holder!

[:41] The next RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep will be held with PARIMA virtually on November 14th and 15th. The next RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Course will be hosted along with George Mason University from December 3rd through the 5th.

[:57] Links to these courses can be found on the Certifications page of RIMS.org and through this episode’s show notes.

[1:04] RIMS Virtual Workshops! Elise Farnham of Illumine Consulting recently joined us here on RIMScast. On December 4th and 5th, she will host Applying and Integrating ERM. On December 17th and 18th, she will host Captives as an Alternate Risk Financing Technique.

[1:26] Those are just two of the workshops RIMS offers; we have lots more! Other dates for the Fall and Winter are available on the Virtual Workshops calendar, RIMS.org/virtualworkshops. We’ve got more important plugs coming during the break. Now, let’s get on with the show!

[1:44] Interview! The RIMS Ontario Chapter (ORIMS) presented the Donald M. Stuart Award to our guest, Valerie Fox, at the RIMS Canada Conference 2024 in Vancouver.

[1:57] Valerie is a CRM holder, a RIMS-CRMP holder, and the former Director of Risk Management and Health and Safety for NPL Canada. She has since retired.

[2:14] The Donald M. Stuart Award is widely recognized as Canada’s highest honor within the risk management field and since 1979, has celebrated Canadians who have made outstanding contributions to the profession.

[2:28] Throughout her 42-year career, Valerie has held prominent leadership roles in risk management for a range of multinational corporations, including Walmart and Wendy’s Restaurants of Canada.

[2:44] We’ll talk a bit about her career, how she sees the risk profession evolving, and why she’s so inspired by the next generation of risk management professionals. Donald M. Stuart Award Winner, Valerie Fox, welcome to RIMScast!

[3:33] Valerie notes that winning the Donald M. Stuart Award was a very special moment for her. She has a tremendous respect for the history of the Donald M. Stuart Award and the professional values it represents.

[4:04] When Valerie was VP of the Ontario RIMS Chapter Board in 2017, she was responsible for the oversight of this award. She enjoyed it so much that she continued to be the presenter of the award for the last seven years. This year, she stepped down from the ORIMS Board.

[4:25] When Valerie stepped down from the ORIMS board, her colleagues nominated her for the award. She couldn’t be more humbled or appreciative of their recognition and support. To be recognized alongside the people she presented the award to over the years is very special.

[5:02] ORIMS accepts nominations from all over the country. It’s an award for all of Canada and is overseen by the Ontario Chapter. The nomination process has two stages.

[5:21] If a nomination clears the first stage, a total nomination package is submitted with further documentation. The package goes to a panel of evaluators across the country, including risk managers, people on boards, and insurance companies and brokers.

[5:44] They evaluate the nominations. The person with the top collective score wins the award. They’re looking at the nominees’ history with their companies, volunteerism, and the tenets the award represents. It’s the Canadian version of RIMS Risk Manager of the Year.

[6:36] Valerie’s first role as a risk manager was Manager of Contracts and Insurance. She bought insurance, handled claims, and implemented some risk control of targeted risks.

[6:56] The job description of a risk manager has evolved immensely and varies greatly from entity to entity, depending on the company’s maturity, operations, experiences, losses, and more.

[7:16] You could still be hired today as Manager of Contracts and Insurance but you could also be aspiring to be a Chief Risk Officer of a major, multi-national corporation with the responsibility to help them be more resilient and grow.

[7:41] Valerie saw the evolution in risk management start very slowly. It has continually ramped up and now is speeding forward.

[7:50] Over her career, Valerie had to be willing to delve into new challenges and be prepared to learn and develop new skills and new mitigation strategies and develop broad-based business knowledge. Without that knowledge, it’s difficult to assess potential impacts.

[8:33] Different industries have different areas of risk focus. Valerie started in the airline industry. A major focus was having a major accident response plan ready. There were challenges of jurisdictional insurance requirements and risk exposures around the world.

[9:11] Valerie spent five years in the public sector as a risk manager for a municipality. The focus of public entities is protecting people in public spaces, maintaining critical services, and managing reputation. It includes presenting the right answers.

[9:51] Valerie worked in the retail industry in domestic and international markets. On her first day at Walmart Canada, she realized how unprepared she was to deal with health and safety and worker’s compensation management responsibilities. Those had been under HR in Canada.

[10:13] Working for American companies, she had to get up to speed quickly on those areas of risk. Valerie trained herself on the job. She met with anyone she knew in the industry who was involved in health and safety. She met with people from the boards.

[10:42] Valerie spent a lot of time in the stores with the associates to see what their concerns were. She spent time with operations leaders, seeing the processes first-hand to understand the risks and put together programs that fit the culture and the environment of the companies.

[11:26] Valerie says retailers today need to do a deep-dive business impact analysis, map out dependencies and processes, and have alternative options to avoid business interruption. As a risk manager, you have to understand that to help businesses come up with the right solutions.

[11:55] Valerie reviews a case of having to train people quickly after a buyout.

[12:52] Valerie talks about working with a new inexperienced team that she had to take under her wing and teach risk management quickly. In large corporations, you also build company-wide teams and external teams that help you.

[13:17] Valerie taught CRM courses at the University of Toronto. Later, she had the pleasure of hiring one of her most enthusiastic students for a risk management position. He now works for another company she is close to and he is doing super well.

[13:48] Plug Time! RIMS Webinars! On November 14th, Marsh will present “Risk Perception and Management: Insights for a Changing Landscape”.

[13:58] On November 21st, HUB International returns with the fourth installment of their Ready for Tomorrow series, “From AI to the SEC: The Future of D&O Litigation and Regulatory Exposures”.

[14:13] On November 25th, Resolver returns to discuss “The Future of Risk & Compliance: 5 Key Insights for the...

Valerie Fox, 2024 Donald M. Stuart Award Winner