Risk Manager Is Suddenly a Hot Job

Twenty years ago, corporate risk managers had near-zero public visibility. Most were back-office staffers who focused on securing insurance for environmental and real estate problems (tornadoes, fires, earthquakes, facilities breaches). Young people didn’t aspire to be risk managers: There were just a dozen small academic programs in the U.S. focused on the career. The pandemic has catapulted the field into prominence almost overnight. “Risk management now has boards’ attention and has been given a seat at the table for input and consideration,” says Al Marcella, president of Business Automation Consultants LLC, a St. Louis-based security assessment firm. Boards are quickly creating risk committees focused on crisis planning and remote work data privacy—and they want a chief risk officer on speed dial.

The role is complex and demands a wide range of skills. Chief risk officers need the analytical might to evaluate everything from supply chains to staffing; the ability to maintain many relationships (to law firms, insurance brokers, industry peers); the power of persuasion to sway fellow executives; the communication savvy to handle employees and media in a crisis; and financial literacy to understand not only a company’s balance sheet but also how much money would be lost if, say, the parts factory in Turkey closed for a week. All this while answering to the government regulators and investors who risk managers say are inquiring about preparations for global catastrophes. The job is about managing “wars you didn’t start, which will require immense resources to win, with domino-like consequences that contain a whole list of potential subcrises,” says Jonathan Bernstein, who runs a crisis management firm.