Island of Ireland Forum: risk profession facing a fraught decade, says Airmic CEO

Developing a response to business uncertainty is likely to be beyond the scope of traditional risk management and insurance models over the next decade, Julia said.

She warned that business leaders must keep up to speed on related developments in order to maintain their record of demonstrating agility in a volatile world.

They should also be geared up to support their organisations in defending new and emerging risks whilst facilitating new opportunities, Julia suggested.

“Business leaders today are more prepared to view risk in terms of the potential to drive performance and value – and risk professionals are well positioned to support leadership using modern technologies and risk intelligence,” Airmic’s CEO said.

She also spoke warmly of the relationship between Airmic and the Republic of Ireland, saying this week’s event would not be a singular occurrence.

Julia added: “We’ll be supporting today with spin-off meetings in Northern Ireland, a session dedicated to the Island at our annual conference in Manchester in June 2023, and a commitment to engage with the community here on other events and learning opportunities including our Captive Forum hosted at Lloyd’s on 21 March 2023.”

Julia said she was delighted to offer free membership of Airmic to all university risk management and insurance faculties and their risk management and insurance students across the Ireland and Northern Ireland, as evidence of Airmic’s commitment to the future of the profession.

Other speakers at the Island of Ireland Forum include Jose Maria Carulla Marques, advisory leader for Europe at Marsh, who spoke about the current challenges facing the world and how organisations may be exposed to in their medium and long term strategies, and how these challenges can affect Ireland and the EU at a geopolitical level.

There were another six hours of CPD available at the event.

These included talks on a new generation of parametric insurance, given by Ryan Dodd, founder and CEO of Intangic, and Ola Jacob, UK and Ireland business development director for Descartes. The pair spoke about the numerous misperceptions about parametric insurance.

The session led by Dodd and Jacob also looked to tackle some of these misperceptions by defining the basics of what it is and, in citing real-world examples, show how it can strengthen customer resilience.

The session addressed the supplementary role of parametric insurance, used together with more traditional indemnity coverage, and as a risk management tool for companies that utilise alternative approaches, including captives.