Coming off a U.S. presidential campaign in which the “Joes” of the world assumed a very prominent role, perhaps it is only fitting that it was “Joe the Risk Manager” who took over the presidency of the Risk and Insurance Management Society for 2009. As RIMS president, Joe Restoule has a number of goals, but the most important one is to project his own company's culture of innovation and creativity to benefit his risk management colleagues, helping them cope with these “interesting” times of financial stress and emerging exposures.

“I come from an environment where we're allowed to be creative and innovative,” said Mr. Restoule, whose title is leader of risk management for NOVA Chemicals Corp.–one of Canada's largest petrochemical companies. “When we see times such as these, we get excited, because we see not only the troubled waters, but we also see opportunity.”

At NOVA, he added, “we're trained and educated to look for opportunities–where you take something that's negative and perhaps make it into a positive outcome.” Mr. Restoule said he plans to take that “zest for creativity and innovation and continuous improvement to RIMS this year.”

He appreciates the challenges facing his risk management colleagues, with so many struggling in a tough economy. “It's not like the seas are steady,” he said. “They're fairly rough, but I'm excited about it.”

As RIMS president, Mr. Restoule said his overall theme will be: “Taking action to challenge your Risk IQ.”

“We have different types of risk practitioners,” he said. “It doesn't matter which area of risk you practice–traditional, enterprise or strategic–how can you increase the level of competency, the IQ?”

He also noted that his goal is to inspire risk managers to more proactive, rather than reactive. “Is there a way you can do things differently? A different way you can look at a problem or assist in your business plan–to enhance or protect it?”

Another objective during his tenure, he said, will be to do a feasibility study on developing a new international strategy for RIMS, looking at how RIMS might assist risk practitioners in other areas of the world, as well as how such an outreach effort might benefit the current membership.

To do this, Mr. Restoule said, RIMS has assembled a task force within its board and also hired an outside consultant to assist in framing the necessary questions in the areas that need to be examined.

An international strategy would benefit a number of North American risk managers, “because companies are so much more global–this would help them deal with those challenges,” he explained. Those challenges could include issues such as supply chain risks, as well as understanding foreign regulations–particularly in emerging markets like China, India and the nations of Eastern Europe, he said.

“We may be able to offer more professional development courses in these areas, through webinars, seminars or at the annual conference,” he noted. “We're positioned to assist our membership as they go international, because we have good alliances with other risk organizations throughout the world. We've never formalized that.”

Sticking with the theme of globalization in risk management, he said RIMS presidents have been “good ambassadors and they're good facilitators. I see myself continuing in that tradition.”

Another objective during his one-year presidency, he said, is to re-emphasize the RIMS “Maturity Model for Enterprise Risk Management” described on the group's Web site as “an online resource that allows risk practitioners to score their risk programs online and receive a real-time report. This analysis, based on guidelines set forth in the model, serves as a foundation for an organization to set its priorities for future ERM improvements.”

Mr. Restoule said RIMS will emphasize how undergoing this process “leads us into more strategic risk management,” noting that in the current environment, “everyone is reviewing their risk assessment and risk identification processes in all industries, not just financial institutions.”

“We will continue to develop this process for our members, so we are currently reviewing our own strategic plan as to how we might enhance delivery of the product and services related to enterprise risk and strategic risk,” he said.

Mr. Restoule said that one of his passions in risk management is cultivating the next generation of risk professionals, noting that he sits on the RIMS Spencer Educational Foundation board.

He said he also is president of the William H. McGannon Foundation in Canada, which is similar to Spencer in that it raises funds for scholarship, internships and student involvement at the regional RIMS conference.

“We have an aging demographic and boomers coming out of the workforce, so who are the next generation of risk practitioners?” he asked. “I get excited about working with the students and assisting them financially.”

In Canada, he explained, “we have been spending a lot of time with the Junior Achievement program. If we can influence them to consider majoring in risk and insurance before they enroll in university, that's a real coup for us.”

From an information technology perspective, he said RIMS is looking at encouraging more online social networking and offering additional virtual events to advance risk management practices.

“As you know, the young professionals coming in are so technologically savvy,” Mr. Restoule said. He would like to see the RIMS social network “have the functionality of Facebook, and we hope we'll get more members talking to each other about current issues in risk management–so we want to provide a forum for that.”

Mr. Restoule said he appreciates how important it is to work in an environment where risk management is emphasized throughout all of its operations.

He noted that his company's worker safety program is in the “top deciles in our industry. It's good process safety management, focusing on loss prevention and behavioral-based safety.” Whether a NOVA employee is white collar or blue collar, he said, “we look at how we perform our job, and we pay attention to safety at work–and away from work.”

What drives this culture at NOVA is “having our employees fit and everybody ready to be productive,” he said, explaining that this is important because of the cyclical nature of his business.

“When demand is high for our products, we want the plant, our people, everything running at full steam,” he said. “So you can't afford to have unscheduled outages, due to key personnel or equipment being incapacitated. You have to be poised and ready.”

The company also believes that every accident is preventable, he added. “We incentivize everybody for good safety performance and we don't have a culture of blame,” he said. “What we do is look at how we can learn from incidents that occur–not only from accidents but also near misses–and we share that across the company.

What's a typical day for Mr. Restoule? “There is no typical day,” he said. “That's the beauty of the job. What was a priority yesterday may not be today.”

In the NOVA culture, he emphasized, “we're all very sound, fundamentally, at what we do, but we think the key to our success is being nimble and being empowered to do what we need to do, whatever the issue of the day is.”

Mr. Restoule is involved in all areas of the company's risk management program, both qualitative and quantitative–including risk assessment, risk financing, loss control, safety, business continuity and emergency response. Indeed, one of the challenges of risk management, he said, is that it gets into all aspects of the company's operations.

Covering the firm's risks goes beyond buying insurance, he noted, with all risk retention strategies on the table.

The company has a captive domiciled in Barbados, he said, formed to underwrite various risks for NOVA and provide direct access to the reinsurance community in Bermuda and Europe.

On the risk of terrorism–a major concern for the chemical industry–he said much will depend on the approach of new administrations, both in the United States and Canada.

“I think the world is waiting to see what the new U.S. administration will do,” he said. “How industry and the political leaders will respond remains to be seen. We'll have to see how it works out. There is optimism for foreign policy reformation. I think the world realizes the current course is not satisfactory, and that we need change.”

Special Reports /

'Joe The Risk Manager' Restoule Sees Opportunities Despite Economic Threats

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