It was true love that got me involved in risk management—but more about that later.
Within a month of graduating from college, I was recruited by a large insurance company to work in its claims department. The idea was appealing since the job included an automobile and an expense account.
At that time, the early '70s, the concept of risk management was not part of the insurance vernacular. We had insurance buyers, loss prevention and loss control—but very few people were looking at the concept of risk.
I worked for several insurance companies during the first 10 years of my career and eventually moved to Richmond, Va. to take a management job in claims. I began to realize, however, that although I liked the claims field, it would probably not be a fulfilling job for me for the long term. It just wasn't diverse enough.
Realizing that a degree in history and political science was not the ideal foundation for a career in business or insurance, I began to take some courses to learn more about the opportunities available.
I enrolled in the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters curriculum, and at that time the first course offered was in risk management.
The course instructor was a former claims manager who had just opened the Richmond office of a third-party administrator and consulting firm that was based in Michigan, but was taking advantage of a new law allowing self-insurance groups to form in Virginia.
We became friends during the course, and he hired me as the claims manager. I was exposed to loss prevention and had my first introduction to the operational side of risk management.
I began to accompany the manager on marketing calls and recognized through conversations with our customers that they had many other risk-management concerns than just insurance claims.
Eventually, I started a satellite office for the company in Alexandria, Va., managing the claims operation and providing risk-management consulting to our customers.
And this takes me back to the 'true love' part of the equation. One of my customers was the City of Alexandria. The city's risk manager asked me to do a presentation to a group of risk managers who were members of the Public Risk Management Association.
In the audience that day was my future wife, who was the risk manager of Arlington County. Although I failed at gaining a customer that day, I was successful at finding a partner.
Whether it was love or good fortune, my career progressed very quickly from that point. I was hired by a customer, Fairfax County Public Schools, to be its risk manager; and a year later, in 1988, got my present job in Montgomery County, Md.
As the discipline of risk management has grown, I have also grown as a professional. I realized early on that claims and insurance are just tools that the risk manager uses to mitigate the exposures of the organization.
The real joy for me is the opportunity to help departments and agencies in our organization realize the value of using the risk-management process in their everyday operations.
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