RIMS Rocks Los Angeles: Seen & Heard on the Floor

The RIMS 2014 Annual Conference and Exhibition, held in Los Angeles on April 21-24, brought together the world's top risk management professionals. Keynote speaker Simon Sinek, author and leadership expert, addressed the General Session with a speech in which he utilized aspects of human biology to illustrate what motivates people to do great work. Additionally, he emphasized the importance of promoting work-life balance and building quality professional relationships, noting that “Your business is not like a family. It is a family.”

Mario Vitale, CEO of Aspen Insurance:

“Six weeks ago, it seemed to me there wasn't a lot of support” in Washington for renewal of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. Now, he adds, the Boston Marathon bombings “have brought the TRIA debate back to the forefront. We want to discuss [its renewal] now, not when we're getting close to the deadline.”

Joe Vasquez, Division President, ACE USA Accident & Health:

“The nature of travel risk is changing because the world is changing. Everyone used to think war was clearly defined: there were certain borders and fighting happened within them. Now, because of roadside bombs and other extremist actions, a war zone could appear in an area that was considered safe two days before.”

Al Gorski, Chief Risk Officer, Orange County Transportation Authority: “Risk management can be an art form. It's about expertly using the professional tools that you've learned and developed to achieve a vision of what an organization can be, and to keep it safe. You have to put your own creative stamp on it.”

John Q. Doyle, Executive Vice President, AIG/CEO of Global Commercial Insurance, AIG Property Casualty: “I fully expect prices to increase” on catastrophe-exposed property, particularly on the East Coast, post-Sandy. “But there's an opportunity there to get smarter about terms and conditions, and to invest in better risk-selection tools.”

Shawn Ram, Managing Director, National Technology Practice Leader, Aon Risk Solutions: “There have been virtually no good studies of cyber attacks besides those published by the Ponemon Institute and by Verizon. There are opportunities for us to decide from experience, however, whether the government can or can't be a neutral party when it comes to preventing cyber attacks on companies, or if it's purely a Risk Manager's role to mitigate that.”