Outgoing Airmic chair promotes diversity

Risk professionals are continuously having to reinvent themselves in order to address today’s challenges, and part of that is achieved by promoting greater diversity within an organisation, in terms of both background and expertise.

This is according to Lynda Lucas, outgoing chair of Airmic, who explained some of the changes she has been advocating in Airmic and the wider risk management and insurance industries over the past year.

She believes the need for more diverse backgrounds and expertise is especially important at boardroom level, where strategic decisions benefit from a broader range of skills and competencies.

“One of the things I wanted to do during my year was to make sure Airmic takes advantage of its resources,” said Lucas.

“My background is as a company secretary—I’m not an insurance or risk manager. I think there’s a tendency for people like me to feel that we can make less of a contribution to Airmic, because we’re not dyed-in-the-wool insurance managers or we have less experience than others.

“But in fact, what we’re dealing with is different aspects of risk in our day-to-day roles.”

New directors

In 2019, Airmic added four new members to its board of directors to broaden its skills and bring greater diversity to the way Airmic is governed.

The new directors appointed were Emily Jenner, managing director and global head of risk strategy and risk appetite at Standard Chartered Bank; Alison Hill, group head of enterprise risk at Centrica; James Kelly, treasurer and head of insurance at Pearson; and Aileen Lowe, insurance director at KPMG.

During her year as chair, Lucas has worked towards Airmic making better use of its diverse membership, and to ensure the association is engaging with a wider range of industries and backgrounds.

Airmic holds another conference, fastTrack Forum, which is designed to engage professionals who are newer to the risk management and insurance industries, with a particular focus on—although not limited to—the younger generation.

Lucas explained that another area where risk managers are diversifying is in the use of technology, which is reflected in the Fujitsu Tech Hub at this year’s Airmic conference. Here, industry specialists showcase technologies such as the cloud, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and cybersecurity.

Tim Murray, group director of enterprise risk at Serco, will assume Lucas’ role as Airmic chair when she steps down.

“Tim is also passionate about the need for Airmic to diversify its membership. If you have a wider range of members you will have a stronger output,” added Lucas.