Source: RiskBusiness
RiskBusiness, the global operational risk advisory firm, today announced a number of organisational changes aimed at strengthening its services offerings globally.
Joining the firm as Chairman of the Advisory Board is Howard Stein, previously Managing Director of Operational Risk at Citigroup's Global Corporate and Investment Bank in New York. Howard was one of the two Citigroup representatives to the Basel Committee's operational risk planning and implementation committees through the IIF. He was also the founding Chairman of the RMA's Operational Risk Council and a member of the RMA's Board and Executive Committee. Howard retired from Citigroup after 26 years, mostly in risk management but also running several business units, and brings his experience, global network and acknowledged strategic insights into the world of operational risk to RiskBusiness. Howard is also the Senior Risk Advisor to Searchspace, a company that provides Anti-Money Laundering and Compliance systems.
Also joining RiskBusiness as a Senior Associate is Robert Wirdnam, previously Head of Operational Risk at Nationwide and before that at Abbey National in the UK. The majority of Robert's career has focussed on international banking, initially within trading, back-office and treasury environments, as well as a variety of credit risk roles, encompassing emerging markets credit analysis, sovereign debt rescheduling and country risk management.
Mike Finlay, Managing Director for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific, believes that RiskBusiness is in a growth period with considerable demand for its specialised services. "Howard Stein joining the firm as Chairman is a significant point in our development. Howard will add considerable experience and strategic thinking to RiskBusiness' activities, over and above that generated through our existing highly experienced practitioners. RiskBusiness continues to recruit experienced practitioners interested in working globally on strategically focussed operational risk, compliance and corporate governance projects."
"Operational risk is at the beginning of its real development as a formal risk discipline," says Howard Stein, Chairman of the RiskBusiness Advisory Board. "The industry has invested in building the initial toolsets, often solely focussed on meeting the anticipated regulatory requirements and demands. But now proactive operational risk management and operational risk exposure transfer is emerging and a firm who embraces comprehensive risk measurement, management and mitigation can make a difference doing so. I believe that RiskBusiness has real bedrock expertise in this area – not just implementation, not just products, not just solutions, not just consultants. It's a group of people with pragmatic, recent, prior experience in leading-edge financial institutions who understand the policy rationale underlying current state-of-the-art approaches, the compromises made, the infrastructure that is in the process of being created, as well as how to make it all work in a value-added manner. I look forward to working with the RiskBusiness team across its global client-base."