In his many previous roles, including his current position as the Managing Director of Global Client Consulting, he has worked extensively with major financial institutions in the United States and across the Asia-Pacific region (Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan) including some of the largest and prestigious global and regional financial institutions. His experience includes implementing governance, technology & operational risk solutions, information security and internal controls across various lines of business such as Consumer Banking, Treasury, Asset Management, Private Banking and Securities Brokerage business operations and technology processes. He led risk identification, assessment and implementation of internal controls at several large global financial institutions and corporates, covering business front office, middle, back office and technology processes, and across multiple locations in the Asia-Pacific region and the US. He also designed and implemented a continuous controls monitoring and risk indicators reporting program for a large bank’s operations across the Asia-Pacific region. Steven also developed and directed implementation of bank wide information security, crisis management, contingency planning and business continuity program covering front, middle, back-office and technology operations for a top global bank for its regional operations in Asia.
Steven Lee will replace Christopher Laursen as the Co-Regional Director of the DC Chapter, and will serve alongside Thomas Day. As chapter leader, he and the DC Steering Committee plan to encourage risk professionals and regulators to engage each other on common challenges. They hope to create a platform for active dialogue and engagement among members and the industry across a wide range of risk agendas. Many of these are highly challenging and still need much clarity to support effective implementation in our respective environments: boards, management, front office, middle office, back office, as well as covering global & cross-border considerations, regulatory challenges, dealing pro-actively with incentive structure dislocations and misalignments. He feels that PRMIA events, education, continuing learning, newsletters, and many other avenues provided should center around raising the bar, to bring to our members what is truly beneficial towards their advancement and careers as regulators and risk professionals. They hope to mobilize and energize our members to engage actively PRMIA and each other, using PRMIA as the platform towards these objectives.
PRMIA would like to acknowledge the Steering Committee members of the DC chapter, who will help the chapter achieve its goals. Please find the members below:
• Marlon Attiken, IBM
• Oluwaseyi Awoga, Consultant
• Paul Bond, Paul Bond and Company
• Jim Embersit, Ernst & Young
• Pamela Gogol, FHFA
• David Green, Angel Oak Capital
• Ashtish Gupta, Fannie Mae
• Nicholas Kiritz, Constellation Energy
• Keith Ligon, FDIC
• Kennan Low, UBS Financial Services Inc.
• Timothy McDonald, Boston Private Bank & Trust Company
• Weihua Ni, Analyst
• Tim Prindle, Ofice of Thrift Supervision
• John Schwitz, Defense Intelligence Agency
• Lindsay Steedman, Federal Reserve Board
• Kevin Stemp, Office of Financial Stability
We have just seen the close of 2011, a year which perplexes most of us who try to make sense of world events and global markets. Major world events seem to occur at will, and virus-like with far higher frequencies and in quick succession than could be expected from historical data. Many rare and extreme events just sprout out, and some of these include:
The Japan earthquake and tsunami that devastated lives and properties, raised risks of nuclear leaks and disrupted global supply chains,
The Arab-spring and middle-east uprising culminating in the fall of long established regimes - from Egypt to Libya,
The social unrest in the UK, one of the worst in decades, and the global Occupy movement that underly social frustrations from failing economies,
The soaring of sovereign debts of major OECD countries to unsustainable levels and the spate of policy accommodations and central bank easing actions to keep the economies going.
Steven Lee, New Deputy Regional Director
Steven Lee, Managing Director responsible for Governance, Risk & Compliance at Global Client Consulting. Mr. Lee's specialties include governance and enterprise risk management, and currently developing integrated compliance and risk management solutions for clients, specifically solutions around Volcker Rule implementation and Dodd-Frank compliance. He has more than 25 years international consulting, audit and risk management experience including work with some of the largest US, European and Asian financial institutions in the United States and across the Asia-Pacific region, including Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan.
One of his key reasons for taking an active role in PRMIA is to encourage risk professionals and regulators to engage each other on common challenges. He hopes to create a platform for active dialogue and engagement among members and the industry across a wide range of risk agendas. He feels that PRMIA events, education, continuing learning, newsletters, and many other avenues we provide should center around raising the bar, to bring to our members what is truly beneficial towards their advancement and careers as regulators and risk professionals. He hopes to mobilize and energize our members to engage actively PRMIA and each other, using PRMIA as the platform towards these objectives. He will seek to continue to improve our PRMIA platform for engaging our members and the industry, and propel ourselves as a premier organization that will be truly recognized by regulators, governments, and industry globally as THE VOICE on policy and risk matters.
Jim Embersit, New Steering Committee Member
Jim is the Executive Director – Financial Services Risk Management with Ernst & Young LLP. He advises E&Y global financial services clients on risk management issues and evolving supervisory policy trends with a focus on developing business-practical solutions to specific regulatory directives or concerns. Jim was formerly the Assistant Director of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation. As a former Federal Reserve Official, he established regulatory/supervisory programs and standards for the risk management of banking organizations’ trading and dealer activities, interest rate and market risk exposures, funding and market liquidity exposures, investment securities portfolios, derivative activities, and counterparty credit risk exposures. Jim holds an MBA, an MA and is a CFA.
Jim will also serve on the chapter’s Advisory Committee.
Pamela Gogol, New Steering Committee Member
Pamela is a Principal Examination Specialist – Market Risk at FHFA. She previously managed liquidity and retirement portfolios for a state agency, consulted for a decade with clients including World Bank, Fannie Mae, Ginnie Mae, Ernst & Young, Zions Bank, Commerce Bank and Tradition Asiel, and earlier was Director of Capital Markets at Federal Home Loan Banks’ Office of Finance (16 yrs). Pamela holds an MBA and is a CTP.
Pamela will also serve as a member of the DC Programs Committee.
Oluwaseyi (Tony) Awoga, New Steering Committee Member
Tony holds a Masters of Accountancy degree from the Bowling Green State University, Ohio USA. Prior to venturing out to work as an independent consultant, he worked in the Internal Audit department of a secondary mortgage company where he evaluated the adequacy and effectiveness of business and accounting controls within the organization. Before joining Fannie Mae, he worked at Deloitte and PriceWaterhouseCoopers and provided auditing and financial consulting services to companies in the manufacturing, financial services, government and not-for-profit industries. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Professional Risk Manager (PRM).
Tony will also serve as the chapter's Treasurer.
Christopher Laursen, Resigning Co-Regional Director
Christopher Laursen has resigned his position of Co-Regional Director of the Washington DC chapter, due to unyielding demands from his current work. He will continue to serve the chapter as a member of the chapter’s Advisory Board. We would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to Chris for his time, energy and commitment to the PRMIA Washington DC chapter since his appointment in March 2010.
Thomas Day, existing Co-RD, and the Washington DC Steering Committee have begun a search for a candidate to fill this Co-Regional Director position.
Christopher Whalen, New Advisory Committee Member
Christopher Whalen has resigned his position on the Steering Committee, and will join the chapter’s Advisory Committee. As the former Regional Director of the Washington DC chapter from 2007 - 2010, Chris has had a tremendous influence on the chapter’s growth and success. We extend our sincere thanks to Chris for all that he has done for the Washington DC chapter and for PRMIA as a Regional Director and as a Steering Committee member. We look forward to his role on the Advisory Committee.
Date: December 1, 2011
Location:
Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta
1475 Peachtree St., NE, Atlanta, GA 30309
Registration begins at 8:00 am
Conference ends at 5:00 p.m
Focus Areas:
The Future of ERM
The Latest Risk Management Best Practices
Impact of Basel III, Dodd-Frank
Stress Testing, Capital/Liquidity Modeling
Emerging Risks, Black Swans
Risk Reporting to Corporate Boards
November 7, 2011
L. William Seidman Center
Arlington, VA 22226
Consistently considered one of the most useful and productive conferences addressing global policy issues impacting the financial services sector, the FDIC Corporate University along with the Washington D.C. Chapter of the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA) cordially invite you to our 3rd Annual Policy and Risk Symposium. Registration details can be found below.
NOTE:
* ALL REGISTERED ATTENDEES WILL RECEIVE A FREE COPY OF PROFESSOR JOHNSON'S BOOK, "13 BANKERS - The Wall Street Takeover and The Next Financial Meltdown"
* PRMIA MEMBERS WHO HAVE REGISTERED BEFORE OCT 30 WILL ALSO RECEIVE A FREE COPY OF NICK DUNBAR'S BOOK, "THE DEVIL'S DERIVATIVES"
* REGISTER HERE
]]>PRMIA-DC will review the candidates in the next week, and announce the new co-Regional Director in the Third Annual Policy and Risk Symposium on Nov. 7, 2011.
The search gives preference to internal candidates, people from PRMIA community, and also welcomes external candidates. PRMIA-DC accepts nominations and applications.
The CO-Regional Director is responsible for, among other things, the PRMIA-DC Chapter's development strategy, events, communications, and educations. PRMIA-DC has over 5000 members globally, around 400 of them living in DC/MD/VA area.
Chris Laursen has served as the co-Regional Director since 2010, and contributed to PRMIA-DC's great success in 2010 and 2011. Given the un-yielding demands of his current employment, especially the inflexible schedule, he is resigning as Co-Regional Director. Chris Laursen will still be with us in the Advisory Board for DC Chapter.
Candidates can use the following application form to submit their applications to dc@prmia.org
For any questions about the CO-Regional Director role, please send email to dc@prmia.org.
As expected, much of the government, central bank and regulatory interventions since the subprime and financial crisis of 2008 have produced no lasting results in terms of sustainable growth and jobs. If anything, these have tended to dislocate markets, creating uneven effects against what is supposed to be market-driven reallocation of resources.
]]>Welcome to the second issue of PRMIA DC's newsletter. We were moved to initiate this communication because of the increasing prominence of Washington, DC in the risk realm. We believed that our Chapter is best positioned to follow the significant developments on the Hill and the various government agencies that are involved in risk. The overwhelming and positive response to our first issue suggests that we were correct. We will continue to position PRMIA DC to lead and support our members in this important area.
As we move through the summer of 2011, the effects of the global financial crisis are still being felt. Uncertainties and doubts about whether the Herculean bail-out efforts here in the US and across the globe have helped continue to linger.
As we witness recent events: the deepening global debt crisis, starting with the near default of several European sovereigns, the fallout from the catastrophic earthquake in Japan, the increasing current of fear from the extremely loose and seemingly ineffective monetary policies by major governments especially in the US, one wonders if the stage is set for events to now quickly unravel.
In this issue, we have included some short articles on managing risks, including thoughts on market transparency, incorporating country risk assessments, understanding the shaping of the "Volcker Rule", and the future of risk management. We have added some Chapter event updates that we hope members will find useful.
RiskJournal is intended as another resource that our members will find useful. We have sections on:
We are thankful to our contributors for sharing their thoughts as we seek to build a network of information sharing among risk professionals through this newsletter, and our PRMIA website, webinars and Chapter events. By engaging one another and sharing expertise and experience, we can more quickly learn and sharpen each other. Do engage us and/ or send us your suggestions on how we can further improve.
Sincerely,
Steven Lee and the Newsletter Editors
The short survey will take 10 minutes or less to complete. All responses are strictly confidential. To begin, please click this link: http://www.surveymk.com/s/YNDRKJ2. The survey closes on May 23.
If you have colleagues and business acquaintances who are involved in U.S. consumer credit and may be interested in participating in this survey, please share this email with them.
]]>This is the third symposium conducted by the Professional Risk Manager’s International Association DC Chapter and sponsored by the FDIC’s Corporate University. These events focus on current issues being faced by risk managers at internationally active financial services firms and offer a highly interactive forum at the FDIC’s Seidman Center in Arlington, Virginia that brings together regulators, risk managers, enterprise risk management and measurement experts, consultants and financial services advisors to share concerns and engage on risk issues of the day. The symposium presents expert panelists and speakers in three main areas: Global Supervision and Policy Issues, Enterprise Risk Management, and Corporate Governance.
]]>Registration is currently open and seats are limited.
When: May 3, 2011
Where: Alfred Lerner Hall, University of Delaware, Newark DE 19716 (link to directions)
The role of boards and directors in corporate oversight appears to be in the midst of change. The financial collapse of 2008 and the Great Recession that began thereafter have spurred public sentiment that inadequate controls, faulty organizational cultures, poor risk management practice, and lapses in governance all contributed in some way in the lead-up to the crisis. Many commentators have observed that the compliance and ethics (C&E) function within firms, which should have helped to protect large financial services companies from excessive risk-taking and (in some instances) dishonest practice, failed spectacularly. Of course, the eventual cascade of financial risk across institutions extended beyond the responsibility or influence of any single organization to mitigate. Nevertheless, the fact that many organizations undertook poorly understood risks in pursuit of unsustainable short-term gains, with only very limited transparency to senior executives and board oversight, suggests that basic aspects of organizational culture and controls failed to perform as expected by stakeholders. Some would view these shortcomings as a confirmation that C&E programs in too many firms are in fact nothing more than “check-the-box” exercises — i.e., they fulfill legal requirements specified on paper but do not effect fundamental change in corporate behavior. And of course, the shortcomings also invite the question, Where were the ultimate guardians of shareholder value in all of this? Where were the boards of directors when we needed them most?
We were moved to initiate this communication because of the increasing prominence of Washington, DC in the risk realm. We believe that our Chapter is best positioned to follow the significant developments on the Hill and the various government agencies that are involved in risk; and we will seek to position PRMIA DC to lead and support our members in this important area.
In this issue, we have included short articles which share some aspects of the crisis, what is installed for us in 2011 and thoughts on regulatory responses. Some are intentionally provocative to encourage debate and dialogue. We will be better off when there is rich exchange of perspectives and thoughts. We invite you to share your thoughts.
RiskJournal is also intended as another channel of resource that we hope our members will find useful. We have sections on:
* RiskEvents to keep you posted on coming PRMIA and other useful events;
* RiskEducation to help you explore the Certification and Training resources that PRMIA provide;
* RiskCareers to share with you on interesting career decisions and as available, career opportunities.
* RiskResources to identify for you some useful resources that are available.
This is just a start, and we seek to continue to improve. We encourage members to actrvely engage and contribute to the Chapter's activities, including our upcoming DFA webinars, risk symposia, the PRMIA DC LindedIn Group & Risk Journal forum discussion. Do send us your suggestions.
Sincerely,
Steven Lee and the Newsletter Editors
The CRO Lecture Series is collaboration between the DC Chapter of PRMIA, the University of Maryland, and Angel Oak Advisory Services (AOAS). We are thankful for the partnership with the University of Maryland and AOAS, and for their mutual support of higher standards for risk management, governance, and macro- and micro-prudential policy. This lecture series will continue throughout 2011 and is another example of your DC PRMIA Steering Committee (DCSC) working hard to bring high-impact value, networking, and training opportunities to the local community and solidify our presence as the go-to organization of seasoned, experienced, practicing risk professionals; active practitioners that are engaged and thoughtfully pursuing high-standards in risk management and corporate governance, with an eye toward helping shape the local policy dialogue; a dialogue that will become an even more vital element of the Washington DC community as we set about the long and arduous path of implementing the Dodd-Frank Act (DFA) and numerous other global policy and financial reform standards.
Beyond the CRO Lecture Series, the DC Chapter will continue its regular chapter meetings, its bi-annual FDIC Symposia, and we will also be launching - among other things - a new series and Complete Course on Corporate Governance in partnership with the University of Delaware and the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.
If you are not a full sustaining member of the chapter, we hope you will join our growing ranks, which moved from 3,800 to over 5,000 in the last 12 months. We appreciate and value your active and sustaining participation of our growing, non-profit, all volunteer Association.
Happy holidays,
- Thomas Day and Christopher Laursen
Co-Regional Directors, DC PRMIA
@dcprmia
Please follow us!
Our Linked-In Group can be found here
Also, if you need to send the Steering Committee any e-mail, or just want to get more plugged in, please send us a note at:
dc@prmia.org
You can also reach us at: 202-681-0409
Happy Thanksgiving! Have a wonderful weekend. See you soon at the December 15th event with the University of Maryland.
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