The PRM Candidate of the Year is selected from the top performers among all risk managers who passed PRMIA’s rigorous PRM certification examination during 2005. The winner is then chosen by a panel of leading risk management experts who review answers to five standard essay questions and interview each finalist.
"Every year we are impressed by the caliber of risk professionals that are pursuing and attaining the PRM designation," said David R. Koenig, PRMIA executive director. “This year’s award nominees, the best of the best, were exceptional. While the challenge to select only one winner was significant, we are thrilled to be giving this year’s award to Beth Castagna, who was the one to most differentiate herself across all of our evaluation criteria.”
Castagna is responsible at Fidelity International, Ltd. for managing derivative exposure monitoring. She conceived, developed and implemented a derivative and complex structured instrument monitoring system applied across approximately 1000 retail UCITS 3 mutual funds, pension schemes and other investment fund products with assets under management in excess of $275 billion. She is a founding member of Fidelity Derivatives Working Group which analyses and prepares the way forward in terms of operations, permissibility and policy for trade in new derivatives strategies and structured instruments. During her tenure she established the internal audit program for the investment compliance division which emphasizes preventive as well as detective controls. Honoring the value of education, she instituted a derivatives training program to empower staff. Prior to her work with Fidelity, Castagna served as Vice President, Senior Enterprise Risk Analyst at the Bank of Bermuda, Ltd and held posts with Crestar Bank, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Cambridge Meridian Associates and Bank of Boston, where she began her career in 1988. She has earned a B. A. in Economics from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia and attended the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business.
“Beth Castagna has demonstrated an outstanding command of both the technical and organizational aspects of risk management,” said David Rowe, co-Chair of PRMIA’s Education and Standards Committee and Group EVP for Risk Management at SunGard. “Her insights were evident on all three aspects of the selection process, namely in the technical multiple choice exam, in her written essays and in her oral interview. Beth represents an outstanding example of the best talent in the emerging risk management profession.”
"As a PRM examiner, I was most impressed by the level of insight displayed by many of the candidates. Elizabeth Castagna demonstrated not only insight, but also a rare ability to communicate risk in a precise yet light-hearted manner, in a manner accessible to a wider audience. Risk communication is a core competency for the modern risk manager, and these skills were evident in abundance,” said Oscar McCarthy of Lloyds TSB Group Treasury and the PRMIA Education and Standards Committee.
Castagna commented on receiving the award, "I am extremely honored to be selected 2006 Professional Risk Manager Candidate of the Year. Considering that what began as an effort to simply expand my knowledge has resulted in such an award is humbling. Particularly, when viewed against the extraordinarily impressive quality of the other candidates. My sincere thanks to PRMIA and the judges who are doing so much to advance risk management best practices. ”
Past winners of the PRM Candidate of the Year Award include:
2005 – Rene Sanda, Treasurer, Banco do Brasil, New York
2004 – Tan You Leong, Operational Risk Analyst, OCBC Bank, Singapore and Francois Bourdon, Quantitative Strategist, Fiera Capital, Montreal
The following Professional Risk Managers’ were finalists for the award:
Dominik Dersch, PRM, HypoVereinsbank Munchen, Munich, Germany
Heng Wee Tan, PRM, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore, Singapore
Rafal Lerski, PRM, BPS S.A., Warszawa, Poland
Michael Thiergen, PRM, HypoVereinsbank, Munich, Germany
The following holders of the PRM designation were awarded the 2006 PRM Award of Merit for their performance on the exams of the program:
George Bonne, PRM, KLA-Tencor, San Jose, United States of America
Lise Estelle Brault, PRM, PSP Investments, Montreal, Canada
Tamara Burden, PRM, Milliman, Chicago, United States of America
Michael Ege, PRM, Munich Re Group, Munich, Germany
Markus Hirschberger, PRM, MEAG MUNICH ERGO Asset Management, Munich, Germany
Kanat Khussainov, PRM, TuranAlem Securities, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Szilard Pafka, PRM, Paycom.net LLC, Marina del Rey, United States of America
Vishnu Ramachandran, PRM, Dun and Bradstreet Information Services India Private Limited, Thane, India
Scott Warner, PRM, London, United Kingdom
Julian Wasik, PRM, Poznan University of Economics, Poznan, Poland
Ho Kei Yee, PRM, JPMorgan, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Guerman Zoubarev, PRM, Cascade Aerospace, Abbotsford, Canada
The committee members who reviewed the nominees included:
Oscar McCarthy, PRM, Risk Manager, Group Treasury, Lloyds TSB Bank, London, (Deputy Regional Director, PRMIA London)
Andrzej Kulik, PRM, Director, BRE Bank, Warsaw, (PRMIA Board of Directors, Regional Director, PRMIA Warsaw)
Hilary Till, Principal, Premia Capital Management, LLC, Chicago, (PRMIA Chicago Steering Committee)
Francois Bourdon, PRM, Quantitative Strategist, Fiera Capital, Montreal, (2004 PRM Candidate of the Year)
Tan You Leong, PRM, Risk Analyst, OCBC Bank, Singapore, (2004 PRM Candidate of the Year)
Rene Sanda, PRM, Treasurer, Banco do Brasil, New York, (2005 PRM Candidate of the Year)
Sunando Roy, Asst Adviser, Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai, (Regional Director, PRMIA Mumbai)
Karina Carrero, BRS Manager, Ernst & Young: Business Risk Services, Caracas, (Regional Director, PRMIA Venezuela)
Linda Kreitzman, Director, Haas School of Business, Berkeley, (PRMIA Academic Advisory Council)
Anastasia Marina, PRM, Principal Risk Consultant, SunGard Asia Pacific, Makati City, (Regional Director, PRMIA Philippines)
Elizabeth Sheedy, Associate Professor, Macquarie University, Sydney, (PRMIA Academic Advisory Council)
Kalok Chan, Chair Professor and Head, Department of Finance, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School, Hong Kong, (PRMIA Academic Advisory Council)
Rudi Zagst, Professor, Munich University of Technology, Munich, (PRMIA Academic Advisory Council)
Ng Kah Hwa, Director, National University of Singapore, Singapore, (PRMIA Academic Advisory Council)
David Rowe, Executive Vice President, SunGard, London, England (PRMIA Education and Standards Committee)
About PRMIA and the PRM
PRMIA is the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association. Formed in January of 2002, PRMIA is the premier meeting place of the risk profession with more than 60 chapters around the world and over 30,000 members from more than 165 countries. A non-profit, member-led association of professionals, PRMIA is dedicated to advancing the standards of the profession worldwide through the free exchange of ideas. PRMIA offers the only globally endorsed Professional Risk Manager (PRM) certification program, pursued by over 1,600 active candidates from more than 85 countries, more than any other risk certification program. More information can be found at www.PRMIA.org.
