The Changing Role of the CRO
The Arditti Center for Risk Management held a one day conference on December 13th around the theme of “The Changing Role of the CRO.” The conference started at 9 am and ended at 3 pm, in Room 8005.
There were three panel discussions. The first panel discussed the issues around the broad theme. The speakers were Harry Argires, a financial services audit partner of KPMG from Chicago and Joseph Calandro Jr., who is Managing Director of PwC’s insurance practice in New York.
The second panel included two leaders in the executive search industry discussing “Human Capital & Risk Management,” which dealt with the changing requirements for CROs, and what corporations are looking for in them. The two speakers were Tim Holt, who leads Heidrick’s global risk functional sector within financial services, and Stewart Goldman, who is the leader of Korn/Ferry’s Risk and Compliance Center of Excellence in the Americas.
The third panel- featuring Jim Prieur and Neil Novich- discussed Board perspectives on risk management, risk reporting, and the role of the CRO.
We would like to thank all of our participants and audience members for a very thoughtful discussion!
For those interested, below are links to the presentations (all copyrighted to the particular panelist):
The Changing Role of the CRO
Harry Argires has more than 20 years of experience with KPMG, serving many of KPMG’s Chicago banking, specialty finance, and real estate clients. Prior to returning to Chicago, he lead KPMG’s Washington, D.C. banking and finance practice. Harry is also the partner-in-charge and member of the Board of Directors of KPMG’s Global Deliver Center in Bangalore, India. Prior to taking over as the lead partner on HSBC Finance Corporation, Harry was the engagement partner on one of the ten largest mortgage services companies in the country and a large subprime mortgage originator. He was also an engagement partner on Fannie Mae. In addition to the aforementioned roles, Harry also has worked with money center and community banks. Harry has a wide range of experience working with specialty finance companies including mezzanine lenders, mortgage companies, micro finance entities, investment advisors, and real estate exchange companies.
Harry has advised his clients on a range of issues, including regulatory matters, investment valuation, complex capital structures, international operations, and acquisitions and divestitures. Harry also has extensive international work experience including working directly with organizations in Africa, Eastern Europe, India, and Canada.
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Joe Calandro is a managing director at PwC where he assists clients with M&A analysis and valuation, risk management consultation, value realization, strategic planning, and how to effectively leverage the use of information to enhance business productivity. His experience spans a wide client base from Fortune 50 firms to mid-tier hedge funds.
Joe's research on M&A, risk and strategy has been featured in publications including the "Journal of Private Equity," "Journal of Alternative Investments," "Risk Management & Insurance Review," "Strategy & Leadership," and others. Joe has extensive presenting and guest lecturing experience. Most recently he guest lectured at Fordham University, and presented at the New York Society of Security Analysts and the Museum of American Finance, all of which are located in New York.
Human Capital and Risk Management
Tim Holt is a partner based in the firm’s New York office. He is a member of the global Financial Services and CEO & Board of Directors practices, and currently leads the Financial Services Practice’s global risk functional sector. Tim leads a number of the firm’s key client relationships and has served in various leadership roles in his eleven years with the firm, most recently as regional managing partner for financial services in the Americas for three years, and managing partner of the practice’s consumer & commercial finance sector. He is currently a member of the global Consultant Promotions Committee and represents the firm on the World Economic Forum’s “Risk Officers Community”.
Tim has more than fourteen years of leadership advisory experience. He has advised global and regional financial services firms across every sector of the industry and at all stages of their organizational evolution, from startups to well-established, large, complex, global organizations. Tim has experience in leading searches for presidents, CEOs and board directors, and also has also worked with industry professional and not-for-profit associations.
Since joining Heidrick & Struggles in 2001, Tim has also focused on helping clients address enterprise-wide issues in functional areas such as audit, compliance, control, finance, legal, operations and risk to include credit, market, operational, regulatory, security and enterprise risk disciplines. Prior to joining Heidrick & Struggles, Tim was a New York-based recruiter with another major executive search firm, where for more than three years he recruited senior capital markets, investment banking, and private equity professionals. Before entering the executive search profession, he was with Lexis-Nexis in New York and earlier progressed through various sales and managerial roles at Rand McNally and at Gulf States Paper Corporation.
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With more than a decade of executive search experience, Stewart Goldman has been a key member within search teams representing organizations in all sectors of financial services, including capital markets, asset management, consumer banking and insurance. Functionally, his searches have centered around compliance, risk management, operations and technology. Additionally, he leads the Risk and Compliance search efforts in the Americas for the Global Financial Market. Mr. Goldman joined Korn/Ferry in 1997 as a member of the Operations and Technology teams and helped develop and manage the research function. He then expanded his responsibilities to include recruiting assignments. Mr. Goldman has successfully completed Chief Risk Officer, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer searches. Recognized as a top performer with a solid track record of completed search assignments and retention of placements, Mr. Goldman was promoted to Senior Client Partner in 2011, having served as Client Partner since 2006. Prior to joining Korn/Ferry, Mr. Goldman was with a small search firm specializing in marketing and finance executives. Mr. Goldman holds a master’s in business administration from New York University and a bachelor’s in social psychology from Tufts University.
The Board Perspective
Neil Novich is a much sought-after speaker on board governance and risk management issues. He is the former chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Ryerson, Inc., a $6 billion plus revenue metals distributor and fabricator. Prior to Ryerson, Novich spent 13 years as a partner with Bain & Company, an international management consulting firm. Active in the business community, he currently serves as a director of Analog Devices, Inc., W.W. Grainger, Inc. Hillenbrand, Inc., and Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc. He has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and master’s degrees in both nuclear engineering and management from M.I.T.
C. James (Jim) Prieur retired as CEO of CNO Financial Group, Inc. in 2011, a $2.7 billion market cap life insurance holding company focused on the senior middle income market in America. Prior to joining CNO, Jim worked for Sun Life Financial, Inc., a major international life insurer headquartered in Canada, for 27 years. For the last 7 ½ years of that time he was President & Chief Operating Officer. A Chartered Financial Analyst, Jim Prieur graduated from Royal Military College before going on to receive his MBA from the Richard Ivey School at Western University. He is a member of the President’s Circle of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and a member of The Pacific Council on International Policy and its China Committee.
