2008 Risk Manager of the Year, Scott H. Beckman,
Advocate Health Care Network

The Risk Manager of the Year^® award was was first presented by Business Insurance in 1978 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the publication. The award recognizes outstanding performance in the field of risk management. The Risk Management Honor Roll^®, added in 1981, recognizes the achievements of risk managers in various other sectors not represented by the RMOY.

2008 award winners

A list of all Risk Manager of the Year^® award winners.

A list of all members of the Risk Management Honor Roll^®.

Commemorative digital report: "30 years of Risk Management Best Practices"

2007 awards luncheon highlights

2007 award winners

NOMINATION PROCEDURES:

Beginning in 2007, nominations for the annual awards changed to a new two-stage process designed to make it easier to enter a worthy candidate for consideration.

To nominate someone for the Risk Manager of the Year^® award you first need only provide basic details about the candidate's name, title and company as well as a brief essay stating the candidate's qualifications that make him or her worthy of consideration for this award. Download the Risk Manager of the Year^® 2009 Nomination Form, Part I here.

The deadline for nominations is November 3, 2008.

An independent panel of former Risk Managers of the Year^®, Risk Management Honor Roll^® and risk management experts will review these first-stage entries and select from among them the 25 candidates they deem most worthy of additional consideration.

Next, those 25 candidates and the individual who nominated them will be asked to provide additional, more detailed information on their risk management programs and on how they meet the 10 criteria that are the basis for the award (see below). This second-stage will resemble the nomination process used in past years for the awards. Click here to view a copy of the Risk Manager of the Year^® 2008 Nomination Form, Part II.

By creating a two-stage process, we create a wider pool of worthy candidates and ensure that those asked to complete the more detailed nomination forms have a greater stake in doing so.

GENERAL NOMINATION INFO:

A nominee need not handle risk management duties full time, but he or she must be a full-time employee of the organization whose program he or she directs. Anyone acquainted with a candidate's work may submit a nomination. All nominations are confidential; only honored candidates will be announced.

Ten criteria are used to score the nominations for the Risk Manager of the Year Award^®. The panel of 10 independent judges will score each nominated candidate on a scale of one to 10, according to how well he or she:

• Established and implemented an effective risk management program within the organization.
• Tackled and solved one or more major problems for his or her organization.
• Innovatively applies the diverse tools of risk management and insurance.
• Creatively and effectively uses the insurance markets to structure an insurance program that serves the needs of the organization (specifically addressing the types of policies purchased and manuscripted policies, if any).
• Established a workable intelligence system inside and outside the organization, culminating in a flow of information about events and activities that affect the organization's risk management and insurance (how the risk manager secures information from other departments and the use of risk management information systems are addressed in this criterion).
• Skillfully performs the functions of management in the overall organization and within the risk management/insurance department. The functions include planning, organizing, directing and controlling.
• Achieves the most effective program at the optimum cost over the long term.
• Developed technical expertise in any or all of the broad categories included within risk management, leading to a better managerial grasp of the operational aspects of the job.
• Exhibits an attitude and performs activities fostering the advancement of the risk management profession (such as professional activities, speaking engagements, teaching and related activities).
• Develops in his or her career (as exhibited by job history, including current job description, education, honors and memberships).

For more information about the 2008 awards, please e-mail Business Insurance Editor Regis Coccia at rcoccia@businessinsurance.com.