Like many others in the risk management profession, Brian W. Merkley, 47, global director of corporate risk management for Salt Lake City-based chemical manufacturer Huntsman Corp., did not set out to become a risk manager. But he became fascinated with the discipline along the way.

Mr. Merkley was born in Salt Lake City, where his father, who became a microbiology professor, was earning a doctorate at the University of Utah, Mr. Merkley said.

The family moved when he was 11/2 years old to Des Moines, Iowa, where he grew up. As college students, he and his wife, Leslie, attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he majored in molecular biology with an emphasis on environmental microbiology.

“I didn't want to be a doctor. I wanted to go into business where we were applying the science,” Mr. Merkley said.

A summer job led to a position as a scientist involving cleanup technology, and then a position as a project manager, he said. It was then, while going to dinners and conferences, that he heard clients and customers talking about “fascinating risk management issues.”

“This got me really excited by risk management in general, and corporate risk management in particular,” he said. It led to Mr. Merkley obtaining an MBA at the University of Georgia in Athens, with an emphasis on risk management and insurance and finance.

A summer job with Tillinghast-Towers Perrin Inc., now part of Towers Watson & Co., in Dallas led to an after-graduation job as a consultant. Then a call from the risk manager for Koch Industries Inc. led to another move to the firm's Wichita, Kansas, headquarters in 2003.

With most of Leslie's family in the Salt Lake City area, Mr. Merkley began “looking for an opportunity to get back closer” to the area. Around that time, Huntsman was going public.

“They had a small risk management shop. They were looking to put in place some additional risk management capabilities and establish a succession plan for the former director, and we found each other, and it was a great fit,” he said.

Mr. Merkley joined Huntsman as a risk financing manager in 2005 and was named global director in 2010.

He lives about a 45-minute to an hour-and-a-half commute away from his office depending on traffic, but because of the global nature of his job, he is often on early morning or late-night calls from home.

And because Huntsman also has facilities in the Middle East, it also can involve doing business on Saturday and Sunday as well, not to mention Christmas and New Year's.

“There's never a quiet moment,” he said.

Mr. Merkley also spends about a quarter of his time traveling and has two passports, in case he has to submit one to obtain a visa.

Mr. Merkley and his wife have a married 21-year old son, Chandler, who works as a risk analyst for a financial firm; and a 4-year old son, Boston, who was named by his older brother.

“We always wanted to have more kids,” he said. “We thought we'd be parents of an only child forever, and guess, what? The Lord has a funny sense of humor.”

In his spare time, Mr. Merkley loves to fly fish, and plans to learn to ski. An Eagle Scout, he is chairman of Boy Scouts of America's national insurance committee.