Last week, Business Insurance Europe's sister paper in the United States announced the winner of the Risk Manager of the Year.

The award was presented to Lance Ewing, vice president of risk management for Memphis, Tennessee-based Harrah's Entertainment, Inc., at the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.'s 2007 Annual Conference and Exhibition held in New Orleans last week.

Business Insurance Editor Regis Coccia said that Mr. Ewing fully deserved the national and industry-wide recognition provided by BI's coveted annual award because of his considerable achievements for his employer and for the wider profession in the United States.

Mr. Ewing is the 30th recipient of the BI Risk Manager of the Year award and enters a prestigious hall of fame that stretches back to the launch of the award back in 1978.

This year Business Insurance Europe will build upon the success of the BI Risk Manager of the Year award by launching its own award.

It is designed to credit individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the risk management and insurance buyer profession in Europe.

We have collaborated with the Federation of European Risk Management Associations in Brussels, Belgium, to make sure that the award is as focused as possible on what really matters to our readers and has the support of the profession across the Continent.

The judging panel comprises a number of the heads of Europe's leading risk management associations and this prestigious award will be announced at the FERMA conference in Geneva in October.

As with BI's award in the United States, we have decided to only give one award this year.

This is not one of those awards processes that has endless lists of categories that are seemingly designed purely to generate maximum sponsorship revenue for the organizers and the most boring, drawn out presentation ceremony possible.

We are determined to ensure that the BIE Risk Manager of the Year will be truly valued just as it is in the United States.

The key qualities that we seek are evidence that the individual has:

• Established and implemented an effective enterprise-wide risk management program
• Tackled and solved one or more major problem
• Innovatively applied the diverse tools of risk management and insurance
• Creatively and effectively used the insurance markets to structure an insurance program that serves the needs of his or her organization

• Established a workable intelligence system inside and outside the organization that culminates in a flow of information about events and activities that affect the organization's risk management strategy
• Skillfully performed the functions of management in the overall organization and within the risk management/insurance department

  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

• Shown a commitment to the advancement of the wider risk management profession outside of his or her own organization

The BIE Risk Manager of the Year judges will seek to reward an individual who has shown dedication, innovation and intelligence to deliver a significant and lasting advance in enterprise-wide risk management within their own organization and the wider market. The candidate may be nominated by anyone familiar with his or her work, like a superior, the risk management staff, a colleague with another company or a broker, insurer or other service supplier. To nominate an individual for the Risk Manager of the Year 2007 you need only provide basic details about the candidate's name, title and company as well as a brief essay of up to 500 words that states the candidate's recent accomplishments that make him or her worthy of consideration for this award.

The nomination form is available on our website at www.BIEurope.com/ RMOY2007. Please send your entries to Adrian Ladbury, Editor, at ALadbury@BIEurope.com by May 25.

We look forward to receiving your entries.