FERMA plans risk management certification program

MAASTRICHT, Netherlands — The Federation of European Risk Management Associations is pressing ahead with a plan to devise a certification program for risk managers.

Michel Dennery, vice president of FERMA and deputy risk manager of Paris-based energy producer GDF Suez, said Tuesday that the association wants to develop a certification program to help improve the standing of risk management and attract more young people to the profession, among other aims.

Currently, Mr. Dennery said, at least eight of FERMA's 22 member associations run educational programs.

FERMA aims to work with them — and with other members that are eager to develop such programs — to provide certification and, likely, recognition of continuing education for risk managers.

Mr. Dennery said FERMA will not itself become an educational body.

He said work is underway with a technical committee that includes a professor from the University of Madrid and Marie-Gemma Dequae, a former risk manager, president of FERMA and Belgian academic, to compile a list of the core competencies and skills needed by risk managers.

Carl Leeman, president of the International Federation of Risk and Insurance Management Associations and a board member of FERMA, said IFRIMA is working to take the certification project to the next level with its member associations, which include the U.S.-based Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.

Mr. Leeman, who is chief risk officer of Antwerp, Belgium-based Katoen Natie, said IFRIMA's member organizations will meet in January to discuss how to proceed on plans for a global certification program for the risk management profession.