RIMS Ontario Chapter presents Donald M. Stuart Award to Manitoba Hydro’s Tino Brambilla

Tino Brambilla is celebrating another cherished anniversary this year during RIMS Canada Conference 2015 in Quebec City – his 30th wedding anniversary.

Brambilla, manager of insurance services at Manitoba Hydro and this year’s recipient of Canada’s highest risk management honour, the Donald M. Stuart Award – told those assembled for the 41st edition of the event that this is not the only time anniversary and conference have converged.

The two “have shared both our personal and working life with the risk management community,” Brambilla told conference attendees. “We’ve also shared some of our milestone wedding anniversaries with RIMS,” he said, citing the couple’s 25th anniversary, enjoyed during the gala when the conference was held in Edmonton, “and today we celebrate our 30th.”

Saying he was humbled and honoured by the distinguished award – presented as always by ORIMS, the RIMS Ontario Chapter – it is widely regarded as the country’s highest honour within the risk management field.

Bestowed annually by ORIMS since 1979, the award is presented to any corporate, professional, associate and emeritus member of any of the Canadian chapters of RIMS who has made outstanding contributions to the risk management field and community in Canada, ORIMS president Paul Provis said in presenting the honour to Brambilla.

In 1978, Brambilla began his risk and insurance management career as a loss control representative for Insurers’ Advisory Organization and Fire Underwriters Survey. He worked on the broker side for Alexander & Alexander Services Inc. before joining Centra Gas Manitoba in 1997.

He not only helped to consolidate the insurance and risk management programs when Manitoba Hydro merged with Centra Gas, but he did this again when Winnipeg Hydro was purchased. He was named manager of insurance services in 1999.

In addition, Brambilla is an active member of the utility’s Corporate ERM Steering Committee and its Natural Gas Emergency Response Steering Committee.

Brambilla has been equally active away from work, volunteering his time to serve in a long list of risk management positions at the local, provincial and national levels. He served as board member and president of the Insurance Institute of Manitoba, 14 years (and counting) as a board member of his local RIMS chapter (including a four-year stint as chapter president), and chapter representative, treasurer and chair of the RIMS Canada Council (RCC).

When Provis called him in July, seeing the name of his telephone display, Brambilla said he initially thought it was about a routine RCC issue. Upon learning he had been nominated for – and would receive – the Donald M. Stuart Award, “I thought, ‘Surely there was someone more deserving than me.’”

It was only after he began reviewing some of the submissions that he realized he – perhaps like many other risk professionals in Canada – have contributed to the community and profession. “So often we get caught up in our daily work,” he said, “that we fail to recognize, or believe, that we’re making a contribution.”

Despite personal accomplishments, “this award really belongs to numerous people, without whom it would not have been realized,” Brambilla emphasized, pointing especially to the RIMS Manitoba Chapter, which he characterized as small, but whose members are endlessly supportive of one another.

“Providing that support ensures that we succeed both personally and at the chapter level,” he said, also extending thanks to those he has worked with on the RCC, sub-committee volunteers, RIMS staff and his employer for their encouragement and support over the years.

Brambilla encouraged young people just starting in risk management “to volunteer at the chapter level, in the classroom and in the workplace. You will get so much more back than what you put into it. And one day, you, too, may be nominated for the Don Stuart Award.”

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