Unending Journey

Anne Chalmers – recipient of the Donald M. Stuart Award – sees risk management as a journey, one that continuously evolves and transforms.

Journeys – whether personal or professional – can take many different paths and begin in many different places. Anne Chalmers’s risk management journey began on a bus.

Chalmers, recipient of the Donald M. Stuart Award – widely regarded as Canada’s highest risk management honour, handed out each year by the Ontario Chapter of the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS) – would ride on the bus every morning with a woman who worked in the personnel department at the predecessor company of Teck Resources Limited.

One day, the woman asked Chalmers if she would be interested in working for a guy who had gone through a whole lot of assistants. For some reason, the prospect was appealing and she ended up working with Don MacCullouch for 12 years.

Chalmers reports that Teck Resources’ risk approach has evolved since the company had an insurance department in the 1970s, the focus of which was property risk.

That focus continued under MacCullouch’s “journey and then I took it to other areas of risk in my journey, partly because you could see that risk needed to be harnessed and expanded,” says the company’s now vice president of risk and security, and chair of the Materials Stewardship Committee.

Noting that she has been with Teck Resources for 29 years, Chalmers says she has seen a number of shifts in risk culture, both internally and externally, and in the mining industry. “Compared to what I saw in the insurance

side of things 20-some years ago, the risk culture in mining is now completely different,” she points out.

“Appropriate risk transfer is very important and certainty of the contract and coverage for mining – where they can get it at a reasonable price – is very important,” Chalmers says. Individuals responsible for a mining company’s insurance portfolio must clearly understand the importance of relationships with insurers, disclosure and the types of risks that should be covered.

“Not understanding that as well as you should in business can really lead to problems,” she suggests.

Chalmers’s risk management journey is hardly over and – though challenging – still has great appeal as the world of risk, and risk management itself, evolve and transform.

“Never before has this world seen risk issues like we see today,” she says.

“Risks are not just confined to one industry or to two industries; there are risks in countries, in communities and in businesses,” she adds. “Everything is intertwined, and the profile of risk in itself has blossomed.”

At Teck Resources, Canada’s largest diversified resource company, Chalmers leads the nine-member Risk Group, which is responsible for the company’s global risk management program.

Chalmers and her team also address loss control, operational risk mitigation, country and security risk, contracting, some components of safety, commercial insurance, corporate security and emergency preparedness liaison and crisis management for Teck Resources and its partnerships.

Regardless of the industry in question, risk management is not about thinking outside of the box; it is about thinking way outside the box, Chalmers suggests.

“You have to constantly think about what could happen in the future. You have to ask questions even though people may not want to answer them, or may not want to hear the questions. You have to look at it with a global footprint all the time,” she says. “You can’t assume anything is the status quo.”

As always, decisions made must be based on facts.

That caution is particularly relevant in an age when sharing data and information – whether personal or professional – provides a bridge to connectedness.

“People can put their own lens or filter on a piece of information,” Chalmers notes, meaning those in risk management need to do a bit more research and confirming to ensure things are right. “Confirming the facts to help you in your decision-making process is very important.”

The approach should be a given regardless of the peril faced. Weather is always a topic of discussion, but for Teck Resources – which operates in, among other places, the high Arctic – specific plans are needed to manage related risks.

But specifics and preparedness are also key when considering other perils – the timeframe for which may be guesswork, but the potential impact heavy – such as earthquakes. Not only does her company take account of geographic locations (such as the Vancouver Harbour, where there is infrastructure that belongs to railways and ports), but there are also manuals, policies and procedures, annual drills, data back-up plans, on-site supplies and protective gear and devices.

Prudent steps must be taken “to manage as much as you can and try to mitigate the effect of what that would be,” Chalmers emphasizes.

VALUE OF EDUCATION

Chalmers has spent the lion’s share of her working life at Teck Resources, taking on progressively more responsible positions over time. As her knowledge and experience grew, helping to provide new ways of looking at problems and solutions, so too did her education.

Holding Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) and Canadian Risk Management (CRM) designations, Chalmers is also an associate of the Insurance Institute of Canada (AIIC), has completed the Leadership Program at the Banff Centre for Management and has pursued studies at Wharton Executive School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Of course, learning is about more than just courses; it is about life’s experience, networking and listening to the lessons (both good and bad) of others that can, in turn, help round out perspective.

That perspective includes an understanding of the value of giving back. Chalmers has written several risk management manuals and lectured on risk management at, among other places, Simon Fraser University. She is also currently a member of the British Columbia Chapter of RIMS, a director on the Bermuda-based Board of Oil Casualty Insurance Company, an executive member of FM Global’s Risk Management Council, a director of the Mining Insurance Group and vice chair of the conference planning committee of RIMS.

The need to give back should apply whether local or distant, whether internal or external, Chalmers says. In her industry, with its global reach, there is a need to reconcile differences, but also an opportunity to affect change.

“I think we have to demonstrate and show the world,” Chalmers says, suggesting that there is a need to foster a culture of risk management daily. “If we do it right, and our leadership is done right, then we can lead others to make those better choices for themselves. Especially when you operate elsewhere in the world, including the developing world, by leading by example, by not changing your standards just because you’re somewhere that has fewer standards at the moment, is very key. It’s a personal integrity issue and it has to show up in your work.”

A three-decades-long career has been rewarding for Chalmers. “I was lucky enough to be given an opportunity in an industry that is never boring… one that gave me the chance to grow and learn, and one that is filled with people who supported and mentored me to success.”

So when people from other companies and industries ask her where they should start with risk management, Chalmers responds that it is critical they truly understand the business. “What do we do? Where do we do it? How do we do it? And what’s involved in the doing?”

By starting out small, a company can build on the approach as new assignments and new risks unfold. “Then, just start over and over and over again,” Chalmers notes.

“Whether you have the experience that I now have over these years or are generally coaching or working with people who are just beginning their journeys in the risk discussion,” she says, understand that “it’s constantly moving, it’s diverse , it’s quite broad, and you’ll always have risks associated with the perils of the world and associated with what people choose or choose not to do. But you’ve got to be there in the journey.”