The Institute

The Institute of Operational Risk was created in January 2004 as a professional body whose aim is to establish and maintain standards of professional competency in the discipline of Operational Risk Management.

The stated mission of the Institute is to promote the development and discipline of Operational Risk and to foster and maintain investigations and research into the best means and methods of developing and applying the discipline and to encourage, increase, disseminate and promote knowledge, education and training and the exchange of information and ideas.

The Institute is governed by a Board of Directors (The Council) elected by its members. The Council is advised by an Executive Committee which also undertakes the various tasks required to deliver value to the members of the Institute. The Executive Committee is selected by the Council from amongst the Institute’s members.

Council

The current members of Council are as follows:

Edward Sankey - Chairman

An independent consultant in corporate and operational risk management for banks and insurance companies over nine years. Previously led risk consulting activities for prominent consultancy practices. Edward’s recent assignments have been for overseas retail and commercial banks and a Regulator, and in the capital markets, insurance, investment management and the corporate centre of a major bank. Experience also includes major process change, and strategic and corporate development in the UK, USA, Europe, Far East and elsewhere. His background is in business management, team and project leadership, application of business and statistical analysis, planning, and management/workshop facilitation. He has an MBA from INSEAD and spent the early part of his career at a leading British multinational oil company, and later at one of the ‘big four’ accounting and professional services firms. Edward is a Fellow and a Council Member of the Institute of Operational Risk and has run the Events activity for the IOR, serving for some years on the Executive Committee.

Michael Faber - Vice Chairman

Having worked in the Financial Services sector since 1974, Michael's day job is within an investment bank looking after risk and business continuity, with first hand experience of business integration and crisis management. However, as a 'hobby', Michael is involved in the more general development of risk management standards and good practice. As a qualified Management of Risk practitioner, he has assisted in the re-write of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) Management of Risk guidance, and represents the IOR on the British Standards panel for Risk Management (BS31100), having been involved in the original development of the standard. Michael is currently vice chairman of the Institute and is also responsible for Technology within the Executive Committee.

Adam Seager

Adam Seager has been a member of the Institute of Operational Risk since 2006. He is currently a serving Council member and Chairman of the IOR Executive Committee. Adam has had a career in the insurance industry of nearly 30 years working in Claims Management, Operational Management and Risk Management with the Prudential, the former Commercial Union, and Lloyd’s Syndicates. Adam is an Executive Director of a number of companies within a rapidly growing motor insurance group and he serves on several Boards. Adam’s current role extends over Risk Management, Internal Audit, Compliance, Facilities/Business Resilience, Operational Management and Strategic Development. Adam is passionate about the IOR and the development of the discipline of Operational Risk within the insurance industry.

David Breden

David Breden is Head of Operational Risk Consultancy for a leading UK bank and travels widely delivering Operational Risk related projects to businesses around the world. He has been in banking since 1978 and has experience in both retail and commercial banking, with a specific focus on credit risk. He became involved with Operational Risk in 1995 when asked to create an Operational Risk framework for a Spanish retail banking network, and has continued in this field since then. A significant element of his involvement in the field has been the development of a commercially available scenario based Operational Risk software tool. David is a frequent speaker and writer on Operational Risk subjects and has been a fellow of the Institute since July 2006 and a member of Council since January 2007. He has also served on the Executive Committee.

David Clark

After graduating in Economics and Politics from London University in 1969, David Clark has spent his career working in currency and capital markets for a number of large financial organisations before moving into non-executive director and advisory positions. He is currently the Chairman of a banking institution and holds non-executive positions with three other financial firms. He was a senior advisor to the UK’s Financial Services Authority and has sat on a number of Basel II working groups. He was President of ACI, The Financial Markets Association from 1992-95 and is an Honorary President of both ACI and ACI UK, and in March 2006 was appointed as Chairman of the Wholesale Markets Brokers Association and the London Energy Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Advisor to gfta, an FX overlay fund manager, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and a Fellow of the Institute of Operational Risk.

Jeremy Quick

Dr Jeremy Quick is Deputy Director of Banking at an offshore banking centre. He has worked at the Bank of England, the IMF, and the FSA (where he led several policy initiatives on operational risk). Previous to his current role, he was Head of Operational Risk for a leading UK retail bank from 2002-7 and was also on the Board of ORX. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Operational Risk, a Fellow and a member of the Council of the Institute of Operational Risk and in 2007 he led the Strategy project for the institute.

Mike Finlay

Mike FinlayWith more than 20 years of financial services involvement ranging from equity derivative trading through treasury back-office management to international payments, Mike currently runs an international operational risk consultancy. His special interests are in the further research into behavioural economics and cognitive psychology to explain how and why operational risks arise. With an international network of contacts, Mike is focussed on extending the Institute’s global footprint, both within financial services and across all industry sectors.

Simon Wheatley

Simon WheatleyWith over 35 years’ experience in international banking, Simon Wheatley is an accountant and experienced professional in both strategic and “hands-on” management. During this period the emphasis has been on Operations, Finance and Risk / Control, much of which has been carried out at major international and investment banks. Achieving firsts in the introduction of local area networks in the mid-eighties, straight-through-processing in the early nineties, and Operational Risk methodologies at the end of the nineties, significant contribution has been made in the restructuring and harmonisation of the operational environments of various organisations. Having brought operational and other risk concepts to the inter-dealer broker markets in the early 2000s, he is currently engaged within the central counterparty clearing space, helping to ensure full regulatory and risk compliance in what is a new focus for the financial sector.

Jonty Birrell-Gray - Treasurer

Jonty is a Chartered Accountant who having qualified with Stoy Hayward moved into the City in 1985 and now is an Executive Director and Head of Financial Processes and Systems for the London Branch of a German Bank. It was during his time at Stoy Hayward where he discovered the importance of introducing and maintaining good controls over the entire process framework within businesses and has championed this in the four foreign banks that he has worked for. The arrival of Operational Risk as a separate category of risk management within the Regulatory requirements for banks in 2003 gave Jonty the impetus to get more involved in this field. Having assisted in the development of the Operational Risk framework that enabled his bank to become one of the first to obtain AMA recognition by its Regulator Jonty decided to join the Association of Foreign Banks Operational Risk Working Group in 2004 and he has Chaired this since 2006.

Simon Ashby

Dr Simon Ashby is a senior academic at a UK Business School. Simon combines experience as a practicing operational risk manager and financial services regulator with a background in the academic study of operational risk and financial services regulation. Simon has a PhD in risk management and is a Fellow of the Institute, having been a member since its inception. Simon has worked for a range of financial institutions covering both the banking and insurance sectors, while as a regulator he was responsible for writing policy in areas such as operational risk and insurance. He has also published widely in the field of risk management, both in academic and practitioner journals.

Yema Tucker

Yema Tucker has been a dedicated Operational Risk practitioner in the banking sector since early 1999, specialising in design and implementation of complex operational risk frameworks, definition of Operational Risk management and control standards and development of Operational Risk education and training. In addition, Yema was an active participant in industry working groups supporting the Basel Committee in the formulation of some of the Operational Risk aspects of the BIS Capital Requirements Directive (Basel 2). Yema is a Chartered Accountant with a background in both external and internal audit and as such has an extensive knowledge of operational processes, risks and controls. She became a member of the Institute of Operational Risk in 2006.

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee consists of the following members:

Michael Faber - Executive Chairman

See Council entry above. Michael is also looking after the technology / website

Yema Tucker - Membership and Executive Co-ordinator

See Council entry above

John Chapman - Events

John ChapmanJohn Chapman is currently employed as an Operational Risk Manager for the Global Corporate Banking division of a major US bank; he was formerly Head of International Crisis Management for another leading US Investment Bank where he worked for 12 years. He was responsible for the introduction of Change Management disciplines to the Trading Floor and continued to roll out his vision of appropriate global controls across the organisation. John managed the Global Programme Risk Office focusing on merger activities before moving to a Resiliency Risk and Controls position responsible for compliance with external regulatory requirements and benchmarking. John was the Business Representative for the Government Office for London Civil Contingencies Office. He has worked in the City for more than 20 years spending over 11 years at a large independent Fund Manager prior to entering US banking. John is an active member of the Institute and has helped to organize several major events; he joined the Executive Committee in 2010.

Richard Baker - Sound Practice Guidance (Standards)

Richard is been working as an independent consultant in risk management and corporate governance since 2008. Prior to that Richard was Head of Risk Management at a UK FTSE and before that he was a Principal Consultant in a Big 4 firm. He has worked across industry sectors and internationally and has been working in the field of risk management since the early 1990’s both in industry and as a consultant. Richard is a regular speaker on the topic and has a degree in Manufacturing and a MSc in Energy Systems. Richard is leading the Institute’s development of Sound Practice Guidance (Standards).

Allan Barr - Knowledge Centre

Asim Balouch - Newsletter

Asim BalouchAsim is a qualified Chartered Accountant with more than 10 years experience in the areas of operational risk management, enterprise risk management, statutory reporting, risk based audit, SOX 404 implementation, and regulatory compliance as well as advising on M&A and re-structuring deals. For the last two years, Asim has been working as the Group Operational Risk Manager in an internationally active banking operation where he is responsible for embedding and operating an Operational Risk Management Framework throughout the organisation (30 operational risk professionals, 2500 employees at 12 locations in 8 countries). Prior to Joining the bank; Asim was at one of the biggest advisory firms in the World specialising in the financial services sector with a particular focus on Banking and Asset Management Institutions. During his 10 years of professional career Asim was involved in providing advisory services to some of the biggest financial and non-financial sector names in the World.

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