Hitting The Books

Risk & Insurance, May, 2000 by Lawrence Richter Quinn

And from whom is it hiring? A handful of schools that today offer bachelor's, master's and PhDs in insurance and risk management--institutions that often recommend that its students top off their expertise with a degree in finance.

An elite five schools are driving the growth in risk management-related degrees. (In all, roughly 70 colleges and universities offer programs in risk and insurance, according to New York's College of Insurance, and the Insurance Center at Drake University). The elite schools include two each in Georgia and Pennsylvania (the University of Georgia in Athens and Georgia State University in Atlanta, and Temple University and the Wharton School of Business, both in Philadelphia). The fifth school is the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Today a handful of these graduates can be found in companies ranging from Delta Airlines and Midwest Express Airlines in Milwaukee to Walt Disney, General Motors, and Ford.

"I've been impressed with the curriculum at these schools and the preparation of these students," says Bullard's Andrews, who is also the incoming president of the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) in New York. "Students with degrees in risk management have more than adequate backgrounds to fill some risk management jobs. And I expect these schools will be offering degrees in enterprise risk management within the next two to three years."

Others offer equally optimistic assessments. "If I were hiring someone today I would prefer someone who had a degree in risk management," says Larry Warner, 39, corporate risk manager at privately held Mars. Inc. of Virginia. "If I were considering two people, one with a specialized degree and one without, the competition wouldn't even be close."

Within the past several years risk managers have been hiring associates directly from these programs. That's the case with the USOC's Mair, for instance. Of the four he has hired within the last two-and-a-half years, one--his "Number Two" coordinator of risk management--came directly out of the University of Georgia's risk management program with a bachelor's degree. She is 28. "I chose her specifically because of her background," says Mair. "Currently she's working on an MBA in finance from the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs."

Others are working on hiring interns from college programs. "I've mentioned to my boss that I would like to bring in an intern [from a risk management program] with the goal of laying the groundwork for a future job," says Chris Mandel, 44, a Georgia graduate and director of global risk management at Louisville-based Tricon Inc.

Larry Warner, 39, corporate risk manager at Mars Inc., the confectionery manufacturer, says that he was offered three corporate jobs when he graduated from Georgia in 1986. "Everybody who got an MBA went directly to work for a corporation," he says. Among those interviewing students were Marriott Corp., Liquid Air in Pennsylvania, Ford and BF Goodrich. "I started as a risk analyst at Texas Instruments (TI) in Houston," he notes. "A year later I was assistant risk manager." Two years later he joined the risk management department at Mars.