“Insurance is not the only risk mitigation tool companies should rely on, as there are many other risk management measures that must be taken into account,” Dirk Wegener says, talking to StrategicRISK as he approaches the end of his term at the helm of FERMA.
He has spent four years in the role, and over 20 in the risk management arena, so conversation quickly turns to the risks that have shaped those years.
He says that during his career, there are three key events that have been game changers for the way we think about mitigating threats.
Unthinkable terror
The first, he says, was 9/11.
Not only were the terrorist attacks responsible for an enormous loss of life, but they also led to one of the largest insured losses on record.
As a consequence, insurers started excluding terrorist attacks from policies, and state-backed schemes were set up to fill the gaps.
Wegener says: “9/11 was a game changer in terms of risk mapping, as almost no organisations had that kind of an attack on their radar at all. It was also the first time that I had personally experienced a situation where many in the insurance market walked away from a certain type of exposure.”
“It taught us to think…
