Podcasts about waldorf astoria

Zeppelin-Masten, das alte Waldorf-Astoria und das Wunder im Aufzugschacht!In dieser Folge von Big Apple – Der New York City Podcast schließe ich meine große Aussichtsplattform-Reihe mit dem absoluten Klassiker ab: Dem Empire State Building.Ich blicke mit euch zurück in die Bauzeit und erzähle, warum der Turm ausgerechnet auf dem Grundstück des alten Waldorf-Astoria Hotels gebaut wurde. Es geht um den ehrgeizigen Wettlauf gegen das Chrysler Building, eine absurde Idee für anlegende Zeppeline und den tragischen Tag im Jahr 1945, als ein Bomber der US Air Force mitten in das Gebäude krachte.Natürlich schauen wir uns auch an, wie ein Besuch heute abläuft: Ich nehme euch mit durch das neue, interaktive Museum im zweiten Stock und fahre hinauf zu den Plattformen. Ich kläre die wichtigste Frage für eure Reiseplanung: Was ist der genaue Unterschied zwischen der berühmten Open-Air-Plattform im 86. Stockwerk und dem verglasten Top Deck im 102. Stock? Und lohnt sich der saftige Aufpreis für ganz nach oben wirklich?Dazu gibt es meine besten Insider-Tipps für die perfekte Uhrzeit eures Besuchs, wie ihr ohne Stativ tolle Fotos macht und was es mit den wechselnden Farben der Turmspitze auf sich hat.Und als Highlight im heutigen Werbeblock: Mein Reise-Hack für mobiles Internet in den USA. Ich zeige euch, wie ihr mit einer eSIM von Holafly direkt bei der Landung ohne teure Roaming-Gebühren online seid – inklusive Rabattcode für die Community!In dieser Folge:Die Geschichte des Grundstücks: Das alte Waldorf-Astoria und der Wettlauf gegen Walter Chrysler.Historische Fakten: Zeppelin-Luftschiffe und das Wunder vom 75-Stockwerke-Sturz.Der Weg nach oben: Die renovierte Lobby und der King-Kong-Raum im Museum.86. vs. 102. Stock: Lohnt sich das Upgrade in die verglaste Spitze?Die besten Tipps: Warum ihr extrem spät abends hochfahren solltet und die Stativ-Regel.Internet im USA-Urlaub: Warum eine eSIM von Holafly eine echte Hilfe ist.Links & Empfehlungen zur Folge: 

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   In this episode, Justin interviews Spencer Funding Their Future Honoree, Sierra Signorelli, about her background in environmental science, what drew her into insurance, and what convinced her that this profession was where she wanted to build a career. They discuss her career path from environmental consulting to environmental insurance underwriting to leading a global team and to currently serving as CEO of U.S. and Commercial Insurance at Zurich, and the pivotal moments that changed the trajectory of her career. They discuss her passion for helping women make their way in the industry, and her activities to bring new talent into insurance careers. Justin and Sierra discuss the Spencer Educational Foundation and how Zurich's interest in nurturing new talent aligns with Spencer's work.   Listen for Sierra's passion about the dynamic state of the insurance industry and how it can bring new risk solutions to companies.   Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:16] About this episode of RIMScast. Our guest is Sierra Signorelli, CEO of U.S. and Commercial Insurance at Zurich and one of this year's Spencer Funding Their Future Gala Honorees. But first… [:42] RIMS-CRMP Workshop. We are delighted to announce that on August 27th and 28th, RIMS President Manny Padilla will be leading the two-day in-person workshop at St. John's University at 101 Astor Place in New York City. A link to the registration is in this episode's show notes. [1:02] RIMS-CRMP Virtual Workshops. The next RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA will be held virtually on July 21st and 22nd. Registration links are in this episode's notes. [1:14] We have a summertime webinar. On July 16th, Zurich will present "Too Hot to Ignore: Heat-Related Injuries and Workers' Compensation." Register at RIMS.org/webinars and via the link in this episode's show notes. [1:29] Also on the webinars page, you will see a two-part series hosted by the RIMS Membership Department. The "Classroom to Career" webinar series highlights how RIMS equips students with the knowledge, skills, and connections needed to thrive in risk management careers. [1:44] Participants will gain insights into industry trends, career pathways, and practical tools that help them confidently step into the evolving world of risk management after graduation. These sessions will be hosted on September 1st and 9th. [1:58] These sessions are member exclusives and are complimentary for RIMS members, of course. So, if you are interested in becoming a member, this would be the time. Visit RIMS.org/membership. [2:07] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. Registration will open in July. Be on the lookout for the call for nominations for the RIMS ERM Global Award of Distinction. Visit RIMS.org/ERM2026 in July for that announcement. [2:29] RIMS is back on YouTube. Our handle is @RIMSOfficialChannel. We've got plenty of videos there, including RIMScast, RIMScast Canada video podcasts, and other informative and entertaining content from RIMS. Subscribe to the channel today! [2:48] On with the Show! Our guest today is one of the modern trailblazers of risk and insurance. She is Sierra Signorelli, the CEO of U.S. and Commercial Insurance at Zurich. She is also one of this year's Spencer Educational Foundation's Funding Their Future honorees. [3:08] Sierra will receive her honor at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City on September 17th at the Spencer Funding Their Future Gala. [3:16] Sierra is here today to discuss her career development, her career journey, how it evolved into a global leadership role, and some words of wisdom for the next generation of risk and insurance talent. She has a lot of great insight and takeaways for us all. Let's get to it! [3:37] Interview! Sierra Signorelli, Welcome to RIMScast! [3:47] Justin and Sierra discuss longtime mutual friend Marya Propis. Sierra says their paths crossed early in their careers at AIG. They got to know each other through the Women's Executive Leadership Initiative Program. [4:09] Sierra says quite a few exceptional women in important roles in our industry came out of that program cohort. It's fantastic to come back together with Marya for this event. [4:37] Sierra studied environmental science. She tries to live and work with a sense of purpose. In university, she wanted to make the world a better place with environmental science. [4:58] Sierra says there are areas of overlap between insurance and environmental science. Her initial work out of school was about understanding changing weather patterns, flooding, epidemiology, chemistry, liability, and toxic tort. She leans on what she studied. [5:33] Sierra says that in school, they studied Earth Systems Science. Much of the modeling they did in school is the same modeling that Cat modelers do at Zurich. [6:04] Sierra first worked at an environmental engineering consulting firm. A colleague left to join a new company. He called her to come and interview. It hadn't been on her mind, but on his recommendation, she interviewed. Meeting the people, Sierra was intrigued. [7:08] Sierra says once she joined, she never looked back. She joined as an underwriter doing environmental insurance, so it tied to her background. It felt like it was her own little business. It was her responsibility to build a portfolio of business and build relationships with brokers. [7:37] Sierra says it was fascinating. The industry gives lots of training, both industry-led and within companies. The opportunity to learn was fun. Sierra felt it was a great place to start to build a career. [8:20] Sierra has had a few meaningful career pivots. As an underwriter, transitioning to her first manager role was a big step. It taught her that you have to have sponsorship or support within an organization to get the next roles. [8:47] Sierra says it was a big step from being an individual contributor to leading a much larger team. Having somebody willing to put that on her was really important. She will be forever grateful for that first step. [9:12] Sierra says the next meaningful step was from running a business in a region to being a CUO for one of the businesses globally. The organization restructured and put Sierra across lines of business she had no expertise in. That was a huge shift for her. [9:40] Sierra was no longer the deep expert, but she had to lead a team of experts and be credible with those individuals. Most of them had 30 or 40 years of experience. Sierra was in her early 40s. It was a fantastic opportunity that somebody was brave enough to give her. [10:09] Shortly after, Sierra moved from New York to Asia. It was quite a difference. She took that step because she was in a global role. She says, even though she traveled a lot and she's curious about people and cultures, it's not until you sit somewhere that you really experience it. [10:39] Moving overseas and being on the receiving end of New York gave Sierra an appreciation for sitting in the market. At that company, all brilliant things came from New York, and the rest of them had to figure out how they added value. The time difference was a challenge. [11:24] Sierra says the time difference has a huge impact on your life. The company wanted to become more global and had placed executives all over the world in different hubs. When you have 3,000 people in one area, everything is time-zone-centric to them. [12:01] As a global leader, in another time zone, you have to be comfortable not participating in everything and having people who represent you on your behalf, knowing when you really need to engage. You need to know to move the time if you won't be coherent at 3:00 a.m. [12:24] Sierra went back and forth once a month from Asia to New York to do Business Unit Reviews. It takes a lot out of you. The world has changed, and she does many more video meetings. Global travel has an impact on quality of life. [13:00] During those years, Sierra was raising children. They started pre-school and kindergarten in Asia. Sierra says she couldn't possibly do it unless her husband was on board; he had a career that was more flexible, and he was willing to step up. That's a family discussion to have. [14:03] A Quick Break! There are so many other wonderful RIMS events coming up in 2026. The Annual Florida RIMS Educational Conference will be held from July 28th through August 1st at the lovely Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. A link to the event is in this episode's show notes. [14:22] Register now for the Second Annual RIMS Texas Regional Conference, which will be held from August 10th through the 12th at the Grand Hyatt on the San Antonio River Walk. Visit RIMS.org/Events for registration information. [14:36] The hotel cutoff date was July 10th. Reservations may still be made after the hotel cutoff date, subject to availability; however, the negotiated group rate is no longer guaranteed, so reserve now. [14:48] The 11th Annual Chicagoland Risk Forum will return to the Old Post Office on Thursday, September 24th, 2026. Visit ChicagolandRiskForum.org for more information. [15:00] The RIMS Western Regional Conference will be held from October 4th through the 7th in Seattle, Washington. The agenda is live, and registration is open. Visit RIMSWesternRegional.com and the link in this episode's show notes for more information. [15:16] Save the dates: October 18th through the 21st. We will be in Quebec City to celebrate the 50th Live RIMS Canada Conference. Booth sales are open, and sponsorship opportunities are still available. Advance registration is open now. [15:33] Visit RIMSCanadaConference.ca for more information. Also, remember to check out RIMS.org/Canada for our spinoff show, RIMScast Canada, hosted by National Conference Committee Chair, Aaron Lukoni. [15:47] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. Registration opens in July. [15:58] Be on the lookout for an announcement about submissions for the RIMS Global ERM Award of Distinction. Visit RIMS.org/ERM2026.  [16:08] Folks, we're already looking toward RISKWORLD 2027, which will be held over four days in New Orleans, Louisiana, from April 18th through the 21st. RIMS members can exclusively register by September 4th for the best rate. [16:22] Get first access to the hotel block. Hotel reservations open on October 28th, ahead of public registration. Sitting this out is the real risk! The link to registration is in this episode's show notes. [16:35] Let's Return to Our Interview with Spencer Educational Foundation's Funding Their Future Gala Honoree Sierra Signorelli! [17:01] Sierra says when she was in Asia, she had a global role. It highlighted how you speak, how you engage, and how you listen in different cultures is hugely important. You can't assume. It's always good to listen and then ask, and then replay back. [17:23] Sierra learned some painful lessons just thinking that silence and people nodding along means that they agree. She says she often talks about the importance of listening to colleagues, customers, and broker partners. [17:45] It's important not to make quick assumptions but to listen first and ask questions so that you have a good understanding of the colleagues you are working with and their needs. [18:00] Justin says a keynote at RISKWORLD 2019 said that when she spoke in Asian nations and asked a question of the audience, she learned that she had to wait and make eye contact with the audience to know if it was alright to move on to the next point or get them to speak up. [18:30] This speaker had learned that there is somewhat of a cultural reluctance in Asia to say what's on your mind. Sierra says that may be true, but you often don't get questions, so you have to think about what questions people might have and make sure that you raise them. [18:53] Sierra shares an example. They were rolling out global pricing tools. The U.S. would raise their hand that they don't like this or that. The same with the UK. Maybe Germany doesn't adopt it. Asia was seamless. They just rolled it out. No questions. Then a broker revealed a big issue. [19:31] Sierra realized she had to go back and talk with her team, so they could march forward. Having that understanding and making sure you're engaging appropriately with the culture is critical to having a successful business and being successful with the teams locally. [20:03] Justin asks that as Sierra ascended to that leadership role, did she find that she was one of the few women in executive leadership roles along the way? [20:23] Sierra says that early in her career, she was quite fortunate that there were quite a number of women leaders. In the group she worked with when she was in New York, there were several women running businesses. She worked for a woman. [20:43] Many of the women had families. Sierra had just started to have a family. Seeing them able to run these businesses, have a family, and not seem like all the wheels were coming off, seeming very normal and successful in her view, kept Sierra going. [21:01] Sierra says having role models and seeing other women do it is absolutely critical. It feels like you can do it when you see somebody else doing it. Having other people to talk to about how you navigate it is very important. [21:17] Sierra says, That being said, you have these groups, but overall, she finds that she's often the only woman in the room in meetings, and more broadly, in Asia. If she looks at the executive committee at Zurich, there are 12 executives, six male and six female. [21:42] Sierra says there are bright spots. We're making progress, but in some of the mid-level management roles, you don't see the same split. You see women falling off at a certain level. [22:19] Sierra says we have a Women's Innovation Network that she sponsors for her group. She has always tried to be a great support to women in our industry. She has given support to women along the way and helped them navigate to get to where they are. [23:00] Sierra says if you want to be authentic, you have to make difficult decisions. It goes hand in hand. If you just take every easy decision, it would be very difficult to be authentic. She would encourage you not to shy away from challenging decisions and not to put them off. [23:26] That's easier said than done. When Sierra looks at her to-do list in the morning, if there's something on that list she really doesn't want to do, she does it first. Otherwise, it just falls further down the list, and then goes to the list for tomorrow. [23:47] Those difficult conversations are never as bad as you work them up in your head to be. Just do it and get past it. If you make that a habit, then you tend not to shy away from having the right discussions. It's never as difficult as you can make it out to be in your head. [24:09] Sierra says one of her colleagues at Zurich in the U.S. often says, "Be kind, not nice." Being nice does not serve anyone well. If you don't give people feedback, or don't give them the full story because you want to be nice, it doesn't make sense. [24:32] If you're going to give feedback or make a change, be kind. That purpose helps people move forward and take action. Inaction is the bigger risk than taking action, jumping in, and adapting anywhere you need to adapt, as you go. [25:02] Justin cites a friend of Sierra's, and recent RIMScast guest, Johnell Holly, who said he chooses the hard challenges first and tries to knock them off the list. [25:24] Justin restates Sierra: your authentic self is shown when you make those difficult decisions. That's a great takeaway for the RIMScast audience. Sierra adds that it's important to take positions so that people understand what you stand for as a leader or an individual. [25:53] Sierra says in an organization, people are always going to decide what you stand for. If you don't make it clear, it creates a vacuum, and they'll make assumptions. Sometimes people are tentative or worried about taking a stand. [26:06] Sierra says it's far less risky to take that stand and make it clear what you stand for, because people are going to make an assumption anyway, and they're more likely to get it wrong if you leave it to them to sort out. [26:31] Sierra says she spends a lot of time meeting with customers and brokers. She gets energy from it. It grounds her in reality, which is important if the company wants to add value. They need to understand how things are landing, and what problems they are solving for. [26:53] One of the things that keeps Sierra in this industry, and what she loves about what they do, is that they have the opportunity to help solve some of the world's most complex challenges. [27:06] To do that, they have to get out and talk to people who are facing the challenges, and understand what it means for their business. [27:14] Sierra says, it's also important to spend time with your people. Sierra is in the Chicago office, and when she walks around the floor, she can meet the teams. She loves when they come up and tell her about a big win or something they're building on in the market. [27:39] Another Quick Break! The Spencer Educational Foundation's Funding Their Future Gala 2026 will be held on September 17th in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria. This year, Spencer will honor Sierra Signorelli of Zurich and our recent guest, Marya Propis of RT Specialty. [28:01] A link to the Gala is in this episode's show notes. Sponsorship opportunities are still available. [28:14] We have reached the deadline for the Spencer Educational Foundation's Risk Manager on Campus submissions. Grant awardees, colleges, and universities are typically notified in September. [28:22] General Grants are open, and the application deadline is July 30th. Internship Grant applications open on August 15th and close on October 15th. [28:33] Links to each of these grants are in this episode's show notes. Visit SpencerEd.org for more information. [28:42] Let's Conclude Our Interview with Spencer Educational Foundation's Funding Their Future Gala Honoree Sierra Signorelli! [28:57] Justin congratulates Sierra once again on being honored at the Spencer Educational Foundation's Funding Their Future Gala, which will be on September 17th at the world-famous Waldorf Astoria. [29:07] Sierra says she is looking forward to the event. She has been very fortunate to have amazing people who have helped, either giving her great advice through her career, or who have sponsored her, supported her, or advocated for her as she took the next steps in her career. [29:43] Sierra says, it's great to be recognized. As she is recognized, it should be recognition for all of those people who were bold enough to support her, especially early in her career. [30:02] Sierra says Zurich has a long history of engaging with the Spencer Educational Foundation. Zurich's beliefs align with what Spencer is trying to achieve. Zurich believes in bringing a diverse group of people into our industry, and more young people into our industry. [30:23] Sierra says we need to continue to bring new people in. As we look at some of the changes we have as an industry, becoming more digital, leaning more on insights, and reshaping how we show up as an industry, it's a great time for young people to join our industry. [30:47] Sierra says she thinks the industry is undersold. It's a fantastic industry to build a career. She says most people who come into the industry don't leave. It's just convincing them from the beginning.   [31:02] Sierra says, from a Zurich perspective, we have a really robust apprenticeship program that we sponsor to bring youth into and help them gain experience: both on-the-job experience and instructional experience through a two-year program. [31:26] Sierra says that for Zurich, supporting programs such as the Spencer Educational Foundation is a natural fit in continuing to help bring talent into our industry. [31:38] The other 2026 Honoree, Marya Propis, was recently on the show and was one of the first 50 RIMScast guests. Sierra says she and Marya worked together years ago. They also were part of a fantastic sponsored women's program, the Women's Executive Leadership Initiative. [32:14] Sierra says several women who are in key roles in our industry came through that program. It's fantastic to see the success of some of those women, including Marya, and to be honored together in 2026. [32:44] Sierra says it should be a good evening and really nice to reconnect with Marya after having been overseas for quite some time. [33:00] Sierra is also a board member of the St. John's University School of Risk Management and is deeply involved in developing future talent. [33:16] Sierra says it's a really exciting time for our industry. The world of risk is very dynamic now. [33:31] Our capabilities to harness insights and data to streamline what we do to be more efficient to work with, all coming together at the same time, is a huge opportunity to raise the bar to add greater value to companies as they think about how they manage this risk landscape. [34:00] For Sierra, it's an exciting time to bring new perspectives in and entice young people to look at a career in insurance. Sierra repeats that most people who come into our industry don't leave. People leave companies, but they tend to take other insurance roles. [34:30] Sierra says, we just need to get more people interested in what we do and to bring new perspectives and new skillsets into what we do. I know that people will stay once they're here. [35:00] Speaking of knowledge transfer, Sierra says that there are lots of people with many years of experience who want to invest the time with younger people to pass that knowledge on. They don't want it to be lost. [35:19] For people who are curious and want to come in and build a career, it's an amazing opportunity to be able to work with some of the people who have this experience, as well as working with new technologies and capabilities. [35:35] The Waldorf Astoria in New York City has been newly renovated. When people gather at the Waldorf for the Spencer Gala on September 17th to celebrate leaders like Sierra and Marya, they're also investing in the future of the profession. [36:06] Sierra says, first and foremost, she feels fortunate that she's had great support from individuals and also from working for a great company that allows her to do what she does at such a large scale. [36:44] Sierra says the people who sit on the team at Zurich are the shining stars who give us the brand that we have and the capabilities that we have. She would hope that she leaves a legacy that shows that she's helped to improve and raise the bar for what we do as an industry. [37:19] Sierra says that's what she's most passionate about. She thinks that as an industry we can do more. [37:26] We're on the cusp of something great with all of these different dynamics, whether they're the factors of risk that are becoming far greater, or the capabilities we can bring to the table to help the world and companies solve problems. [37:45] Sierra says, if I leave a legacy that I helped some of the building blocks to get us there, I would feel quite good about that, in addition to helping to build talent in our industry, which is something that I'm particularly passionate about. [38:03] Justin says it is a well-deserved honor, and I'm so happy for you. I'm very happy for Marya, as well. You both bring so much to risk management and insurance that it's only fitting that you are honored in the same year. You're both doing great work. [38:21] You're very inspiring for our listeners and, of course, anyone who is involved with Spencer, whether they are staff or beneficiaries of the foundation. You are a shining example of what we hope this profession can continue to be like. [38:40] I want to thank you so much for your time, and I look forward to seeing you in New York City on September 17th, when you accept your award. [38:53] Special thanks again to Sierra Signorelli of Zurich for joining us here on RIMScast. We congratulate her on being named an honoree at this year's Spencer Funding Their Future Gala, which will be held on September 17th in Manhattan at the fabulous Waldorf Astoria. [39:14] Visit SpencerEd.org for more information and be sure to check out recent RIMScast episodes with another honoree from this year, Marya Propis, and Spencer Board Chair, Johnell Holly. Links are in this episode's show notes. [39:30] Plug Time! Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [39:47] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [40:04] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [40:17] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. Please remember to subscribe to RIMScast on your favorite podcasting app. You can email us at Content@RIMS.org. [40:30] Practice good risk management, stay safe, and thank you again for your continued support!   Links: Spencer Educational Foundation's 2026 Funding Their Future Gala | Sept. 17, 2026 RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2026 | Aug. 10‒12 in San Antonio | Register Now! RISKWORLD 2027 Registration | RIMS members can lock in 2026 rates now through Sept. 4 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference | July 28‒Aug. 1 | Register Now ChicagoLand Risk Forum | Sept. 24, 2026 RIMS Western Regional Conference — Oct. 4‒7, 2026 | Seattle, WA | Register Today. RIMS Canada Conference — Oct. 18‒21, 2026 | Quebec City | www.rimscanadaconference.ca | Advance Registration Open | Sponsorship Opportunities Available RIMS ERM Conference 2026 | November 19‒20 in Columbus, Ohio | Registration Opens in July! | www.rims.org/ERM2026 Spencer Educational Foundation — Scholarships and Grants | Open Calls and Timelines. RIMS Now RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) | Insights Video Series Featuring Joe Milan! RIMS, the Foundation for Risk Management The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center RIMS Diversity Equity Inclusion Council RIMS-CRMP Stories RIMScast Canada — Episodes Now Live RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMScast on YouTube! RIMS Risk Management Magazine | Contribute | Q2 2026 Issue Now Available Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA — Virtual — July 21‒22, 2026 RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep Workshop — Live In NY — Aug 27‒28! Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops   Upcoming RIMS Webinars: RIMS.org/Webinars "Too Hot To Ignore: Heat-Related Injuries and Workers' Compensation" | July 16 | Presented by Zurich "RIMS Student Series: Classroom to Career Part 1" | Sept 1 "RIMS Student Series: Classroom to Career Part 2" | Sept 9   Related RIMScast Episodes: Spencer Honoree "Marya Propis: From Industry Leader to Talent Champion" "Choosing the Challenge with Johnell Holly, Spencer Educational Foundation Board Chair" "Risk Management Momentum with Tim Ryan" (2025 Spencer Honoree) "The Strengths of DE&I Initiatives with Lilian Vanvieldt-Gray of Alliant Insurance Services" (2024 Spencer Honoree)   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: "48 Hours From a Storm: What to Do Before A Hurricane Strikes" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company (New!) "AI-Scale, Risk Ready: Engineering Controls for the New Data Center Boom" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Facing Into Risk: Navigating the New Risk Landscape" (New!) | Sponsored by AXA XL "Secondary Perils, Major Risks: The New Face of Weather-Related Challenges" | Sponsored by AXA XL "The ART of Risk: Rethinking Risk Through Insight, Design, and Innovation" | Sponsored by Alliant "Mastering ERM: Leveraging Internal and External Risk Factors" | Sponsored by Diligent "Cyberrisk: Preparing Beyond 2025" | Sponsored by Alliant "The New Reality of Risk Engineering: From Code Compliance to Resilience" | Sponsored by AXA XL "Change Management: AI's Role in Loss Control and Property Insurance" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Demystifying Multinational Fronting Insurance Programs" | Sponsored by Zurich "Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding" | Sponsored by Zurich "What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping" | Sponsored by Medcor "How Insurance Builds Resilience Against an Active Assailant Attack" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips" | Sponsored by Alliant   RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Manny Padilla!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   About our guest: Sierra Signorelli, CEO of U.S. and Commercial Insurance at Zurich Spencer Educational Foundation's Funding Their Future 2026 Honoree   Production and engineering provided by Podfly.

Step inside one of America's most legendary luxury hotels! Recorded on-site, this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Travel with Terri" Podcast features travel journalist Terri Guthrie in conversation with Les Patin, Marketing Manager of The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Since opening in 1893, The Roosevelt has welcomed presidents, celebrities, Mardi Gras royalty, and generations of travelers seeking timeless elegance in the heart of New Orleans. Originally opened as The Grunewald Hotel, this iconic property has survived fires, Prohibition, the Great Depression, Hurricane Katrina, and today shines following its spectacular restoration as part of the Waldorf Astoria collection. From Huey P. Long's famous suite and secret passageway to the legendary Sazerac Bar, elegant Fountain Lounge, historic Blue Room, rooftop pool, luxurious Waldorf Astoria Spa, beautifully restored guest rooms, and the beloved Waldorf Wonderland holiday display, discover why The Roosevelt remains the Crown Jewel of the Crescent City. Whether you're planning your next New Orleans getaway, love historic hotels, or simply enjoy fascinating stories of American hospitality and architecture, this episode offers an insider's look at one of the country's most iconic destinations. As America approaches its 250th anniversary, this episode also celebrates one of the nation's most storied historic hotels and its enduring place in American history, hospitality, and culture. Learn more about The Roosevelt New Orleans: https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/msyrhwa-the-roosevelt-new-orleans  Learn more about Terri's travels: - Travel with Terri: https://www.travelwithterri.com/  - Travel with Terri Podcast (airs every other Tuesday): https://www.travelwithterri.com/podcast  - The Luxe Explorer Magazine: https://www.travelwithterri.com/magazine 

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   In this episode, Justin interviews RIMS Vice President of Content & Publications, Morgan O'Rourke, and RIMS Risk Management Magazine Managing Editor, Hilary Tuttle, on the Q2 digital edition online now. The discussion starts with Hilary's Hurricane prediction and the risks associated with storms. They discussed the risks of applying AI in the risk industry, and how using it for the simple tasks means your remaining tasks are the hard ones. To get the best results, be polite to your AI! Justin asks about Red Teaming, its purpose, and how it operates. Human behavior is an important consideration in risk management.   Listen for pointers on what to do as a risk manager for the rest of 2026, and some things to avoid.   Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:16] About this episode of RIMScast. This is our mid-year risk review, and we will be rejoined by Morgan O'Rourke and Hilary Tuttle. They are here to discuss the major trends shaping the risk landscape; what's happened so far in 2026, and what we can look forward to. But first… [:47] RIMS Virtual Workshops. The next RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA will be held virtually on July 21st and 22nd. Registration links are in this episode's notes. [:58] We have a summertime webinar. On July 16th, Zurich will present "Too Hot to Ignore: Heat-Related Injuries and Workers' Compensation." Register at RIMS.org/webinars and via the link in this episode's show notes. [1:13] Also on the webinars page, you will see a two-part series hosted by the RIMS Membership Department. The "Classroom to Career" webinar series highlights how RIMS equips students with the knowledge, skills, and connections needed to thrive in risk management careers. [1:29] Participants will gain insights into industry trends, career pathways, and practical tools that help them confidently step into the evolving world of risk management after graduation. These sessions will be hosted on September 1st and 9th. [1:42] These sessions are member exclusives and are complimentary for RIMS members, of course. So, if you are interested in becoming a member, this would be the time. Visit RIMS.org/membership. [1:52] You can enroll now in the RIMS CRO Certificate Program in Advanced Enterprise Risk Management hosted by the famous James Lam. Beginning July 15th, workshops will be held bi-weekly from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The registration link is in the show notes. [2:16] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. Registration will open in July. Be on the lookout for the call for nominations for the RIMS ERM Global Award of Distinction. Visit RIMS.org/ERM2026 in July for that announcement. [2:37] RIMS is back on YouTube. Our handle is @RIMSOfficialChannel. We've got plenty of videos there, including RIMScast, RIMScast Canada video podcasts, and other informative and entertaining content from RIMS. Subscribe to the channel today! [2:55] On with the Show! We are in the middle of the year, and that means that it's time for our mid-year risk review with two of my favorite people, Morgan O'Rourke, RIMS Vice President of Content & Publications, and Hilary Tuttle, Managing Editor of RIMS Risk Management Magazine.  [3:14] Morgan and Hilary are joining us today to discuss some of the highlights of the Q2 Edition of RIMS Risk Management Magazine, which is available now. [3:21] We're going to talk about hurricane preparedness, reputation, red-teaming, AI, and other emerging trends that risk professionals should be aware of, avoiding, and embracing. We're going to have a lot of fun! Let's get to it! [3:35] Interview! Morgan O'Rourke and Hilary Tuttle, Welcome Back to RIMScast! [3:42] Justin mentions that the Publications Department is a team of five. After nine years, Justin is still the second-newest person. [4:29] Morgan says Risk Management Magazine has articles going up every week. Every quarter, they have a digital issue, reminiscent of a physical magazine, with pages and a table of contents. When this episode is released, the Q2 digital issue was published a week ago. [4:54] RIMS Risk Management Magazine has occasional special issues, on ERM and the Special RISKWORLD Awards Issue. Hilary says the Editor's Picks are articles you may have missed on the website. Morgan says it's sometimes new stuff, or archival stuff that's still relevant. [5:30] Morgan says they try to publish in a frequency and format that everybody can appreciate. Morgan and Hilary miss the physical print magazine. Justin thinks they've maintained the essence of the print magazine. Morgan says that's what the digital magazines are meant to do. [6:22] Morgan says print is not necessarily the way that everybody consumes things nowadays, so you've got to be where everybody's attention is, and that's what we're trying to do. [6:40] The Marquee article in the Q2 digital edition is Hilary's coverage of the 2026 hurricane season outlook. Hilary is well-versed in hurricane preparedness and seasonal outlooks. Hilary says this year, a lot of the forecasts are calling for a below-average season. [7:26] This year, Hilary focused on factors that will make the season different. She focused on macroeconomic volatility, geopolitical instability, and U.S. Federal budget cuts as some of the biggest complications this year that are making a fragile and challenging recovery landscape. [8:03] Hilary says we talk about increased prices in disaster materials, preparation materials, supply problems, and a Federal support system characterized by defunding or dysfunction, and what that means for risk managers tasked with hurricane preparation or recovery. [8:43] Hilary says, looking beyond the forecast, it's important to assess how your resilience strategy is going to hold up in practice. Even a single landfall is going to be more expensive, potentially. The cost may be higher than ever. Response materials are 40% more expensive. [9:28] Justin says we had a risk engineer from Global Risk Consultants on the show recently, talking about the physical preparations, 48 hours, 36 hours, and 24 hours before an impact. [9:56] Hilary says, between materials shortages and price increases, the supply chain is potentially going to be a huge problem for disaster preparation and responses. Getting things is difficult with the Strait of Hormuz closed. People are seeing it across industries and materials. [10:22] Some response materials are also going to be more expensive because of the increased cost of oil. Hilary found that interesting when reporting the piece. Generator fuel is drastically more expensive than it has been. [10:43] It's a best practice to have 72 hours' worth per generator on site, if you're in a high-risk area. [11:55] Materials that require petrochemical input include plywood and structural lumber. Boarding your windows is going to be more expensive, if you can get it. Transport costs are going to be drastically higher. [11:11] Heavy-duty plastic sheeting is a petrochemical-related product. Some products also use by-products of the crude oil production: polymers, petroleum derivatives, and plastics, like rubber seals. All of those will be more expensive as crude oil fluctuates. [11:40] Morgan says you have to prepare for increased costs. You may be underinsured for the costs of materials you may have insured for in the beginning. Be aware of increased costs and do what you can to prepare, whether by increasing coverage or buying more in bulk. [12:10] If you're going to face increased costs, the more you do beforehand to offset those costs is probably for the better. Hilary says she put together 10 detailed and useful tips. One thing that she bumped up the list is to revisit your insurance values and policy limits. [12:40] Hilary thinks the risk of underinsurance is worth underscoring this year. It is going to be drastically more expensive to rebuild. Make sure you have the coverage you need to cover those expenses and the expenses of potentially needing to relocate when things are closed. [12:56] Car parts are drastically more expensive, so if you operate fleets, it's worth noting that those metals are delayed and pricier because of tariffs and supply chain problems. [13:11] Hilary says it's also worth noting that we had Tropical Storm Arthur last week. It never reached hurricane strength, but it still managed to do four to six billion dollars in damage, according to initial estimates from AccuWeather. [13:27] Tropical Storm Arthur hit the Gulf Coast and did a lot of damage in terms of business interruption, delayed flights, and extended power outages. In terms of business continuity, it doesn't need to be a hurricane to do a tremendous amount of damage. [13:47] AccuWeather says the hurricane classification system is solely based on wind speed. Wind does not do as much damage as water. Storm surge, inland flooding, and water damage are not reflected in hurricane classification. We shouldn't just be concerned about hurricanes. [14:21] The peril and the need for preparation are just as dramatic for other storms. [14:28] Morgan notes that the storm season started on June 1st, and we had a billion-dollar potential damage storm within a week or so. Hilary says it's one of the earliest we've seen. [14:46] Morgan says they're usually more in the fall. In some years, we've seen tropical storms before the season. Storms are not necessarily confined to the Atlantic Coast. There are Pacific storms to take into account. [15:18] Morgan learned about Pacific storms from Hilary. In between Hilary's article drafts, there were three Pacific hurricanes that formed, so she had to update the story. The Super El Niño is the climate pattern that creates these storms in the Eastern Pacific.  [15:47] With the Super El Niño, you get more activity in the Eastern Pacific and less in the Atlantic because of warmer waters in the Pacific and more Trade Winds in the Atlantic that act to break up storm formation. [16:05] Parts of Central America, Mexico, and the West Coast are going to be at increased risk. Hawaii, as well. Morgan says one of the more impactful storms on the Pacific was named Hilary in 2023. Hilary was a billion-dollar storm that killed three people. [17:21] A Quick Break! There are so many other wonderful RIMS events coming up in 2026. The Annual Florida RIMS Educational Conference will be held from July 28th through August 1st at the lovely Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. A link to the event is in this episode's show notes. [17:40] Register now for the Second Annual RIMS Texas Regional Conference, which will be held from August 10th through 12th at the Grand Hyatt on the San Antonio River Walk. [17:51] The 11th Annual Chicagoland Risk Forum will return to the Old Post Office on Thursday, September 24th, 2026. Visit ChicagolandRiskForum.org for more information. [18:01] The RIMS Western Regional Conference will be held from October 4th through the 7th in Seattle, Washington. The agenda is live, and registration is open. Visit RIMSWesternRegional.com and the link in this episode's show notes for more information. [18:18] Save the dates October 18th through the 21st. We will be in Quebec City to celebrate the 50th Live RIMS Canada Conference. Booth sales are open, and sponsorship opportunities are still available. Advance registration is open now. [18:35] Visit RIMSCanadaConference.ca for more information. Also, remember to check out RIMS.org/Canada for our spinoff show, RIMScast Canada, hosted by National Conference Committee Chair, Aaron Lukoni. [18:50] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. Registration opens in July. [19:01] Be on the lookout for an announcement about submissions for the RIMS Global ERM Award of Distinction. Visit RIMS.org/ERM2026.  [19:12] Let's Return to Our Interview with RIMS Risk Management Magazine's Hilary Tuttle and Morgan O'Rourke! [19:31] Justin says artificial intelligence is on people's minds. It's evolved into a data governance and operational risk challenge. [19:52] Morgan's first reaction concerning AI is, "What else can we say about this?" There is a little bit of burnout about AI. Hilary says we get so many articles. Morgan says there does need to be attention paid. What are your AI use policies? Are your employees introducing risk with AI?  [20:42] Morgan says there was a cybersecurity survey cited in the issue. The biggest risks they are seeing are misinformation and disinformation. IT people don't consider themselves or their companies prepared to identify those risks across the board. Justin quotes that ISACA poll. [21:45] Hilary says you're seeing a lot of shadowy AI use; a lot of unlicensed and unsanctioned use. If your company allows you to use Copilot, but you're using ChatGPT and Gemini, that's unsanctioned use. [22:15] Morgan says dropping an entire report in that might be proprietary information, to distill that into a public environment; not just opening the program, but what you're putting into it, may be stuff that no one would want out. [22:31] Hilary says a recent study showed that 90% of organizations have employees who regularly use personal AI tools at work. Forty percent of companies have bought official subscriptions to AI services because they get different privacy protections than free versions. [22:51] Fifty percent of companies are running on shadow AI. They're either letting employees foot the bill by using personal subscriptions or using a free mode, and that's a disaster. One of the things a lot of organizations aren't thinking about is the cost of subscriptions and tokens. [23:10] A lot of companies that are starting to adopt AI at a large scale and are footing that bill are running into astoundingly large bills for these services and not factoring in that it is not free computing power. It is not a free tool. [23:28] Now that some of these companies are going IPO, if tools are free, they're not going to stay free. Morgan says, it's one of those things that, although it's not necessarily something you want to hear for the fifteenth time, it doesn't mean you shouldn't be doing something about it. [24:03] Hilary adds that hidden costs are a big thing people aren't thinking about. People are thinking about governance, which is incredibly important. The market for that is also booming. People have an interest in making you afraid of it, as well as selling it to you in the first place. [24:22] Hilary says, the governance market is going from $200+ million two years ago to an estimated three or four billion dollars by 2037. It's a huge industry to make you dependent on AI and to charge you to govern it or make it safer. [24:43] Hillary says we're seeing studies that companies have made huge investments in AI, and are not seeing an ROI. A recent study showed that 5% of organizations have had transformative ROIs. The other 95% said there is zero measurable impact on Profit & Loss, if not a net negative. [25:10] Hilary says one CEO said that unless it's for coding specifically, we're not going to get monetary value whatsoever out of AI. A lot of companies that have fired people are starting to reverse course really quickly. [25:24] Hilary says companies that make AI are walking back a lot of their claims about how transformative it's going to be. They had said there would be a job apocalypse because widespread job automation would be so easy. They're walking that claim back. [25:47] The COO of Uber said that gains in productivity were absolutely nothing compared to the increased AI-related expenses they are experiencing. They're walking back a lot of their investment. [25:58] The former Chief of AI at Microsoft said that employees default to automating tasks that they dislike, rather than ones that create value. Morgan says it speaks to being practical about what you're going to get out of it, as opposed to it being a magic button to press. [26:28] Morgan says that in the early going of anything, there's a spike of promise and then reality kicks in. AI is not going to be tossed aside. Hilary says there's a hype bubble around AI, that AI is for everything, and that AI would replace everyone. Companies are laying off. [26:59] Hilary says last year, 125,000 tech workers lost their jobs. In 2026 through June, already 120,000 tech workers have lost jobs. We are seeing an overinflated promise of what AI is going to be. People are slowly beginning to realize AI is to augment employees, not replace them. [27:25] Morgan says there's a push for "the human in the loop." People have come to recognize that we can't leave people out of this, if only to check the accuracy of results. You can't replace workers because there's stuff that the AI can't do. [27:42] Morgan says AI is always going to tell you what you want to hear. It's going to give you stuff that's already out there. It's not giving you new information; it's just distilling it differently. [27:55] Hilary says there's an important core competency people need to be developing now. Taking a quick look at a thing and saying it makes sense is not an adequate amount of oversight to provide for things you're using AI for, particularly as you start using it more and more. [28:14] AI is structured to give you things it thinks you want, or to predict what you would do. The results may seem well-written, but you must pay attention to what's in it and whether it makes sense. [28:33] Hilary says some people submit stories to RIMS Risk Management Magazine that simply restate things; they don't explore ideas. With AI, don't just look to approve it; look to assess it and analyze what it is doing before you put it forward. [29:14] Hilary says, to be very clear, RIMS Risk Management Magazine does not accept articles that are written by AI. When it comes to articles about AI, they've seen just about everything. [30:11] Morgan says he would probably be interested in practical use cases that are not promotional, if somebody found some success using AI, that fellow risk professionals could benefit from, as well, and not something so proprietary that it only works for their company. [30:26] Morgan says it should be something like where AI might be able to help risk managers in general. A lot of people are using AI for different things. It's not about the only best practice, but helping the magazine establish a list of best practices for AI in the risk process. [30:50] Hilary says it's also helpful to get articles that have practical guidance on what people are using that is useful in terms of governance. How are they crafting effective policies? [31:01] How are they working to train their workforce on best practices so they're using AI responsibly and getting the most out of it? How are they exploring the ideas of customization, if that is something their company is doing in-house? Practical articles. [31:17] Hilary says she is seeing a lot of articles on legal exposure and how that is shaping up since all of the case law is so nascent. What are the exposures? What are the liabilities other organizations are learning in real time that you can start guarding against? [31:35] Morgan says there are a lot of cases working through without a lot of precedent. Some of these cases will become precedents. Four years ago, everyone was talking about basic, general risks. Now we are talking about specific risks of real applications. [32:04] Hilary says there is interest in the costs of AI. That's underexplored and would be interesting to read about. Are companies seeing that it's having impacts they haven't anticipated? Every prompt you give to ChatGPT, even 'thank you," is a payment to OpenAI. [32:54] Hilary says a study showed that 80% of people are saying "please" and "thank you" to the AI because they don't want to make it angry; 18% are doing it because they say it's just the right thing to do. Hilary puts "thank you" at the end of a prompt, so it's not an extra prompt. [33:22] Hilary says, some AI platforms perform better when you talk to them politely. ChatGPT will give you more coherent, nicer, and polished answers if your input is polite. Morgan refers to the Terminator movies. Hilary says, You want to be polite, but you don't want to be empowering. [34:02] Hilary says, in a video from the American Psychological Association, a professor from Michigan State talked about the underappreciated problem with AI, that if you automate the easy parts of your job, then 100% of your job is the hard parts, a guaranteed ticket to burnout. [34:39] You've made the easy wins and the low-level stuff that your brain needs to recover, a part of your job that you don't get to do. You don't get those bits. Everything is complicated, difficult, and exhausting. That's not how the brain is designed to function. [35:00] Morgan says, We don't want AI to do the fun or easy stuff. Hilary says, Think of a call center. If it's a simple thing, like "What time do you open?", or "Do I have a warranty?", AI can close them easily. That leaves you with a furious customer yelling at you for 20 minutes. [35:25] If that's all you do, all day, every day, what is your life going to be like? Then you start putting things on hold because you need a second. If your goal was efficiency, you're not making it more efficient; you're adding more buffer time because you can't handle that all the time. [35:59] Another Quick Break! The Spencer Educational Foundation's Funding Their Future Gala 2026 will be held on September 17th in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria. This year, Spencer will honor Sierra Signorelli of Zurich and our recent guest, Marya Propis of RT Specialty. [36:19] A link to the Gala is in this episode's show notes. [36:21] We have reached the deadline for the Spencer Educational Foundation's Risk Manager on Campus submissions. Grant awardees, colleges, and universities are typically notified in September. [36:37] General Grants are open, and the application deadline is July 30th. Internship Grant applications open on August 15th and close on October 15th. [36:48] Links to each of these grants are in this episode's show notes. Visit SpencerEd.org for more information. [36:56] Let's Conclude Our Interview with Morgan O'Rourke and Hilary Tuttle of RIMS Sisk Management Magazine! [37:09] Morgan and Hilary have released the Q2 Digital Issue of RIMS Risk Management Magazine. There's an article about red teaming. Morgan says Red teaming is conducting a crisis simulation. You have a team that is the adversary, challenging your assumptions and plans. [38:04] Hilary says they are immersive exercises that involve some form of offense and defense. It's basically wargaming. [39:10] The feature on reputation red teaming suggests that organizations need to prepare for the first 48 hours. In a crisis, it's the first 48 hours of the crisis as much as the crisis itself. [39:40] Morgan says social media is going to amplify the impact of a crisis immediately. Consider the knee-jerk reactions you see online to anything that's happening. If your company loses control of the narrative, people are telling a story that isn't your story and isn't accurate.  [39:55] Morgan says there was a story that Jeff Bezos had said that we should be using water for AI purposes rather than human consumption because AI will solve more problems. But Jeff Bezos never said that. Social media amplifies something before people question its validity. [40:37] Morgan says we're in an environment where "crazy," more often than not, sounds possible. Hilary says social media is a force multiplier for a lot, particularly when there are zero content moderation controls, leading to misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech. [41:04] Morgan points out that even with moderation, something can be put up and seen before it's moderated. The Bezos story is on Snopes that it's not true, but how many people follow up a story like that after they see the headline? They might not know where they saw it. [41:34] The point of throwing these reputation red teaming exercises together is to acknowledge the fact that not only do you need a plan, but the plan has to be in place to be able to move quickly. [41:44] When it comes to a crisis that happens within your organization, one of the biggest parts of it is the reputation elements. People run with it, "Not only is this a bad thing an organization did, or a questionable thing, but they're terrible for it and irredeemable." [42:04] If you can't put out a statement in the first 12 hours after something happens, because you weren't ready for it, that means you entirely miss out on any opportunity to correct that misinformation and be a part of the narrative that actually steers the conversation. [42:30] Morgan speaks about attention spans. People see a headline and then move on to the next headline. Your first impression may be their only impression. Act quickly. Have the people in place and the plans in place. The exercise is for people to poke holes in your plan. [42:59] Justin says it's a good article, and the author, Ted Skinner, gives you actionable takeaways. Morgan likes the article but had not heard of red teaming. [44:05] Hilary says red teaming is very common in cybersecurity. This is the first time they have run across it in other applications. [44:48] Justin brings up human behavior. It's in the Q2 issue. It permeates every risk. You can't just let AI do your job for you; you have to put a human perspective and input into it. Human behavior impacts employee misconduct. There was an article on it in the RIMS Weekend Read. [45:17] Employee misconduct is on the minds of risk professionals and executives. [45:27] Morgan says culture is a good stopgap measure to have. A risk manager can't be everywhere at once. If your organization has a risk-aware culture, it can stand in for you when you're not around. If everyone's aware of risk, you don't have to be the only person watching. [46:02] Hilary says culture is your sunscreen. It's your everyday, it's your automatic. It's the thing that you need to do to prevent the majority of photoaging and skin cancer. Some of the more subject-specific areas are your serums to spot treat your hyperpigmentation and redness. [46:21] It depends on what your specific skin is like. Are you focusing on wrinkles? Are you adding antioxidants? The sunscreen is the thing you need every day, as it covers the vast majority of problems. [47:05] Morgan says the human element is always necessary to interweave into all of this because it's one of the things you can control. You can't control geopolitical events or storms, but you can control whether or not you put the sunscreen on. [47:25] You can control whether or not you have plans in place for any disaster. That's what allows you to sleep at night. You can do something in an environment where it feels like nothing can be done. That can get overwhelming. [47:42] Hilary says part of overcoming that overwhelm is the empowerment that comes with educating yourself and doing the work. You can't control geopolitical risk. What does that mean for your organization? What does that mean for your cost of materials? [48:06] It takes time, and it's not glamorous to look up how much asphalt we use in a year. The stuff that keeps all the gravel together in asphalt is a by-product of oil production, and drastically increases in price. What does it mean if your supply chain is going to be drastically delayed? [48:33] Those are the ways you can empower yourself and make a difference within your organization with some of these big, ephemeral risks. You need to think, What does this mean for us? [48:49] Hilary says one of the things we evaluate with our goals and the single most common edit note that I give on submitted articles, is "So, what? Yes, that is a risk. What does it mean for you? What do you do about it? What consequence does this have for your organization?" [49:20] Those questions are the distinctions between an article I read and an article I publish. Those are the distinctions between a risk manager who is informed and a risk manager who is empowered. [49:55] Justin asks, based on the Q2 issue of RIMS Risk Management Magazine, and on what they heard and saw at RISKWORLD 2026, what actions should risk managers take before the end of 2026? [50:12] Morgan says it depends on where you come from and understanding where risks exist, for you, and breaking it down to the things you can control, looking at where all these big-picture things intersect your business. [50:33] That comes down to strengthening your fundamental risk management practices to make sure you don't lose sight of the basics. [50:47] There is some talk of the property insurance market softening. That may give you more funds to invest in training or in infrastructure improvements. At least, reassess your policy's terms and conditions and see if you might take advantage of pricing. [51:12] Those are the fundamentals of risk management. In a time when everything is crazy, when it's a polycrisis environment, those are the things you're going to have to do; otherwise, it will get too crazy to look at all the big stuff. [51:34] Hilary agrees. Focus on localized impacts, whether it's the impact of the supply chain disruption on your business, or a storm, or inflation, and also, work on your skill set, learning to have a critical eye when it comes to how and if you're using AI, and what it's being used for. [52:00] Hilary says there's a 56% wage premium for workers with AI skills, according to PWC. A lot of self-improvement and educational things are critical to doing your job well now, but they also set you up to be more prepared career-wise. [52:16] Hillary touches on thinking about what some of these impacts do to your workforce. AI is a tremendously stressful and confusing one for your workforce, so redirecting some money into training programs is a great option. You'll have a better workforce, and they'll feel better. [52:41] Studies show that the more training you offer, the less resistance you get when it comes to tool integration, and the better outcomes. [52:51] When it comes to storm season, you're dealing with a standing inflation, but so are your workers. If they can't afford plywood to board up their houses, that's also a problem. If they are displaced, you have a displaced workforce, and that means business interruption. [53:07] What can you do to assist? Is that ordering things in bulk, so you have some purchasing power to help them obtain supplies? Is that providing emergency kits so they are prepared at home, and you have a more prepared workforce that comes back to work sooner? [53:28] Think small when the big stuff is a little too big. [53:41] Morgan says, the other side of the coin is to avoid getting distracted by headlines that maybe don't have as much relevance. Educate yourself to know what technology works for you. If you just take things on faith, that may not be fit for purpose for you. [54:14] Hilary says a wait-and-see approach with a lot of emerging technology is proven to be the best course of action, and Hilary recommends it. Focus on augmenting employees, not replacing them. [54:36] According to Gartner, 50% of AI layoffs are going to be reversed by 2027. A lot of people who acted fast and cut people because they overestimated the impact of AI are going to be hiring those people back, and probably for more money, not to mention retraining costs. [55:02] Some people are calling it a layoff boomerang. It's coming back. Those who were not overly hasty are the ones who will fare better in the long run. That's an important lesson to keep in mind when it comes to making some of these decisions, going forward. [55:28] Morgan says, nobody would have said we're going to have a war that's going to dominate all the headlines. Hilary says, if you told me there was going to be a war, Iran wouldn't have been my first guess. [55:42] Morgan says, We're starting storm season. We're anticipating it being a mellow storm season. It doesn't mean it will be. It's the nature of the game that there are a lot of unanticipated things. [55:57] Hilary says a dry hurricane season comes with increased dryness, which means increased wildfire risk. It's always something. It's either flooding or it's burning. Which you prefer is largely subjective. [56:24] Morgan says it's one of those years where it's tough to predict anything, because every day it's something new, which is what keeps risk management interesting. Hilary agrees. Morgan says he's still interested. [56:49] Justin says, It's been great to have you rejoin us. It's always fun! These are some of my favorite episodes to produce. Everyone, go to RMMagazine.com. RIMS members get access to the "turn the page" edition, but anyone can view a lot of the articles online. [57:11] The Awards issue is also at RMMagazine.com and RIMS.org/Awards. There's a listing of the folks who won, as well as links to the issue itself, where you can read more about those individuals. Learn editorial guidelines for contributing articles at RMMagazine.com/Contribute. [57:39] Hilary says There are also our Topics pages, if you want any subject-specific coverage. It's a great way to navigate within the website. Natural disaster things don't vary that wildly, year to year, when it comes to preparation best practices. [57:58] In submitting article pitches, keep in mind that Hilary will ask, "So what?" If you're submitting something, ask yourself that. So what? Why should somebody care to read this? [58:29] Justin says, Look at her Hurricane Outlook, and the Red Teaming article for good examples of what we're looking for. The Hurricane Outlook is far more in-depth than what we're expecting from the typical outside contributor, but it should give you a good starting point. [58:46] I'd like to congratulate you on another wonderful quarterly edition of RIMS Risk Management Magazine. I look forward to seeing you at upcoming RIMS events, and thank you so much for joining us. [59:00] Special thanks again to Morgan O'Rourke and Hilary Tuttle for joining us here on RIMScast again. The Q2 Edition of RIMS Risk Management Magazine is now available on RMMagazine.com. [59:12] If you want to contribute, check out RMMagazine.com/Contribute for the editorial guidelines. You can reach out to Morgan O'Rourke and Hilary Tuttle. And our Editor, Jennifer Post there, as well. [59:23] We're certainly going to have them back for our Year in Review episode of RIMScast, but if and when major news happens, or I run out of guests, they just may come back and rejoin us here on RIMScast.  [59:36] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes. [1:00:04] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information. [1:00:22] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [1:00:40] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [1:00:56] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [1:01:10] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. Please remember to subscribe to RIMScast on your favorite podcasting app. You can email us at Content@RIMS.org. [1:01:22] Practice good risk management, stay safe, and thank you again for your continued support!   Links: RIMS Risk Management Magazine | Contribute | Q2 2026 Issue Now Available RIMScast on YouTube! RIMS-CRO Certificate Program in Advanced Enterprise Risk Management | July – Sept. 2026 Cohort | Led by James Lam | Register Now! 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference | July 28‒Aug. 1 | Register Now RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2026 | Aug. 10‒12 in San Antonio | Register Now! Spencer Educational Foundation's 2026 Funding Their Future Gala | Sept. 17, 2026 ChicagoLand Risk Forum | Sept. 24, 2026 RIMS Western Regional Conference — Oct. 4‒7, 2026 | Seattle, WA | Register Today and Submit an Educational Session! 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RIMS, the Foundation for Risk Management The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center RIMS Diversity Equity Inclusion Council RIMS-CRMP Stories RIMScast Canada — Episodes Now Live RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA July 21‒22, 2026 Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops   Upcoming RIMS Webinars: RIMS.org/Webinars "Too Hot To Ignore: Heat-Related Injuries and Workers' Compensation" | July 16 | Presented by Zurich RIMS Student Series: "Classroom to Career Part 1" | Sept 1 RIMS Student Series: "Classroom to Career Part 2" | Sept 9   Related RIMScast Episodes: "Emerging Risks and AMRAE's RMIS Panorama 2026 with François Beaume" "Strategy and Change with Ward Ching and Aaron Olson" "RIMS Risk Manager of the Year Jeff Bray" "Board Reporting and ERM in 2026 with Trisha Sqrow and Suzanne Christensen" "Risk Outlook '26 with Morgan O'Rourke and Hilary Tuttle" (Jan 2026)   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: "48 Hours From a Storm: What to Do Before A Hurricane Strikes" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company (New!) 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RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Manny Padilla!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   About our guest: Morgan O'Rourke | Vice President, RIMS Content & Publications Hilary Tuttle | Managing Editor, Risk Management Magazine   Production and engineering provided by Podfly.

Wiping away Sleep from our Eyes Midnightrabbi style, the Awakened Mindset with deeper understanding of G-dliness, Good Chevra, connection to True Righteous People always aka the Tzadikei Emmes - Learning Daily Chizzuk in Chassidus, Rebbe Nosson's Sefer Likutei Halachos 4:7 at Shirat David Efrat… Cover Pic Eliezer Kosoy and Family Mazel Tov on the Engagement of Batya to Nachman Shimon Bergman…

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Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   In this episode, Justin interviews Johnell Holly about growing up in Compton, serving in the military, and eventually becoming one of the most senior leaders at FM. They discuss experiences that shaped his mindset and lessons from his early years that still guide his leadership. They discuss what Johnell learned in the military that influences his decision-making. Johnell explains why he left the military and how he started working for FM. Johnell shares his life advice: choose the hard things; they will prepare you for opportunities to improve yourself. Johnell relates his early experience in sales and how it shaped his career. Lastly, they discussed the Spencer Educational Foundation and how Johnell became involved.   Listen for advice on overcoming hard circumstances and showing up at your best.   Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:16] About this episode of RIMScast. Our guest is Johnell R. Holly, the Executive Vice President for U.S. and Latin America Operations at FM. He is also the Board Chair for the Spencer Educational Foundation. We will learn about his career and leadership philosophies. But first… [:47] RIMS Virtual Workshops. The next RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA will be held virtually on July 21st and 22nd. Registration links are in this episode's notes. [:58] We have a summertime webinar. On July 16th, Zurich will present "Too Hot to Ignore: Heat-Related Injuries and Workers' Compensation." Register at RIMS.org/webinars and via the link in this episode's show notes. [1:13] Also on the webinars page, you will see a two-part series hosted by the RIMS Membership Department. The "Classroom to Career" webinar series highlights how RIMS equips students with the knowledge, skills, and connections needed to thrive in risk management careers. [1:28] Participants will gain insights into industry trends, career pathways, and practical tools that help them confidently step into the evolving world of risk management after graduation. These sessions will be hosted on September 1st and 9th. [1:42] These sessions are member exclusives and are complimentary for RIMS members, of course. So, if you are interested in becoming a member, this would be the time. Visit RIMS.org/membership. [1:52] You can enroll now in the RIMS CRO Certificate Program in Advanced Enterprise Risk Management hosted by the famous James Lam. Beginning July 15th, workshops will be held bi-weekly from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The registration link is in the show notes. [2:16] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. The deadline for session submissions was extended through June 26th. Visit RIMS.org/ERM2026 to get those final submissions in. Registration will open in July. [2:37] RIMS is back on YouTube. Our handle is @RIMSOfficialChannel. We've got plenty of videos there, including RIMScast, RIMScast Canada video podcasts, and other informative and entertaining content from RIMS. Subscribe to the channel today! [2:56] On with the Show! Our guest today is Johnell Holly. He is the Executive Vice President for U.S. and Latin America Operations at FM. He is also the Board Chair for the Spencer Educational Foundation. [3:10] Johnell caught my attention last year at the Spencer's Funding Their Future Gala, which this year will be held on September 17th at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. [3:21] I found Johnell's career journey to be incredibly inspiring. He is here to discuss his path from humble upbringings to the military to the risk and insurance space and ultimately to philanthropic missions and leadership with Spencer. [3:36] I'm confident this dialogue will resonate with anyone who feels the odds are against them and is looking for extra motivation to overcome and choose the hard challenges in life and career. Let's get to it! [3:39] Interview! Johnell Holly, Welcome to RIMScast! [4:10] Johnell says he is absolutely thrilled for the Spencer Funding Their Futures Gala. It's one of the premier events of the year. Every year, it seems to get better and better, and it continues to achieve new heights. Johnell is excited to see where it goes this year and into the future. [4:51] Johnell comes from Compton, a rough neighborhood. Johnell wanted something different from how he grew up. He wanted to get a very good education. So he went to the United States Military Academy to get a very good education from a very high-profile institution. [6:01] Johnell started at the Academy in 1990 and graduated in 1995. In 1995, Johnell went into the Army as a commissioned officer and was in the Army until 2001. His last day of Active Duty was the week prior to 9/11. [6:47] Justin thanks Johnell for his service. [7:07] Johnell says there's a lot of what he does today that relates to his military education. He says there's also a lot from his childhood that helped him along his career, including his desire to improve himself. [7:27] Johnell says some things in the military resonated with him that made it very easy to be more successful outside of the military, such as the work ethic and making the choice to do the harder things when they present themselves. [7:52] Johnell says, it's like doing the harder military school. Once you get that done, everything else is a bit easier. Johnell says that taking a tough assignment or job within FM, he knows that if he does a job that no one else wants to do, he will have what most people won't have. [8:11] Johnell says he did things like that deliberately over the years. His mantra would be, Always choose hard, and hopefully, you get to a point where that no longer has to happen. [6:25] Justin heard a speaker say that if you have six things coming up, one of them is the tough one, and five of them are easy ones, people will choose the five easy ones first, before they get to the tough one. Justin says Johnell chooses the hard one first before the five easy ones. [8:55] Johnell agrees, not just in his career; he learned it very young. When he was young, he didn't like how he was showing up. He knew he needed to position himself with more strengths. [9:17] The only way Johnell was going to get those strengths was to do all the things he was afraid to do or hated to do. He had to face fears, get over them, and get through the hard stuff. He teaches his kids that today. [9:32] Johnell has five kids. The three oldest are girls. The oldest also graduated from Wespoint and is serving. The daughter below her is on a destroyer right now in the Mediterranean, so she's in the war. [10:02] Johnell has two sons. Both of them are in the top 15 or 20 in the nation for football. One is a redshirt freshman at Michigan, and the other will head out to FSU and Georgia in the next week for his official visits. He'll pick one of them. [10:31] Johnell talks to his daughters in the service regularly. [10:42] Justin asks about NIL deals for Johnell's sons. Johnell says the NIL deals are peanuts compared to the insurance negotiations he does daily. [11:07] When Johnell left the Army, insurance was definitely not on his radar. He was being asked by the military to go back and get his Master's. That meant leaving the state of Washington, where he was assigned. He didn't want to leave; he had things to take care of. [11:38] Johnell needed to look and see what other options were out there. He went to a headhunter. He interviewed for five or six companies, and all of them made an offer. One of them had a position in Seattle, where he wanted to be. [12:05] After some negotiation, Johnell decided to give it a go as a consultant engineer, an entry-level position, for FM. He wasn't aware it was an insurance company. He thought he was going into engineering. Coming directly from the military, he wasn't familiar with business. [12:36] Once Johnell got into FM, he realized that it was an insurance company. Once he saw that, he was very interested in that side of the business and wanted to get over to it very quickly. By 2002, Johnell had moved to the insurance side of FM. [13:31] Johnell says, early on, risk management and insurance had been thought of as a secondary thought to business. Understanding of the hazards and operating to reduce those hazards didn't exist at the levels that it does today. [14:11] Today, thinking about risk and ensuring that you are resilient is no longer optional. You cannot just hope that things aren't going to go wrong. You have to assume that things are going to go wrong. Those who do that well will be more successful. [14:35] A Quick Break! There are so many other wonderful RIMS events coming up in 2026. The Annual Florida RIMS Educational Conference will be held from July 28th through August 1st at the lovely Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. A link to the event is in this episode's show notes. [14:53] Register now for the Second Annual RIMS Texas Regional Conference, which will be held from August 10th through 12th at the Grand Hyatt on the San Antonio River Walk. [15:05] The 11th Annual Chicagoland Risk Forum will return to the Old Post Office on Thursday, September 24th, 2026, in Chicago. Visit ChicagolandRiskForum.org for more information. [15:15] The RIMS Western Regional Conference will be held from October 4th through the 7th in Seattle, Washington. The agenda is live, and registration is open. Visit RIMSWesternRegional.com and the link in this episode's show notes for more information. [15:32] Save the dates October 18th through the 21st. We will be in Quebec City to celebrate the 50th Live RIMS Canada Conference. Booth sales are open, and sponsorship opportunities are still available. Advance registration is open now. [15:48] Visit RIMSCanadaConference.ca for more information. Also, remember to check out RIMS.org/Canada for our spinoff show, RIMScast Canada, hosted by National Conference Committee Chair, Aaron Lukoni. [16:03] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. The deadline for educational content submissions was extended to Friday, June 26th. Get submissions in now. The link is in this episode's show notes. Registration opens in July. [16:25] Let's Return to Our Interview with Johnell Holly! [16:33] At the start of working for FM, Johnell was doing client service and sales. Johnell was a captain when he left the military. He was in a position of authority with a good amount of autonomy. Coming to FM, he was older than his peers, who had come straight out of college. [17:13] That maturity was pretty key. The best thing Johnell learned in the military is that rank doesn't matter. What matters is how you treat people, not just the people you work with every day, but how you treat every person you interact with. [17:42] If you can do that well, and recognize that we're all the same, looking for the same stuff, trying to achieve the same things. Johnell says to put it all into perspective and take that approach in how you deal with people. Relationships are king in the military and in life.  [18:27] Johnell really wanted to do well in the job he was in. He says, if you do well, if you put your heart, effort, and everything else into what you're doing, it gets recognized. Folks want that experience and expertise in other areas. That's how you create opportunities for yourself. [19:17] Johnell has had a lot of different jobs at FM. Probably the most difficult job was sales. Johnell is a very deliberate person. He likes to be strategic and very planned in how he approaches things. He says, in sales, you have to be a lot more fluid, with a lot less structure. [19:49] Johnell doesn't think it has to be that way. Sales, to be most effective, should have quite a bit of structure, but in the early days, that didn't exist. [19:57] That was not the best environment for Johnell, but it taught him again how to manage through situations, overcome them, and get better at them. It was much like choosing hard, although that wasn't his intent. [20:28] It was one of the most developmental roles of his career at FM that put him in a position to be in the roles that he is in now. [21:25] Justin says it's fascinating to see who succeeds in sales and who goes on to do other things. Johnell says, You've got to be resilient. You've got to be able to take a lot of No and be okay with that. It was all cold calling, lighting them up, and getting in the door. [22:03] Another Quick Break! Johnell Holly will be at The Spencer Funding Their Future Gala 2026 in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria on September 17th. This year, Spencer will honor Sierra Signorelli of Zurich and last week's guest, Marya Propis of RT Specialty. [22:31] A link to the Gala is in this episode's show notes. [22:34] The Spencer Educational Foundation's Risk Manager on Campus application period is now open, and it will close on June 30th. Grant awardees, colleges, and universities are typically notified in September. [22:52] General Grant applications are open, and the application deadline is July 30th. Internship Grant applications open on August 15th and close on October 15th. [23:04] Links to each of these grants are in this episode's show notes. Visit SpencerEd.org for more information. [23:12] Let's Conclude Our Interview with Spencer Board Chair Johnell Holly! [23:30] Johnell says selling remains difficult. FM is not a sales-focused organization. FM needs sales; it's critically important, but FM is about client retention and building client relationships. [24:17] Before a salesman for FM can sell a policy to a company, the salesperson needs to get internal sign-off for various reasons that the company is a good fit for FM. Johnell says there's more structure in FM sales policy today. More training is done for successful selling. [25:39] Johnell says that from the first day he started with FM, RIMS was a part of the conversation. Johnell's participation was in attending some of the local RIMS events when he was on the West Coast. Johnell started in Washington and then went down to LA. [26:10] Johnell had attended Western Regional RIMS and Los Angeles RIMS events. Johnell says that he had been with FM for almost 15 years before he really became aware of Spencer. Today, Spencer is out there much more, creating education and awareness for the industry. [26:59] Johnell says that for Spencer to create awareness for students, everyone in the industry needs to know about it. Spencer is at a point where it is recognized as a foundation throughout the insurance industry. [27:18] Johnell says that Spencer needs to be recognized even outside of the insurance industry, as much as possible, and he thinks it is on its way. It's been a buildup of all the efforts and work, back to Robert S. Spencer himself, that have led to where Spencer is today, and it will continue. [28:03] Johnell says his involvement with Spencer came when Brian Callori, who was one of the Chairs and who also worked for FM, thought that it would be a good fit and a great opportunity for Johnell to be a part of it. He suggested that Johnell be recommended to join the Board. [28:31] Johnell joined the Spencer Educational Foundation Board. Within the first couple of meetings, Johnell realized that they could do things better, and he started speaking up about it. He only wanted to help the organization do its best. They asked him to do as he suggested. [28:57] Johnell joined the Executive Committee and continued in various positions until he is now the Chair. Justin notes Johnell's enthusiasm about the Spencer Educational Foundation, evident in his Gala address last year. [29:09] Johnell plans to be on stage again at the 2026 Gala. [29:38] Justin asks about last episode's RIMScast guest, Marya Probis, who is no longer on the Board and is one of this year's Spencer honorees. [29:53] Johnell says the interesting thing about the Board is that they are all competitors for the most part. The minute they get into that room, they come together and focus on the mission of Spencer. Johnell sees that they have a sincere desire to help the industry advance. [30:31] Johnell says we need to educate folks in the middle schools and primary schools and so on to get folks thinking about working in insurance. Insurance is an amazing industry and career, and it's necessary. It's inspiring to be able to talk about and drive it throughout the world. [31:42] Johnell says the world has always been changing. The one constant is change. The more that all of us, including kids, can embrace that reality, the better prepared we will be. The insurance industry always follows the world. The world is always looking for the next best thing. [32:42] Someone is out there innovating, inventing, and trying to come up with the new thing. The new thing is going to come with risk. Johnell says our capability and responsibility to be able to protect that risk or associated risks is what we do. It's why we're here. That's exciting. [33:11] Justin says, We're looking forward to seeing you on Thursday, September 17th, at the Waldorf Astoria, for the 2026 Funding Their Future Gala. We've got Sierra Signorelli from Zurich as one of the honorees; Marya Propis is the second honoree, and it's going to be a great time. [33:28] I look forward to seeing you up onstage. Last year, your message resonated with me so much. You came from a very humble upbringing, and you have this wild trajectory professionally, and you've got five kids, so you've had quite a journey. [33:55] Justin asks Johnell to imagine an audience member hearing this episode of RIMScast, and they might similarly come from a difficult background and just not know what their path forward is going to be. What message would you have for that person today? [34:15] It's the same message Johnell has for a lot of the folks he interacts with from a similar background. His family still lives in Compton, so he still interacts with kids and with college athletes who did not have the greatest upbringing. [34:38] Johnell says it's wrong to think you are not a product of your environment. You are. Depending on what that environment has in store for you, you either want to be there or you don't want to be there. One thing you can control to some extent is whether or not you're there. [35:10] Change your environment. If you can't change your environment, change the way you show up in your environment. Do the things that are going to give you more experiences. Do the things, the hard things, that are going to create more opportunities for you down the road. [35:30] You don't have to do something earth-shattering. It could be the little things that start to build your toolbox. So that when the time comes and the opportunity presents itself, you have all of these things you have built that will uniquely position you to take advantage of that situation. [35:58] You need to put yourself in a position so that when the time comes, you're ready to go. That often means to "choose hard." If you're willing to choose hard, then you are going to differentiate yourself. There's no way in the world that it doesn't pay off at some point. It will. [36:20] Justin says These are wonderful words of wisdom. They resonate with me, and I'm positive they're going to resonate with the audience. You're an inspiring guy. I look forward to hearing more from you and to seeing you in September. Thank you so much for your time. [36:45] Special thanks again to Johnell Holly of FM and the Spencer Board Chair. We look forward to seeing him at the Spencer Educational Foundation's 2026 Funding Their Future Gala, which will be held on September 17th at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC. [37:02] Visit SpencerEd.org for more information and to purchase your ticket and for sponsorship opportunities. Remember to check out last week's episode, RIMScast #395, to hear an interview with Marya Propis, one of this year's Spencer Funding Their Future Gala honorees. [37:20] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes. [37:49] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information. [36:07] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [38:25] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [38:41] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [38:55] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. Please remember to subscribe to RIMScast on your favorite podcasting app. You can email us at Content@RIMS.org. [39:07] Practice good risk management, stay safe, and thank you again for your continued support!   Links: Spencer Educational Foundation's 2026 Funding Their Future Gala | Sept. 17, 2026 RIMScast on YouTube! Spencer Educational Foundation — Scholarships and Grants | Open Calls and Timelines. RIMS-CRO Certificate Program In Advanced Enterprise Risk Management | July‒Sept. 2026 Cohort | Led by James Lam | Register Now! 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference | July 28‒Aug. 1 | Register Now RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2026 | Aug. 10‒12 in San Antonio | Register Now! ChicagoLand Risk Forum | Sept. 24, 2026 RIMS Western Regional Conference — Oct. 4‒7, 2026 | Seattle, WA | Register Today and Submit an Educational Session! RIMS Canada Conference — Oct. 18‒21, 2026 | Quebec City | www.rimscanadaconference.ca | Advance Registration Open | Sponsorship Opportunities Available RIMS ERM Conference 2026 | November 19‒20 in Columbus, Ohio | Session submissions deadline extended to June 26! | www.rims.org/ERM2026 RIMS Risk Management magazine | Contribute RIMS Now RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) | Insights Video Series Featuring Joe Milan! RIMS, the Foundation for Risk Management The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center RIMS Diversity Equity Inclusion Council RIMS-CRMP Stories RIMScast Canada — Episodes Now Live RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA, July 21‒22, 2026 Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops   Upcoming RIMS Webinars: RIMS.org/Webinars "Too Hot To Ignore: Heat-Related Injuries and Workers' Compensation" | July 16 | Presented by Zurich RIMS Student Series: "Classroom to Career Part 1" | Sept 1 RIMS Student Series: "Classroom to Career Part 2" | Sept 9   Related RIMScast Episodes: "Marya Propis: From Industry Leader to Talent Champion" "Spencer Day 2026 | The Future of Strategic Risk Management" "Risk Management Momentum with Tim Ryan" (2025 Spencer Honoree) "The Strengths of DE&I Initiatives with Lilian Vanvieldt-Gray of Alliant Insurance Services" (2024 Spencer Honoree)   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: "48 Hours From a Storm: What to Do Before A Hurricane Strikes" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company (New!) "AI-Scale, Risk Ready: Engineering Controls for the New Data Center Boom" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Facing Into Risk: Navigating the New Risk Landscape" (New!) | Sponsored by AXA XL "Secondary Perils, Major Risks: The New Face of Weather-Related Challenges" | Sponsored by AXA XL "The ART of Risk: Rethinking Risk Through Insight, Design, and Innovation" | Sponsored by Alliant "Mastering ERM: Leveraging Internal and External Risk Factors" | Sponsored by Diligent "Cyberrisk: Preparing Beyond 2025" | Sponsored by Alliant "The New Reality of Risk Engineering: From Code Compliance to Resilience" | Sponsored by AXA XL "Change Management: AI's Role in Loss Control and Property Insurance" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Demystifying Multinational Fronting Insurance Programs" | Sponsored by Zurich "Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding" | Sponsored by Zurich "What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping" | Sponsored by Medcor "How Insurance Builds Resilience Against An Active Assailant Attack" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips" | Sponsored by Alliant   RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Manny Padilla!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   About our guest: Johnell R. Holly, Executive Vice President, United States and Latin America Operations, FM Board Chair, Spencer Educational Foundation   Production and engineering provided by Podfly.

Alex Traiman JNS CEO x Great Job

Cry for the true Tzaddikim, for Yerushalyim & for all our children, with the Shechinah Chatzot aka Midnight - Learning Likutei Halachos 4:6 weekly at Shirat David Efrat… My oldest son's birthday such a blessing to have here in our home and community… appreciate the blessing of Boruch Yitzchak ben Masha we got to show appreciation to all our healthy Giborim here. His best friend yahrzeit is this week killed last year Netsach yehuda AH Meir Shimshon ben Gavriel zl Cover pic with Gratitude, Gedale Fenster x Soulfull Tours x Unity Bookings in Waldorf Astoria, Yerushalyim… https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0wS2_CnQc/?igsh=MWlnYTJqNXF1NDN2aw==@gedalefenster @soulfulltours @unityinspiresprojects DM & Email SoulfullTours@Gmail.com for A Very Special “Soul Messages” Israel Retreat @waldorfastoriajerusalem UnityInspireProjects.com…#soulfulltours #gedalefenster #yerushalayim #waldorf #unitybookings

Frank welcomes Logan from Luminary Lighthouse for his debut on the show, and the topic is the lost age of the rigid airship. The Hindenburg is the spine of the conversation: a luxury hotel in the sky that could circumnavigate the globe without refueling, that carried tens of thousands of passengers without a single injury before May 1937, and that died in a few televised minutes in Lakehurst. Why did one disaster end an entire industry every major country had invested in? Whose timeline got rewritten that day? From there it goes deeper. The Empire State Building topped with what was clearly designed as a Zeppelin mooring mast. The Waldorf Astoria built in three years and torn down after thirty two. Frank pushes back on some of Logan's old world theories while running toward others, and they land on world's fairs as previews of timelines we were never permitted to reach. In the second hour Frank watches a fresh deep dive on NEOM, the Saudi Arabian Line that has quietly scaled back from 170 kilometers to 2.4, with tens of thousands of workers living in unmarked desert camps. Lost futures, and the futures we got instead.

This is an episode of Hotels with History, produced by Intelligence Squared on behalf of Perowne International⁠. We're in midtown Manhattan to kick off Series 2, at the very heart of New York society: the Waldorf Astoria. An icon born from family rivalry which evolved into the unofficial palace of the city; from Gilded Age ambition and Art Deco grandeur to revolutionary ideas about service, the Waldorf doesn't just reflect New York's history... it helped define it. Check into The Waldorf Astoria here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   In this episode, Justin interviews Marya Propis about her career in retail brokerage, wholesale distribution, and executive leadership. Marya speaks of leaders who influenced her, how her leadership skills have changed in 30 years, and how emotional intelligence guides her as she helps young insurance professionals at RT Specialty. She also shares the importance of physical fitness and self-care in showing up at her best each day. Marya discusses the wholesale Excess and Surplus Lines marketplace in the U.S. She talks about her involvement in industry associations and the enthusiasm she has for helping students and new risk professionals. She shares information about the Spencer Educational Foundation's Funding Their Future 2026 Gala, where she will be one of two honorees. She serves as a Director of Distinction, acting as an ambassador for the Spencer Educational Foundation.   Listen for Marya's enthusiastic approach to persuasive leadership.   Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:16] About this episode of RIMScast. We will be rejoined by our friend Marya Propis, President of Retail Distribution at RT Specialty and honoree at this year's Spencer's Funding Their Future Gala in New York City on September 17th. There is a lot to catch up on. But first… [:47] RIMS Virtual Workshops. The next RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep with AFERM will be held on June 16th and 17th. The next RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA will be held virtually on July 21st and 22nd. Links to registration are in this episode's notes. [:58] We have a summertime webinar. On July 16th, Zurich will present "Too Hot to Ignore: Heat-Related Injuries and Workers' Compensation." Register at RIMS.org/webinars and via the link in this episode's show notes. [1:13] You can enroll now in the RIMS CRO Certificate Program in Advanced Enterprise Risk Management hosted by the famous James Lam. Beginning July 15th, workshops will be held bi-weekly from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The registration link is in the show notes. [1:34] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. We want to hear from you. Submit a session proposal by June 19th to reach engaged practitioners, innovators, and leaders looking for guidance they can utilize right away. [1:52] Help define what's next for Enterprise Risk Management. Submit a session proposal by Friday, June 19th. Visit RIMS.org/ERM2026. [2:02] Folks, through the generosity of its industry partners, RIMS has launched The Foundation for Risk Management™, which provides scholarships for early-career professionals to attend RIMS events like RIMS Texas Regional Conference, RIMS Canada Conference, and RISKWORLD. [2:21] The Foundation also helps beneficiaries earn their RIMS-CRMP and fund research projects. To learn more or contribute to the Foundation, visit RIMS.org/FRM and visit the link in this episode's show notes. [2:36] RIMS is back on YouTube. Our handle is @RIMSOfficialChannel. We've got plenty of videos there, including RIMScast, RIMScast Canada video podcasts, and other informative and entertaining content from RIMS. Subscribe to the channel today! [2:56] On with the Show! Marya Propis is rejoining us on RIMScast. She is the President of Retail Distribution at RT Specialty, and she will be honored this year at the Spencer Funding their Future Gala at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City on September 17th. [3:17] We'll learn about Marya's career, her risk management philosophy, how her physical wellness fuels her progress as a risk and insurance professional, and why she feels it is critical to continue her support for women in the profession. We're going to have fun. Let's get to it! [3:39] Interview! Marya Propis, Welcome Back to RIMScast! [3:49] Since the last time Justin and Marya spoke, Marya has joined RT Specialty. She is coming up on her 6th anniversary with RT Specialty. It has been the most enjoyable and successful career chapter she has been fortunate to enjoy. [4:04] Marya says there are so many great things to talk about in terms of what's going on in the marketplace and at RT Specialty and how that pertains to Spencer. [4:20] Marya is President of Retail Distribution. She was promoted to that role several months ago. A dedicated group under her leadership is keeping a finger on the pulse of what's going on in the ultra-dynamic U.S. retail landscape. [4:47] They are always thinking of ways to be more client-centric, partner more fully with their retail clients, and think of all the places that their clients need RT to be as the top wholesale partner in the U.S. [5:08] Marya has six people on her team for a wholesaler that placed $32 billion of premium last year. But, actually, her team is the entirety of all the brokers and underwriters that work for RT Specialty. That's 1,500 people. [5:28] Marya's job is to make the brokers and underwriters who work for the team more successful every day. Her stakeholders are the market-facing, talented brokers and underwriters. They are her team. [5:46] Marya sets best practices and standards around compensation, conferences, and the way they engage. Client-centricity is very important, so Marya extends direction for it. [6:00] Marya explains how leadership style has evolved. In the first half of her career, it was all about command and control, from the top down. Telling everyone what to do has evolved positively. [6:19] Marya prides herself on having very good influence and leadership skills. She says people want to follow her direction. She had to learn a lot to go from telling people what to do to creating a path people want to follow. Being a command-and-control leader doesn't feel good. [7:00] Marya says that when we started talking about emotional intelligence as an important part of leadership, she realized she had it. She just hadn't been using it in any of her management or leadership roles. [7:11] It became more acceptable to use emotional intelligence to get your team aligned and get people thinking around the direction you need to go as a team or a firm. That's been very positive for Marya, but she couldn't flip that switch overnight. [7:30] Marya had to learn a lot to change her leadership style so people want to follow and feel that she is creating the right direction, so they can be more successful, not leading them down a path to doom and demise. [7:52] Marya says that an emphasis on emotional intelligence came hand in hand with the industry starting to pay attention to women in insurance and the lack of representation of female leadership in insurance. [8:09] Marya says that a decade ago the insurance industry started to be deliberate about realizing they didn't have many women in leadership and that there were obstacles in the industry to women being promoted and compensated at the same rate as their male colleagues. [8:31] Emotional intelligence came along with the recognition that women have a distinct and unique skill set. Emotional intelligence is a prevalent part of a woman's skill set. Women bring real value as leaders. The traits that come with that include emotional intelligence. [9:07] Justin says we have such a great group of rising risk professionals, particularly females, in the profession and the RIMScast listenership, so this is a great way to kick off this dialog.  [9:25] Marya says she has worked for a lot of great leaders. She was fortunate to work closely with many executives. You can watch a leader and learn a technique or a trait that you can add to the skill set you already have. Marya says she gets her best material from others. [10:14] Marya says Pat Ryan, who founded RT Specialty, is the absolute Superman of insurance. Any time she hears Pat Ryan talk, she leaves with a gem that she commits to do or think about, going forward. He uses an expression: "Do the right thing, because it's the right thing to do." [10:47] If you use that as a guiding principle for how you set your priorities and make decisions, based on what your retail clients need, then it's very obvious what you need to do. It has become a guiding principle for her in the way she makes decisions every day. [11:47] Marya says her scope of responsibility is just retail clients. Her colleague Leah Ohodnicki oversees carrier management. They talk all the time. There are so many of the same principles that they apply, just to different channels in the marketplace. [12:07] Marya has been a career salesperson. For her whole insurance career, she has sold stuff. She has sold capabilities and products. She sells and represents wholesale brokerage services. [12:27] Marya says no client is like another. You must see every client with fresh, objective eyes. Every client has something unique, or a competitive advantage, or something special about the way they've built their firm. Sometimes you have to look carefully to find it, but it's always there. [13:06] You have to be willing to put yourself in their shoes. How do they see the world? How is that retailer creating visibility and driving success? [13:26] Marya prides herself on being a student of who the retail client is and thinking about how to better frame partnership strategies to work with them as effectively as possible, rather than thinking about herself, RT Specialty, and all the stuff she can throw at any retail client. [13:48] In Marya's mind, the way to do it is to start by asking what they need. Where is the place that they will need RT Specialty to be more successful? Then she constructs an engagement approach around that. That's different from how she thought about it 20 years ago. [14:15] In any industry, Marya doesn't want to be a vendor. She wants to be a partner. There's a big difference in the way you have to think to be a trusted business partner. That's a very important part of Marya's personal and professional philosophy in creating partnerships. [15:13] Marya says she's very committed to the digital distribution model. It's been one of the more exciting and dynamic components of the retail channel. Marya doesn't use AI interchangeably with digital distribution. Digital distribution is where we sell things online. [15:41] Marya says AI is a technology enabler that helps us be more efficient in sales. RT Specialty has an online portal called RT Connector that has been trading E&S Specialty, Micro and Small Commercial P&C products for eight years on the digital distribution platform. [16:09] Marya says there's a newish type of retail agent in the U.S. marketplace called digital agencies. They want to trade as efficiently as possible. They want API connectivity. They're focused on a specific segment and industry, in terms of where they feel they can sell and trade. [16:31] Marya says even the way they acquire leads is very different than a traditional retail model. Marya says we're certainly not going to sell RT the same way to a digital agency as we do to a big Alpha house. They're very different. [16:51] Understand the model. Understand how that retail agent or broker is structured, and meet them where they are. With digital retail agents, it's a completely different type of retail partnership that they can build with them vs. other models they've worked successfully with. [17:18] Marya says our retail clients are always evolving and changing and buying lots of stuff, in mergers and acquisitions. They restructure. How they choose to go to market. How they're winning business. Marya loves all the learning that comes as the market and her clients evolve. [17:45] Marya says they're a wholesaler. Their digital platform will reflect the appetite and eligibility of the technology-enabled carriers that are represented on the RT Specialty platform as trading partners. [18:10] Marya says they have 130 talented binding authority teams across their U.S. platform. They know what their appetite is; they have the binding authority. That's human interaction. [18:28] Marya says RT Specialty mimics that same process with some of the same carrier partners by putting their product-specific appetite on their digital platform. [18:38] The same agent can either go to the RT binding authority underwriter or go through RT Connector. If it fits the appetite of the products on RT Connector, in five minutes, the agent can rate quote, bind, issue, e-deliver policies, surplus lines taxes, and finance premium. [19:02] Marya says she can ask agents how they want to trade the E&S specialty marketplace. There are a lot of paths they can follow that get them to the same place where they win. RT Specialty can put the right resources around that. [19:35] Marya says if a retail client brings a franchise opportunity to RT Specialty, if it's a franchise operation that's insured, RT Specialty will write it. They write lots of them in the U.S. Marya participates in risks her retail clients bring to RT. [19:52] Marya doesn't sell directly to franchises, but RT has a lot of franchises and programs in chains in their book of business. RT has the largest sports and entertainment practice in the wholesale segment in the U.S. It's a tough segment of the marketplace. [20:20] RT Specialty has invested a lot in terms of talent. RT Specialty owns the largest MGU in the marketplace. The sports are professional, amateur, and everything in between. It's a very successful market segment for RT Specialty. [20:41] Marya explains that an MGU is a Managing General Underwriter, which is different from an MGA (a Managing General Agency), which is different from a Program. Marya says this has been one of the fastest-growing segments of the specialty market in the United States. [21:09] Marya says you create a homogeneous appetite for a certain bulk of business, find a carrier partner, set up a Program, and open your storefront and either distribute through retailers or wholesalers. Some are direct-to-insureds [21:30] Managing General Underwriter means that we would create the appetite and the guidelines. Managing General Agent means that the carrier has already defined that, and they're allowing us to put a storefront in front of that. [21:54] That's different from some of the traditional carriers that RT Specialty works with, like Lexington Insurance Company or Westchester Insurance Company. Those are carriers. That is a different solution than when RT Specialty approaches an MGU on behalf of their retail client. [22:18] Marya says anytime you have a lot of people in one place at an event, there are lots of risks associated with that: gun violence, political violence, and means of evacuation response. We have seen that time and again. [22:43] When you have a lot of people congregating for a sporting event, a demonstration, a commemoration, or other event, it's gotten much riskier when you put a lot of humans in one place. That has made that segment of the marketplace much more challenging than ever. [23:10] Marya mentions boxing matches in Vegas or the number of active shooter incidents in Vegas. Marya believes the Excess and Surplus Lines market segment is the permanent home for high-hazard risks in the U.S. It's not an escape valve. [23:42] Marya says that in her lifetime, those types of risks will never swing back to the direct admitted standard carrier side. As a wholesale broker, RT Specialty is looking to partner with carriers that have the right type of appetite to support those risks. [23:59] RT Specialty builds products, so they own MGUs, MGAs, and Programs. They invest and build products when segments of the marketplace become very tough, so they have solutions available through their brokers and underwriters to write any risk in any class of business. [24:19] A Quick Break! There are so many other wonderful RIMS events coming up in 2026. The Annual Florida RIMS Educational Conference will be held from July 28th through August 1st at the lovely Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. A link to the event is in this episode's show notes. [24:37] Register now for the Second Annual RIMS Texas Regional Conference, which will be held from August 10th through 12th at the Grand Hyatt on the San Antonio River Walk. [24:48] The 11th Annual Chicagoland Risk Forum will return to the Old Post Office on Thursday, September 24th, 2026, in Chicago. Visit ChicagolandRiskForum.org for more information. [24:59] The RIMS Western Regional Conference will be held from October 4th through the 7th in Seattle, Washington. Registration is open, and you can also submit a session. Visit RIMSWesternRegional.com and the link in this episode's show notes for more information. [25:16] Save the dates October 18th through the 21st. We will be in Quebec City to celebrate the 50th Live RIMS Canada Conference. Booth sales are already open. Earlybird registration is open now. [25:31] Visit RIMSCanadaConference.ca for more information. Also, remember to check out RIMS.org/Canada for our spinoff show, RIMScast Canada, hosted by National Conference Committee Chair, Aaron Lukoni. [25:45] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. The deadline for educational content submissions is Friday, June 19th. Get submissions in now. The link is in this episode's show notes. Registration opens in July. [26:08] Let's Return to Our Interview with Marya Propis! [26:32] Justin asks about Marya incorporating workouts into her life so she can perform better as a risk and insurance professional. Justin also feels that he has missed out if he has not exercised or worked out for a certain time each week. [27:03] Mary has 35 years in the business. She travels every week. She flies a lot. She is very focused on her wellness routine. She has been an athlete her whole life, so working out is important to her. So is self-care. [27:34] Having gone through menopause and figuring out what was going sideways, physically and mentally, Marya feels good about where she is today, in her commitment to herself, supplements she takes, and understanding healthy brain function and the effects of hormones. [28:09] Marya says we know hormones have a significant impact on our ability to function, both for men and women. Marya says her lifestyle is not perfect. She eats at restaurants 80% of the time, and entertaining clients involves alcohol. [28:40] Marya loves the relationship-building, social, and personal connection side of the business. She's not going to skip drinks or dinner with anyone. But it's a place where there can be a lot of pitfalls. She doesn't subscribe to an austerity lifestyle. But she has to pick her spots, now. [29:10] Marya says she can't be dragging on Thursday morning. She still has two big days ahead of her to deliver. Marya talks about sleep quality, not just how much you get, which gets tough when you're sleeping in different hotel rooms. [29:35] Marya says, This is the way it is with the career I have chosen, and I love. She has to be much more deliberate and mindful and remind herself that in June, she is traveling 18 days. On the days she's not traveling, she knows what to do for working out and for her wellness routine. [30:24] Marya says she is open and willing to learn. She is open to trying and learning new things. She believes in supplements and vitamins. She takes different ones now than she would have taken a decade ago. You have to be a student of that, like everything else in life. [30:43] Marya says The second you start to lose the desire to learn, what's next? It's not really fun when people's mindsets change. [30:54] Marya has been a Yoga practitioner for 30 years. She does Power Vinyasa in an infrared studio. Marya says the benefits of infrared are scientifically not debatable. She says infrared is great for joints, skin, and healthy brain functioning. It amped up her Yoga routine. [31:15] Marya does TRX bodyweight exercises. Most of the hotel gyms today have a TRX setup. She loves that, since she spends a lot of time in hotels and hotel gyms. Marya does circuit training. She works with heavy weights three times a week to maintain skeletal strength. [31:53] Marya says it sounds like a lot. As an athlete, when you have to perform and deliver, it's part of the way you have to think. It's how Marya thinks. She has to show up and be her best self when she's representing RT Specialty in the marketplace. [32:14] Marya has a lot of people relying on her to be crisp and present with a great level of energy. You can't do that if you're dragging all the time. [32:40] Marya grew up in Buffalo, New York, so she's a skier. It was the first sport for her family. She played tennis in high school and college. She ran track as a sprinter. Her favorite sport is Yoga. A couple of genres of Yoga have world competitions. Mary likes vigorous, athletic Yoga. [33:34] Another Quick Break! The Spencer Educational Foundation's Risk Manager on Campus application period is now open, and it will close on June 30th. Grant awardees, colleges, and universities are typically notified in September. [34:05] General Grant applications are open, and the application deadline is July 30th. Internship Grant applications open on August 15th and close on October 15th. [34:16] Links to each of these grants are in this episode's show notes. Visit SpencerEd.org for more information. [34:24] Let's Conclude Our Interview with One of the Two Honorees of the Spencer Educational Foundation's Funding Their Future Gala 2026, Marya Propis! [34:48] Justin asks about associations Marya is plugged into that support empowering women in the risk and insurance industry, such as APIW and WISE. [35:01] Marya represents RT Specialty on two boards. One is CIAB (The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers), an international organization known for its regulatory and lobbying efforts. [35:25] Marya spent a week in London last month with CIAB. There is so much going on in the London marketplace. That has been a lot of fun and a place to continue to learn. [34:47] The second board is WSIA (Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association), representing the wholesale specialty segment. There are specialty markets around the world, but the E&S lines market segment only exists in the United States. WSIA is a wonderful organization. [36:14] Marya says that what's great about both CIAB and WSIA is what they do to support young and developing insurance and risk management professionals. It's consistent with and complementary to the work, scope, and mission of the Spencer Educational Foundation. [36:32] Marya loves the way all of that comes together. Marya has been in the space developing, recruiting, and supporting emerging leaders and talent in the insurance and risk management marketplace for a long time. It's a space she loves to be in. [35:56] It all comes together nicely with Marya's board service and her commitments to foundations and causes. [37:10] Justin says the Spencer Funding Their Future Gala will be on Thursday, September 17th, at the world-famous Waldorf Astoria. Marya is one of the two honorees this year. Justin asks what this honor means to Marya. [37:35] Marya can't remember a time when she looked forward to something so much. First, she was surprised, and she feels really humbled. Marya had been a Spencer Board member and Chair of the Board, thinking about whom they would honor, every year for a decade. [38:05] It's really humbling to be considered, let alone this year, going back to the Waldorf Astoria. Marya remembers the Spencer Gala there, at which she spoke as Chair of the Fundraising Committee. [38:22] Marya just about passed out before going on stage, as she had never talked before so many people. She was hyperventilating. She didn't fall off the stage. She enjoyed herself a little bit. The Waldorf Astoria is one of the most storied hotels in the history of New York City. [39:06] Marya says Sierra Signorelli is the other honoree for the Gala. Sierra and Marya worked together early in their careers at AIG. They got a significant start to their careers then. They've known each other for a long time. Marya praises Sierra and is so happy to be doing this with her. [39:32] Justin notes that Sierra is the Zurich U.S. CEO and the Zurich Commercial Insurance CEO. Those are not easy titles to achieve. Zurich is a global insurance carrier. Marya admires Sierra's career trajectory and the leadership influence she has had on so many. [39:51] This is the first time there have been two female honorees in the history of the Spencer Gala. Marya says sharing that honor with Sierra, someone she knows, trusts, and respects so highly, makes it even more special and a night to look forward to. She can't wait! [40:17] Marya is now a Director of Distinction on the Spencer Board. Her RT Specialty colleague, Michael VanAcker, is on the Spencer Board today. Marya mentions that Pat Ryan was honored by Spencer at one of the first Galas. Tim Turner, RT Specialty CEO, introduced Pat that year. [40:53] RT Specialty has had a seat on the Spencer Board for years. Marya is a Director of Distinction as she is a former Board Chair. They ask her to be an advocate where Megan Miller needs her, and to be conversant on where Spencer continues to support and drive results. [41:18] Marya stays in touch and makes sure she knows what is going on with the programs and schools they are partnering with. Her role is to be informed, be an ambassador, and jump in at any place that Megan and the Spencer team would need her to influence, help, and support. [41:41] Marya spoke at the E&S Insurer conference. At the end of the conference, she brought Megan Miller in and introduced her to the writers' folks and asked if they could get a five-minute spotlight on Spencer next year. That is an example of where Marya can try to help. [42:15] Marya says Spencer scholars are so excited about their insurance career. There is nothing more infectious than their enthusiasm for the career path they have chosen. To talk to a young person who has their whole life in front of them is super energizing for Marya. [42:57] Marya says that when a young person wants to talk to her and spend time with her, she thinks it is great. Enthusiasm is infectious. [43:05] At the end of the day, Marya wants to leave the insurance industry in a much better place than it was when she came into the business. Spending time with young people who will be the leaders of our industry in the future, there's no better feeling. [43:30] Marya says that anything she can do to have influence, set an example, or help them think through something helps her to continue to feel wildly enthusiastic about her career. She loves when she gets to spend time with the young brokers and underwriters at RT Specialty. [43:52] Justin says that the scholarship recipients he has seen on stage at the Gala have been so impressive. They're in school, and they're so involved. They're a shining example of what we want the future of this profession to be. [44:10] Marya says that there was no way, when she was 22 years old, that she could have gotten up in front of a room of 800 people in her profession and spoken like that. She would never have been able to do that. Their ability to get up in front of that audience and talk is huge! [44:37] Marya is impressed by what they talk about, in terms of their careers, and what they've learned. [44:42] Marya is delighted that Spencer has basically kept the Gala format consistent. The focus is on the students and the benefits that Spencer funding drives for the industry. [44:56] It's a place where you can see real impact on real lives because of the fundraising dollars that the risk management and insurance industry has stepped up and invested. That's the focus. Then they have dinner. There are two honorees, and they wrap it up. [45:12] Marya loves that they have never complicated the program for Gala. It has kept the focus in the right place, which is what they are doing to fund the future leaders of the insurance and risk management industry. She's excited to meet the Spencer scholars who will speak at the Gala. [45:35] Marya says that lots of times the speakers bring their families. She says her Mom and Dad will be there. That will round out what's going to be a terrific and exciting evening. [45:47] Jason says, We look forward to seeing you there on September 17th at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Marya will be there with her old friend Sierra Signorelli. It's going to be a fantastic, tremendous time! The link to the Funding Their Future Gala is in this episode's notes. [46:08] Marya, we're very happy for you. Congratulations again! I can't wait to see you again in September. Marya looks forward to seeing Justin again and the team from RIMS, another long-standing, awesome, successful partnership between Spencer and RIMS. [46:27] Special thanks again to Marya Propis for rejoining us here on RIMScast! We congratulate her again in advance of her receiving the honor at the Spencer Educational Foundation's 2026 Funding Their Future Gala, which will be held on September 17th at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC. [46:47] Visit SpencerEd.org for more information and to purchase your ticket and for sponsorship opportunities. Join us next week, as we will be joined by Spencer Board Chair Johnell Holley. We will learn all about his career journey and risk philosophies. [47:03] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes. [47:32] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information. [47:50] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [48:08] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [48:24] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [48:37] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. Please remember to subscribe to RIMScast on your favorite podcasting app. You can email us at Content@RIMS.org. [48:49] Practice good risk management, stay safe, and thank you again for your continued support!   Links: Spencer Educational Foundation's 2026 Funding Their Future Gala | Sept. 17, 2026 RIMS ERM Conference 2026 | November 19‒20 in Columbus, Ohio | Session Submission Deadline: Friday, June 19 RIMS Canada Conference — Oct. 18‒21, 2026 | Quebec City | www.rimscanadaconference.ca | Advance Registration Open | Sponsorship Opportunities Available RIMScast on YouTube! Spencer Educational Foundation — Scholarships and Grants | Open Calls and Timelines. RIMS-CRO Certificate Program In Advanced Enterprise Risk Management | July‒Sept. 2026 Cohort | Led by James Lam | Register Now! 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference | July 28‒Aug. 1 | Register Now RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2026 | Aug. 10‒12 in San Antonio | Register Now! ChicagoLand Risk Forum | Sept. 24, 2026 RIMS Western Regional Conference — Oct. 4‒7, 2026 | Seattle, WA | Register Today and Submit an Educational Session! RIMS Risk Management Magazine | Contribute | Look for the Awards Edition in "Digital Issues"! RIMS Now RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) | Insights Video Series Featuring Joe Milan! RIMS, the Foundation for Risk Management The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center RIMS Diversity Equity Inclusion Council RIMS-CRMP Stories RIMScast Canada — Episodes Now Live RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA | July 21‒22, 2026 Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops   Upcoming RIMS Webinars: RIMS.org/Webinars "Too Hot To Ignore: Heat-Related Injuries and Workers' Compensation" | July 16 | Presented by Zurich   Related RIMScast Episodes: "Spencer Day 2026 | The Future of Strategic Risk Management" "Risk Management Momentum with Tim Ryan" (2025 Spencer Honoree) "The Strengths of DE&I Initiatives with Lilian Vanvieldt-Gray of Alliant Insurance Services" (2024 Spencer Honoree) "RIMS Honor Roll Inductee Emily Buckley" "RIMS Rising Risk Professional Award Winner Tyler Vaughan"   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: "48 Hours From a Storm: What to Do Before A Hurricane Strikes" (New!) | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "AI-Scale, Risk Ready: Engineering Controls for the New Data Center Boom" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Facing Into Risk: Navigating the New Risk Landscape" (New!) | Sponsored by AXA XL "Secondary Perils, Major Risks: The New Face of Weather-Related Challenges" | Sponsored by AXA XL "The ART of Risk: Rethinking Risk Through Insight, Design, and Innovation" | Sponsored by Alliant "Mastering ERM: Leveraging Internal and External Risk Factors" | Sponsored by Diligent "Cyberrisk: Preparing Beyond 2025" | Sponsored by Alliant "The New Reality of Risk Engineering: From Code Compliance to Resilience" | Sponsored by AXA XL "Change Management: AI's Role in Loss Control and Property Insurance" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Demystifying Multinational Fronting Insurance Programs" | Sponsored by Zurich "Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding" | Sponsored by Zurich "What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping" | Sponsored by Medcor "How Insurance Builds Resilience Against An Active Assailant Attack" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips" | Sponsored by Alliant   RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Manny Padilla!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   About our guest: Marya J. Propis, RT Specialty, President, Retail Distribution   Production and engineering provided by Podfly.  

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   In this episode, Justin interviews François Beaume about the AMRAE 2026 RMIS Panorama available now and about the RISKWORLD 2026 session that François presented. Justin and François discuss ESG functional coverage. They discuss how François uses AI daily. They discuss the continuing increase in RMIS users, moving RIMS out of the niche tool category into an enterprise governance platform. They discuss the 2026 RMIS Panorama findings, the Panorama database, and how you can access it. Listen for insight into the 2026 RMIS Panorama and how your organization compares.   Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:16] About this episode of RIMScast. We are delighted to welcome back to RIMScast AMRAE President François Beaume. He's here to discuss the findings of the 2026 AMRAE RMIS Panorama. We'll talk all about emerging trends. But first… [:48] RIMS Virtual Workshops. The next RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep with AFERM will be held on June 16th and 17th. The next RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA will be held virtually on July 21st and 22nd. Links to registration are in this episode's notes. [1:06] You can enroll now in the RIMS CRO Certificate Program in Advanced Enterprise Risk Management hosted by the famous James Lam. Beginning July 15th, workshops will be held bi-weekly from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The registration link is in the show notes. [1:27] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. We want to hear from you. Submit a session proposal by June 19th to reach engaged practitioners, innovators, and leaders looking for guidance they can utilize right away. [1:45] Help define what's next for Enterprise Risk Management. Submit a session proposal by Friday, June 19th. A link is in this episode's show notes. [1:53] Folks, through the generosity of industry partners, RIMS has launched The Foundation for Risk Management™, which provides scholarships for early-career professionals to attend RIMS events like the RIMS Texas Regional Conference, RIMS Canada Conference, and RISKWORLD. [2:11] The Foundation also helps beneficiaries earn their RIMS-CRMP and fund research projects. To learn more or contribute to the Foundation, visit RIMS.org/FRM and visit the link in this episode's show notes. [2:27] RIMS is back on YouTube. Our handle is @RIMSOfficialChannel. We've got plenty of videos there, including RIMScast, RIMScast Canada video podcasts, and other informative and entertaining content from RIMS. Subscribe to the channel today! [2:46] On with the Show! Our guest today is making his third appearance here on RIMScast. He is the Senior Vice President for Risks and Insurance at Sonepar, and he is the President of AMRAE, the Association for the Management of Risks and Insurance in Enterprises. [3:04] François Beaume is here to discuss the 2026 RMIS Panorama, published by AMRAE, in partnership with EY. Panorama is free and publicly available. [3:14] Panorama provides an in-depth look at the organizations and professionals who are using risk management information systems, how well they've adapted, and guidance for those seeking their first or newest framework. It's always great to speak with him. Let's get to it! [3:28] Interview! François Beaume, Welcome Back to RIMScast! [3:36] François has been Chairman at AMRAE for a year and will be for two more years. Because of his role at AMRAE, Justin wanted to have him on the show to speak about this year's RMIS Panorama. [4:04] Justin mentions a difference between last year's RMIS Panorama and this year's RMIS Panorama. Last year, AI felt like an emerging capability. This year's report shows a 20-point jump in planned or actual AI integration and an 8-point increase in functional coverage. [4:19] At the same time, people aren't always happy with AI. The satisfaction part is still a little bit behind. Justin asks, Are we entering a phase where expectations are outpacing execution? [4:32] François says, Yes, probably. AI has moved faster in CEOs' and leaders' minds than in the organization. Everyone wants the data, governance, and skills. Educating the workforce users takes time. The ambition was there, but the "plumbing" is catching up. [5:11] François says that is what is being reflected in the 2026 RMIS Panorama's deep dive on AI. [5:29] François says he uses AI all day long for various things. As a risk manager, he uses it to increase his efficiency and daily productivity. He thinks that is quite common. He says it's also what we need for faster and better analysis. [6:00] Daily analysis from an AI engine using trusted sources is much faster than manual analysis. Now he has the time to tighten it, understand it, and complement it. [6:44] SONEPAR is using it for their benefit and to better spread risk management principles throughout the organization through Helpdesk or Chatbot, allowing people who are less skilled in risk management or insurance to ask questions through the tools to get support. [7:05] Those tools answer almost 90% of the questions. The remaining questions go to the Risk Management team because they are in a gray area. SONEPAR is using AI more and more and is entering a phase where they are looking at automating some risk management processes. [7:33] François says he is looking at automating business partner assessments, a cumbersome and complex process that the Risk Management team is doing with multiple tools. [7:49] Now, they are trying to streamline it, still with humans making the decisions, based on an AI data set that will be faster and easier to produce and much more reliable. [8:24] Justin says one of the more surprising findings in the RMIS Panorama is that ESG Functional Coverage dropped by 15 points this year. François explains why he thinks this is the case. It's not ESG fatigue, but it's in the way companies are approaching ESG. [9:22] François says a lot of ESG features are moved out of risk management information systems into dedicated tools and sometimes into dedicated teams. In the beginning, some ESG features were encapsulated in Risk Management systems. [9:39] François says it's less and less the case, at least in the tools that are sold in Europe. In the U.S., it could be more mixed. Separating ESG from Risk Management is more linked to maturity and topical evolution, rather than fatigue or a decrease in the importance of ESG. [10:06] Justin says the report also suggests that functional coverage overall has stabilized, which Justin asks if that indicates a mature market. François speaks of maturity and breaks down the RMIS Panorama, made from three surveys: Vendors, Risk Managers, and Insurers. [10:43] Maturity is reflected by a mix of these studies. Almost 250 Risk Managers from 36 countries took the survey. They want smarter features, better insight, better connections, and better decisions. They want the tools RMIS is using to be part of the group's way of functioning. [11:27] François says this is not yet the case. The tools are a bit apart and not fully connected with the CRM and other tools. François says they are starting to change. The risk managers using these tools are expecting change to come in the next few years. [11:52] Justin asks if it's easier today for a startup to build from the ground up with their Risk Management Information System embedded in their processes, or for an established organization. François says today it's easier for both, but big groups are more complex. [12:39] A Quick Break! There are so many other wonderful RIMS events coming up in 2026. The 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference will be held from July 28th through August 1st at the lovely Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. A link to the event is in this episode's show notes. [12:57] Register now for the Second Annual RIMS Texas Regional Conference, which will be held from August 10th through 12th at the Grand Hyatt on the San Antonio River Walk. [13:08] The 11th Annual Chicagoland Risk Forum will return to the Old Post Office on Thursday, September 24th, 2026, in Chicago. Visit ChicagolandRiskForum.org for more information. [13:18] The RIMS Western Regional Conference will be held from October 4th through the 7th in Seattle, Washington. Registration is open, and you can also submit a session. Visit RIMSWesternRegional.com and the link in this episode's show notes for more information. [13:35] Save the dates October 18th through the 21st. We will be in Quebec City to celebrate the 50th Live RIMS Canada Conference. Booth sales are already open. Advance registration will open on June 10th. [13:50] Visit RIMSCanadaConference.ca for more information. Also, remember to check out RIMS.org/Canada for our spinoff show, RIMScast Canada, hosted by National Conference Committee Chair, Aaron Lukoni. [14:04] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 18th and 19th in Columbus, Ohio. The deadline for educational content submissions is Friday, June 19th. Get submissions in now. The link is in this episode's show notes. Registration opens in July. [14:27] Let's Return to Our Interview with François Beaume! [14:36] François Beaume presented at RISKWORLD 2026. You can check out the materials from his presentation on RIMS.org/ASC. You will have had to have registered for or attended RISKWORLD 2026 to check it out. We're here to continue the dialog. [15:12] François feels his session went well. There were 50 to 55 people gathered there to listen and take notes. For François, it was pleasant to do. [16:00] François says you have a feeling when you are connecting with an audience. You can see that they are following you, and the message is passing from you to them. [16:51] François says, If you are losing your audience, you can try to use humor. Sometimes you succeed. He tells of a session in a noisy room, where everybody, including himself, was provided with a helmet, to listen to like a podcast. He could not feel if they were getting the message or not. [17:47] When presenting, you try to hold the attention of the room. Justin says that sometimes he locks eyes with somebody who's listening and then talks to that person and hopes that others will pick up on that energy. [18:18] Justin says risk management is not the easiest topic to make exciting. You have to figure out ways to jazz it up a little bit. [18:31] François says if you are convinced that the topic is interesting, that conviction, at a certain point, will pass through the mic and go to the room. If you are not convinced, the public will feel it. Justin says, If you are not excited to present, the audience will not be captivated. [18:58] François notes that he is French and speaks English like a Frenchman, so he has to manage that. His message may not be phrased as the audience expects. The way an American would phrase it is not the way I am using it. Justin stresses listening better to different accents. [19:58] Justin says François is a very good presenter, and the RISKWORLD audience seemed engaged in his message. Justin says if one person walks away with something actionable, it was worthwhile. François says, "Mission accomplished!" [20:23] Another Quick Break! The Spencer Educational Foundation's Risk Manager on Campus application period is now open, and it will close on June 30th. Grant awardees, colleges, and universities are typically notified in September. [20:43] The Course Development Grant application deadline for Interval Number 2 will be on June 15th, 2026. Award notifications will be sent out in late July. [20:58] General Grant applications are open, and the application deadline is July 30th. Internship Grant applications open on August 15th and close on October 15th. [21:09] Links to each of these grants are in this episode's show notes. Visit SpencerEd.org for more information. [21:17] The Spencer 2026 Funding Their Future Gala will be held on Thursday, September 17th, from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. at a different venue this year. It will be at the fabulous Waldorf Astoria in New York City. [21:32] Sponsorship opportunities and benefits are available now. A link to the Funding Their Future Gala is in this episode's show notes. [21:40] Next week's guest is the Funding Their Future Gala Honoree, Marya Propis! More Spencer celebrities and board members will be making appearances on RIMScast this summer, as well. [21:53] Let's Conclude Our Interview with François Beaume! [22:09] Justin says the Panorama notes an increase in organizations with more than 200 RMIS users. Does that signal that RMIS is becoming an enterprise-wide infrastructure, or is it still a niche tool for risk teams? [22:26] François says that this is really positive. A Risk Management Information System is not a niche risk tool anymore. It's becoming part of the company infrastructure. [22:44] Once you have hundreds of users, expectations explode, the momentum is there, and user patience drops. As the tool starts to become more massive and interconnected with other tools, you have to manage expectations. The scope of usage of these tools is widening. [23:16] You have not only niche risk usage, but you also have risk management, internal control, insurance, compliance, etc., that are managed inside the tool. The tool reaches all areas of development. The momentum is self-generating. [24:15] François says executive involvement in RMIS usage is positive. Executives want clarity from dashboards. They want to know what matters, why it matters, and what we can do next. They want the deep insight of the tool. They may not go into the tool, but will use the dashboard. [25:10] François speaks of the progress of the techniques of Risk Management Information Systems. Data mining, SaaS contracts, and AI usage have contributed to making RMIS easier to deploy, connect, and access in order to load data, analyze data, and extract data. [26:08] Now is a time of wider usage of Risk Management Information Systems; once they have been adopted, they are there for life, and then you have to make them evolve. [26:21] This means that we have more discussions inside the corporations on RMIS evolutions and replacement. Are we able to make it evolve on its own, or is it time to change? If yes, what kind of process can I depend on to contemplate and manage that change? [26:56] This is executive level. You have created expectations. You have provided dashboards and KPIs, and you have to manage the production. Once it's done, you need a different momentum to run the production and make it better and more accurate over time. It's not easy. [27:40] With their partner EY, AMRAE is finalizing the deployment of the 2026 Panorama Sessions. The French translation will be released by mid-June, and explanation sessions will be run with vendors, risk managers, insurers, and brokers. [28:05] François says AMRAE is already working on the 2027 Panorama, which will be ready for the next RISKWORLD session in New Orleans. [28:27] If someone wants to participate in the Panorama, they need to contact AMRAE. Risk managers will be contacted by the risk management association of the country where they operate. If you are a vendor, you can contact AMRAE. AMRAE contacts insurers and brokers. [29:35] Justin says if you wish to participate, reach out. Go through your risk association where you have membership, like RIMS, FIRMA, or IFRIMA. The confidential information collected helps educate the global risk community. This Panorama is very important for us. [30:08] François says that inside the Panorama, all the contact details are available. As part of the panel, you have access to an online data form. The Panorama has a PDF version, a snapshot of what's in the database. The full database is accessible to anyone. [30:27] François says that as a risk manager or a vendor, you can run your own analysis by filtering and sorting the Panorama database. [30:45] Justin says that's the nice thing about it: AMRAE has made it complimentary and is broadening the horizons of the global risk community by doing so. [30:57] Justin says, I do miss recording with you in person. So, next year, hopefully we get a chance to see each other and have some Cajun food, put the mic up, and eat some jambalaya and talk. It will be great. I want to thank you again, and you're welcome back any time. [31:17] Special thanks again to François Beaume for joining us here on RIMScast! We look forward to seeing him at a future RIMS event. You can visit AMRAE.fr to access the free and publicly available RMIS Panorama 2026. [31:34] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes. [32:03] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information. [32:21] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [32:39] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [32:55] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [33:09] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. Please remember to subscribe to RIMScast on your favorite podcasting app. You can email us at Content@RIMS.org. [33:21] Practice good risk management, stay safe, and thank you again for your continued support!   Links: RIMS ERM Conference 2026 | November 19‒20 in Columbus, Ohio | Session Submission Deadline: Friday, June 19 RIMS Canada Conference — Oct. 18‒21, 2026 | Quebec City | www.rimscanadaconference.ca | Registration Opens June 10 RIMScast on YouTube! Spencer Educational Foundation — Scholarships and Grants | Open Calls and Timelines. RIMS-CRO Certificate Program In Advanced Enterprise Risk Management | July‒Sept. 2026 Cohort | Led by James Lam | Register Now! 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference | July 28‒Aug. 1 | Register Now RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2026 | Aug. 10‒12 in San Antonio | Register Now! ChicagoLand Risk Forum | Sept. 24, 2026 RIMS Western Regional Conference — Oct. 4‒7, 2026 | Seattle, WA | Register Today and Submit an Educational Session! RIMS Risk Management Magazine | Contribute | Look for the Awards Edition in "Digital Issues"! RIMS Now RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) | Insights Video Series Featuring Joe Milan! RIMS, the Foundation for Risk Management The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center RIMS Diversity Equity Inclusion Council RIMS-CRMP Stories RIMScast Canada — Episodes Now Live RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RISKWORLD 2026 Presentations Available via Attendee Service Center — www.RIMS.org/Asc - and via the RIMS Events App RMIS Panorama: https://www.amrae.fr/bibliotheque-de-amrae/2026-rmis-panorama Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA | July 21‒22, 2026 RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep with AFERM | June 16‒17, 2026 Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops   Upcoming RIMS Webinars: RIMS.org/Webinars   Related RIMScast Episodes: "Strategy and Change with Ward Ching and Aaron Olson" "Live from RISKWORLD 2026!" "The Evolving Role of the Risk Analyst" "AI and the Future of Risk with Dan Chuparkoff" "Live from RISKWORLD 2025" "AI Risks and Compliance with Chris Maguire"   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: "AI-Scale, Risk Ready: Engineering Controls for the New Data Center Boom" (New!) | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Facing Into Risk: Navigating the New Risk Landscape" (New!) | Sponsored by AXA XL "Secondary Perils, Major Risks: The New Face of Weather-Related Challenges" | Sponsored by AXA XL "The ART of Risk: Rethinking Risk Through Insight, Design, and Innovation" | Sponsored by Alliant "Mastering ERM: Leveraging Internal and External Risk Factors" | Sponsored by Diligent "Cyberrisk: Preparing Beyond 2025" | Sponsored by Alliant "The New Reality of Risk Engineering: From Code Compliance to Resilience" | Sponsored by AXA XL 'Change Management: AI's Role in Loss Control and Property Insurance" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Demystifying Multinational Fronting Insurance Programs" | Sponsored by Zurich "Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding" | Sponsored by Zurich "What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping" | Sponsored by Medcor "How Insurance Builds Resilience Against an Active Assailant Attack" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips" | Sponsored by Alliant   RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Manny Padilla!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   About our guest: François Beaume, SVP Risks and Insurance, Sonepar President of AMRAE   Production and engineering provided by Podfly.

We just pulled off a travel move that still makes us laugh: a luxury stay at Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach that was booked on Hilton points, covered by stacked Hilton resort credits, and somehow ended with us up $38 thanks to a perfectly timed Amex offer. If you've ever wondered whether points and miles are actually worth the effort, we walk through the real math, the real cards, and the real checkout moment where Raya hands over a stack of credit cards and asks the front desk to split the bill across all of them. Along the way, we rewind to our annual Oceanside getaway, the trip we protect on our calendar because it has almost no itinerary. Beach, pool, good food, and a reset. This year includes a surprise birthday dinner for Dwayne with friends he hasn't seen in more than 20 years, plus little details that made it feel special, like a custom menu and a table that just kept growing as more people arrived. We also get practical about family travel logistics: when a “standard room” starts feeling too small for five people, how we think about suites, and why an ocean view matters when one of us is working during the trip. We share our experience at The Seabird, how we handled a disappointing initial room assignment, and the polite ask that got us into a true oceanfront suite. Expect plenty of California details too, from the Monarch Beach club shuttle to June gloom weather timing, plus our favorite eats and one meal that went off the rails. If you want more strategies like this for affordable luxury travel, subscribe, share this with a points-obsessed friend, and leave us a quick review so more families can find the show. What's the next hotel you'd love to book entirely on points?

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   In this episode, Justin interviews Emily Buckley, Insurance Risk Manager at Specialized Bicycle Components. They discuss how, in her career, she arrived at risk management, from tossing T-shirts into the stands at Ball Stadium. They talk about her work leading risk at Kroenke Sports and Entertainment for years, and then joining Specialized Bicycle Components to become their Risk Management program and launch ERM for them. Emily talks about Specialized hiring the best people, including professional and Olympic athletes, to make the best product. Emily's purpose is to build the best Risk Management and ERM Program for them. Justin and Emily discuss how she feels about being named the RIMS 2026 Honor Roll Recipient. They discuss her involvement with the Rocky Mountain RIMS Chapter and her engagement in the ERM Engage Group. Listen for the excitement and energy Emily brings to the ERM Program at Specialized.   Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:16] About this episode of RIMScast. We are so excited to welcome back to the show Emily Buckley of Specialized Bicycles. She was recently named to the RIMS Honor Roll at RISKWORLD, so we have lots to discuss regarding safety, career development, and ERM. But first… [:48] RIMS Virtual Workshops. The next RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep will be held on June 9th and 10th. The next RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep with AFERM will be held on June 16th and 17th. Links to registration are in this episode's notes. [1:04] You can enroll now in the RIMS CRO Certificate Program in Advanced Enterprise Risk Management hosted by the famous James Lam. Beginning July 15th, workshops will be held bi-weekly from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The registration link is in the show notes. [1:25] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. We want to hear from you. Submit a session proposal by June 19th that will reach engaged practitioners, innovators, and leaders looking for guidance they can utilize right away. [1:43] Help define what's next for Enterprise Risk Management. Submit a session proposal by Friday, June 19th. A link is in this episode's show notes. [1:51] Folks, RIMS is back on YouTube. Our handle is @RIMSOfficialChannel. We've got plenty of videos there, including RIMScast, RIMScast Canada video podcasts, and other informative and entertaining content from RIMS. Subscribe to the channel today! [2:10] On with the Show! Our guest today is one of the liveliest RIMS members I know! She is Emily Buckley, the Insurance Manager for Specialized Bicycle Components, a global performance brand. [2:23] Emily is the Vice President of the RIMS Rocky Mountain Chapter. At RISKWORLD 2026, Emily was named to the RIMS Honor Roll in 2026. Emily made her RIMScast debut in 2024 for National Bike Safety Month in Man, and we're recording in May again. [2:47] We'll have a lot of fun talking about bicycle safety and how Emily embeds safety into all aspects of risk management and the risk culture over at Specialized Bicycle Components. [2:59] Emily has had a remarkable career at Specialized. She is the company's first-ever dedicated risk manager. She has built a modern enterprise-ready risk and insurance function from the ground up, which we are going to talk about today. [3:12] We'll talk about her risk philosophies, her approach to polycrisis and supply chain risk management, and why her involvement in the RIMS Rocky Mountain Chapter has been so critical for her career. Let's get to it! [3:27] Interview! Emily Buckley, Welcome Back to RIMScast! [3:50] Emily says receiving the RIMS Honor Roll award seemed surreal. It was very cool to be onstage, be recognized, and have the village she had built around herself there supporting her. Everyone was so excited for her. It was one of the coolest things she had ever experienced. [4:27] Justin calls Emily the Risk Queen of Denver and the Greater Denver Area and says she has a lot of support behind her. She's "got heat!" [4:48] Justin is recording this episode during National Bicycle Safety Month. This is Emily's month. At Specialized Bicycle Components, every day is National Bicycle Safety Month! [5:19] Justin talks about safety being embedded into the manufacturing and shipping of bicycles. [5:34] Emily says every day, even when she is sleeping, safety is on her mind. [5:46] Specialized Bicycle Components has a Safety Team. Emily's broker has a Safety Specialist assigned to her account. Emily has connected those two teams. She is a liaison between them, and she works very closely with her Safety Team at Specialized Bicycle Components. [6:02] Emily has monthly meetings with groups at Specialized Bicycle Components to discuss safety initiatives. She says the Safety Team at Specialized does a phenomenal job. [6:26] Emily says Risk Management is a department of many hats. She tells people that if there is pushback on an initiative, I'll be the bad guy. Tell them, Sorry, Risk Management is making us do this. Sometimes that's a little bit easier to sell. [7:11] Emily has been practicing risk management for almost 15 years. She started at Kroenke Sports and Entertainment in Customer Interaction, including tossing T-shirts into the crowd for the Denver Nuggets. People wanted those shirts. [9:05] When Kroenke posted a job for a risk analyst, Emily applied, and Peggy Miller hired her. Emily talked about this in her past appearance on RIMScast. Peggy is the President of Rocky Mountain RIMS. Peggy taught Emily almost everything Emily knows about risk management. [9:34] Peggy took Emily under her wing. She taught Emily how to review contracts for risk management wording and insurance requirements. Emily could go to Peggy with any question, and Peggy would explain it. Emily says that Peggy is a phenomenal boss. [10:07] Emily found an opportunity at Specialized when it was time to spread her wings. She still calls Peggy from time to time for advice. Peggy is always willing to help. [10:34] Emily joined Specialized Bicycle Components and became the risk management department. She came in two or three months before they did their insurance renewal, so it was initiation by firehose. [10:53] It was a great opportunity to learn about the program. She was also educating them about what risk management does and how they should be running their program, and educating them about insurance requirements. [11:16] Emily says Specialized has an amazing executive team and ownership. They were so receptive to all the ideas Emily brought them. They also had a lot of creative ideas. As a risk manager, it was fun to come into that environment. [11:49] The risk department has not grown since Emily joined Specialized. [12:21] Emily started an ERM Program at Specialized. It takes a team, and it takes the right partners. Emily thinks every company will benefit from an ERM Program. Stepping into a manufacturing company very dependent on the supply chain, Emily saw that ERM was a must. [12:49] Emily worked with the right partners, did a couple of different tabletops, and hyper-focused on three or four ERM initiatives, for which she built the ERM foundation and the risk management foundation on top. Every project she works on goes back to those initiatives. [13:24] Emily says she is very fortunate to have the ear of the executive leadership. [13:32] One of the mantras at Specialized Bicycle Components is Innovate or Die. Emily has taken that to heart in Risk Management and ERM. Emily is constantly trying to find ways to make the ERM stronger and better, going back to those three or four initiatives. [13:51] Emily thinks outside the box. She has seen some products that don't completely fit Specialized, but by working with the service providers and saying she likes this product, but she needs it to do this, she has found some amazing service providers and partners to work with.  [14:24] As a risk manager, Emily lives in worst-case scenarios. Professionally and personally, she can never get away from worst-case scenarios. A good risk manager is always preparing for the worst-case scenario, always thinking, what is the absolute worst thing that could happen. [14:46] Emily says one of the hardest things is realizing that a lot of people don't live in that headspace. When she goes to teams and tells them the worst thing that can happen, they ask if she is OK. She insists that this worst-case scenario is something they need to think about. [15:12] That's where education comes in. We need to think about it. If this worst-case scenario happens, all of these ripple effects hit every portion of the company. [15:43] Emily says Specialized has been around so long, and with the leadership and experts they have in place, Emily is amazed every day at the team that Specialized has assembled. She says they are the best in their class. There are Olympic and professional athletes on the team. [16:43] A service provider noticed that Specialized Bicycle Components recruits the best people in the world. They want that experience so they can build a better product with better processes. [17:07] A Quick Break! There are so many other wonderful RIMS events coming up in 2026. The 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference will be held from July 28th through August 1st at the lovely Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. A link to the event is in this episode's show notes. [17:27] Register now for the Second Annual RIMS Texas Regional Conference, which will be held from August 10th through 12th at the Grand Hyatt on the San Antonio River Walk. Advance rates are available through June 5th. [17:41] The 11th Annual Chicagoland Risk Forum will return to the Old Post Office on Thursday, September 24th, 2026, in Chicago. Visit ChicagolandRiskForum.org for more information. [17:51] The RIMS Western Regional Conference will be held from October 4th through the 7th in Seattle, Washington. Registration is open, and you can also submit a session. Visit RIMSWesternRegional.com and the link in this episode's show notes for more information. [18:08] Save the dates October 18th through the 21st. We will be in Quebec City to celebrate the 50th Live RIMS Canada Conference. Booth sales are already open. Early-bird registration will open in June. [18:22] Visit RIMSCanadaConference.ca for more information. Also, remember to check out RIMS.org/Canada for our spinoff show, RIMScast Canada, hosted by National Conference Committee Chair, Aaron Lukoni. [18:37] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 18th and 19th in Columbus, Ohio. The deadline for educational content submissions is Friday, June 19th. Get submissions in now. The link is in this episode's show notes. We'll let you know when registration opens. [18:59] Let's Return to our Interview with RIMS 2026 Honor Roll Recipient Emily Buckley! [19:13] Justin speaks about the profile of Emily Buckley in the RIMS Risk Management Magazine Awards Edition. It mentions that Emily consolidated fragmented global insurance structures into a unified strategy across more than 30 countries. [19:38] Emily says, trying to get the insurance together at a global company was hard. A lot of people were autonomous, getting their own insurance and doing their own thing. In almost 15 years as a risk manager, Emily learned that insurance is very touchy for a lot of people. [20:23] Insurance costs a lot of money for something that you can't see. You're not using it unless something bad has happened. So it's a very sensitive subject for a lot of people. Emily says it's a job that won't ever really be done because there are so many different moving parts. [21:03] Emily says that in all the different countries we're in, every country has different insurance laws, different ways to buy and pay for insurance, and what kind of insurance you have to have. [21:13] Emily says in some countries, I have to have a locally placed general liability policy, but the property policy that I place on a global level will sit over that. In a different country, I have to have a locally placed general liability/property and a locally placed stock throughput. [21:31] For almost 40 different countries, you have to know which countries you have to have insurance in. That's when your broker becomes invaluable. [21:48] It's helpful to have a foreign team on your broker who are subject matter experts in placing locally placed policies. Emily says she would not be able to do that without the team at her broker, Brown & Brown.  [22:03] Emily talks about educating the people at your company: This is what we currently have, and this is what we need. We need it in almost 40 countries. These 20 are our top priority. You tier them down so you're not throwing everything at the wall. [22:27] You're formulating a plan, then educating and speaking with the people in your company. A lot of questions come up, not only about general liability, but also cyber, and directors & officers. [22:37] It's a sensitive subject that you have to take your time with. Build a relationship with those offices so that when something does happen, or they have a question, they come to you. [23:04] You will always be making connections with your offices, making sure they're happy with their insurance, they understand it, and they have a local contact. If something happens in Taiwan, they need a local contact who can answer questions and relay that to the global team. [24:12] Emily says that every year, there are two or three problem countries, from an insurance perspective, where the carrier or broker has thrown a curveball. Sometimes she has had to pull people out of the program and put them on their own. It's a constantly moving target. [25:13] Emily says at Kroenke, she and Peggy did a business continuity tabletop, where they sat down with all the different department heads at Ball Arena (Pepsi Center, then) and walked through scenarios. They presented a worst-case scenario tabletop with 30 people in the room. [25:52] Emily and Peggy also did a couple of cyber tabletop exercises. Emily stresses how important it is to do a cyber tabletop with your executive and leadership team. They're always amazed at how many different small issues and questions come up that they never thought of. [26:35] Emily says her leadership team at Specialized is fantastic. They've been very supportive. She can throw ideas at them, and they'll say, "Let's do it." [26:49] Justin says people receive these awards from RIMS not just for their achievements in risk management, but also for what they give back to the broader risk management community or their local chapters. [27:09] Justin says Emily is very involved in the RIMS Rocky Mountain Chapter and is a great Networker and is very plugged in. Justin says that if it weren't for Emily, he doesn't think he would have gotten Rich Lenkov from SERMA on the show this year. (Shout out to Rich!) [27:40] Emily says she started going to the Rocky Mountain RIMS Chapter when she was an analyst, working under Peggy Miller. She remembers walking into a Lunch and Learn. Going to Chapter meetings was very inspiring. She wanted to be that knowledgeable one day. [29:10] Emily says this industry is built on your connections to people and how you know people. She says we have the best people in our chapter. We're very involved with students and RRP. [29:24] Emily tells students in RRP, "Come to our meetings. If you don't know anybody, you know me. I will introduce you to everybody. This is where your career is going to take off. This is where you're going to be able to make steps and strides and really make connections." [30:11] Emily says she cannot say enough great things about Rocky Mountain RIMS. She thinks they have one of the best chapters in the U.S., because they have the best people. [30:24] Justin recalls that Ondrea Matthews with CoorsTek was on the show last year. She is in Rocky Mountain RIMS. Emily says Ondrea is one of the best people she knows. Justin says she had fascinating stories. A link to her RIMScast episode is in the show notes. [31:02] Emily says when she joined Specialized, she told them she's a Rocky Mountain RIMS board member, she speaks at conferences, and is a guest lecturer at CU Denver. They were super supportive. [31:47] Emily says Specialized wants to put the best product on the market, and Emily takes that into risk management and insurance. She wants to create the best risk program that she can. She wants to work with the best service providers that she can. [32:12] Another Quick Break! The Spencer Educational Foundation's Risk Manager on Campus application period is now open, and it will close on June 30th. Grant awardees, colleges, and universities are typically notified in September. [32:32] The Course Development Grant application deadline for Interval Number 2 will be on June 15th, 2026. Award notifications will be sent out in late July. [32:57] General Grant applications are open, and the application deadline is July 30th. Internship Grant applications open on August 15th and close on October 15th. [32:59] Links to each of these grants are in this episode's show notes. Visit SpencerEd.org for more information. [33:07] The Spencer 2026 Funding Their Future Gala will be held on Thursday, September 17th, from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. at a different venue this year. It will be at the fabulous Waldorf Astoria in New York City. [33:23] Sponsorship opportunities and benefits are available now. A link to the Funding Their Future Gala is in this episode's show notes. [33:32] Be on the lookout for some of the honorees and Spencer Board members to join RIMScast in June and July. [33:41] Let's Conclude Our Interview with RIMS 2026 Honor Roll Recipient Emily Buckley! [33:48] Justin mentions the RIMS Strategic and Enterprise Risk Management Council. The RIMS ERM Engage Group is a member-only offshoot of SERMC for people to have candid dialogues. All RIMS members have exclusive access to the ERM Engage Group. Emily is a member. [34:38] Emily says the ERM Engage Group gets together monthly for an hour. Morgan O'Rourke, VP of Editorial at RIMS, leads it. Everyone brings issues, or Morgan will have a guest speaker. Emily says it's just such a great place to go and learn from industry peers with similar issues. [35:55] Emily is not trying to reinvent the wheel. If she can bring the problems she is dealing with to a group of professionals, ask how they have done it in the past, and get 10 or 20 ideas, it's amazing. [36:13] Emily recommends the movie, Project Hail Mary, which she calls amazing. [36:27] Justin talks about the monthly guest speaker, often from SERMC, who presents a topic and then engages the group in discussion. The Engage group lets the leaders see who the next ERM leaders are going to be through their participation. It's very interactive. [37:32] If you are a RIMS member, just check out the RIMS ERM Engage Group. Justin says Emily's involvement is above and beyond, not just for her job, but for RIMS, so he was not surprised she received the 2026 RIMS Honor Roll; it's well deserved. [38:18] Emily loves her job. She loves this industry.  [38:40] Emily admits her blood caffeine content was through the roof, preparing for the awards ceremony. Emily looked it up. She is the 43rd recipient of the Risk Management Honor Roll in 75 years of RIMS. She has the award in her window in her office. It is cool to be celebrated. [40:26] Emily says her award makes it into everything. After she got it, she carried it around with her. At lunch, it was sitting on the table. At dinner, it was sitting on the table. She carried it onto the plane with her. [41:22] In the profile about Emily, it talked about perseverance in mountain biking. Juston asks Emily for her inspiration for the next generation of risk professionals. [42:04] Emily's words: "Keep going. You're going to fail, and that's fine. It's part of the journey. Fail. Learn the lesson or lessons, but keep going. Always keep looking at the horizon, saying, OK, I'm going to get there. I'm going to get there, I'm going to get there. [42:21] "The absolute most important thing is, have fun on the way." Emily says she did a little dance on the awards stage, and some students told her they loved seeing her having fun with it. It made Emily's day for them to stop and tell her. "If you're not having fun, what's the point?" [43:21] Justin tells Emily, We look forward to more great things from you in the coming years. We thank you, and we congratulate you again. [45:33] Special thanks again to Emily Buckley of Specialized Bicycle Components for joining us here on RIMScast! Congratulations again to her for being named to the RIMS 2026 Honor Roll. More coverage is available in the RIMS Risk Management Magazine's Awards Edition. [43:27] Go to RMMAgazine.com and check out the digital issues section. We look forward to having Emily back again. [43:55] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes. [44:23] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information. [44:41] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [44:59] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [45:15] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [45:29] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. Please remember to subscribe to RIMScast on your favorite podcasting app. You can email us at Content@RIMS.org. [45:41] Practice good risk management, stay safe, and thank you again for your continued support!   Links: RIMS ERM Conference 2026 | November 19‒20 in Columbus, Ohio | Session Submission Deadline: Friday, June 19 RIMS Canada Conference — Oct. 18‒21, 2026 | Quebec City | www.rimscanadaconference.ca | Registration Opens in June RIMScast on YouTube! Spencer Educational Foundation — Scholarships and Grants | Open Calls and Timelines. RIMS-CRO Certificate Program In Advanced Enterprise Risk Management | July‒ Sept. 2026 Cohort | Led by James Lam | Register Now! 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference | July 28‒Aug. 1 | Register Now RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2026 | Aug. 10‒12 in San Antonio | Register Now! ChicagoLand Risk Forum | Sept. 24, 2026 RIMS Western Regional Conference — Oct. 4‒7, 2026 | Seattle, WA | Register Today and Submit an Educational Session! RIMS Risk Management Magazine | Contribute | Look for the Awards Edition in "Digital Issues"! RIMS Now RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) | Insights Video Series Featuring Joe Milan! The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center RIMS Diversity Equity Inclusion Council RIMS-CRMP Stories RIMScast Canada — Episodes Now Live RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RISKWORLD 2026 Presentations Available via Attendee Service Center — www.RIMS.org/Asc - and via the RIMS Events App Press Release: "RIMS Risk Manager of the Year Award Goes to Prologis Head of Global Risk Jeff Bray, Honor Roll to Emily Buckley" Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep | June 9‒10 RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep with AFERM | June 16‒17, 2026 Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops   Upcoming RIMS Webinars: RIMS.org/Webinars   Related RIMScast Episodes: "Live from RISKWORLD 2026!" "RIMS Risk Manager of the Year Jeff Bray" "RIMS Rising Risk Professional Award Winner Tyler Vaughan" "Sports, Spotlight, and Risk Leadership with Rich Lenkov, Founder and CEO of SERMA" "Supply and Bike Chains with Emily Buckley" (2024) "Absence Management with Ondrea Matthews"   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: "AI-Scale, Risk Ready: Engineering Controls for the New Data Center Boom" (New!) | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Facing Into Risk: Navigating the New Risk Landscape" (New!) | Sponsored by AXA XL "Secondary Perils, Major Risks: The New Face of Weather-Related Challenges" | Sponsored by AXA XL "The ART of Risk: Rethinking Risk Through Insight, Design, and Innovation" | Sponsored by Alliant "Mastering ERM: Leveraging Internal and External Risk Factors" | Sponsored by Diligent "Cyberrisk: Preparing Beyond 2025" | Sponsored by Alliant "The New Reality of Risk Engineering: From Code Compliance to Resilience" | Sponsored by AXA XL "Change Management: AI's Role in Loss Control and Property Insurance" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Demystifying Multinational Fronting Insurance Programs" | Sponsored by Zurich "Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding" | Sponsored by Zurich "What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping" | Sponsored by Medcor "How Insurance Builds Resilience Against An Active Assailant Attack" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips" | Sponsored by Alliant   RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Manny Padilla!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation!  

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   In this episode, Justin interviews Ward Ching and Aaron Olson of Aon about their recent session at RISKWORLD 2026 and the book they co-authored, Strategy and Change: Finding Opportunity in Disruption Through Insight, Choice, and Risk. They discuss the dizzying, disruptive transformation in today's market, where conventional risk management frameworks, tools, and solutions have become increasingly ineffective. They explore technological innovation in terms of the new powers of next-generation microprocessors and the accompanying robustness of machine learning-based analytics. Aaron explains how he built an AI analysis agent over a weekend. Aaron and Ward discuss their book and how to use it to help you and your organization navigate disruption. Listen for insight on how to use disruption without being disrupted in the risk ecosystem.   Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:16] About this episode of RIMScast. Our topic is strategy and change in a world full of innovation and disruption, and we will be joined by our guests, Aaron Olson and our friend Ward Ching of Aon, but first… [:45] RIMS Virtual Workshops. The next RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep will be held on June 9th and 10th. The next RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep with AFERM will be held on June 16th and 17th. Links to registration are in this episode's notes. [1:01] Webinars. On May 28th, Zurich returns with "From Underwriting To Risk Management: What To Expect From The Growing Demand For Data Center Construction." Register for webinars at RIMS.org/Webinars or through the links in this episode's show notes. [1:17] Folks, RIMS is back on YouTube. Our handle is @RIMSOfficialChannel. We've got plenty of videos there, including RIMScast, RIMScast Canada video podcasts, and other informative and entertaining content from RIMS. Subscribe to the channel today! [1:36] On with the Show! Our guests today are, respectively, the Executive Vice President at Aon Corporation and a Managing Director at Aon Corporation. They are Aaron Olson, making his debut on RIMSCast, and our good friend Ward Ching, also a former RIMS-CRMP Commissioner. [1:52] They presented a session at RISKWORLD 2026, titled "Strategy and Change: Understanding Disruptive Innovation Through Insight, Choice and Risk." They recently published a book, Strategy and Change: Finding Opportunity in Disruption Through Insight, Choice, and Risk. [2:11] We will talk about the risk management practices, philosophies, and frameworks that went into the book and the session, what it took for Mr. Olson to build an AI agent, and how you can assess whether this is the sort of business decision for your organization. Let's get to it! [2:32] Interview! Aaron Olson and Ward Ching, Welcome to RIMScast! [3:12] Aaron says Ward and he work together at Aon, and they work with risk managers around the world. They also do some academic work. Ward, at USC, Marshall School of Business, and Aaron, at Northwestern, just outside Chicago. [3:25] Aaron says that for 20 years, he's been working as a member of the faculty there, part-time, teaching on the topic of the intersection of strategy and leadership. [3:38] About 10 years ago, Aaron did some research and published a book focused on the intersection of strategy and leadership. He looked at different companies and examples to learn how individuals lead strategy. [3:55] Ten years later, Aaron and Ward talked about it regarding the clients they work with and the challenges risk managers working in those organizations face. In the last 10 years, the world has gotten a lot more complicated and volatile, and is facing more and more risk. [4:16] Aaron and Ward decided to do some new work. This time, it's not strategy and leadership; it's strategy and disruptive change. [4:27] They looked at what lessons they could learn from COVID, from the supply chain, and from the unpredictable rising cost of doing business. What can we do about that? [4:42] How can companies be successful? How can risk managers be successful? What is the changing, evolving role of risk in the midst of that?  [4:53] Ward says one of the interesting things is that disruption has always been part of the economic environment. It is now a hyper-important part of economic decision-making in every industry vertical. [5:12] Ward's research in the disruptive innovation space started with a paper for RIMS that he did with Paul Walker several years ago on the issue of enterprise risk management tools and capabilities. Paul and Ward did the research, looking at all the tools. [5:38] Then February 2020 rolled around, and the world went completely dark. Everybody predicted that there was exposure to a pandemic, but nobody had any thought of how it would go from ranking number 25 or 50 on risk registers to number one, overnight. [6:14] Paul and Ward asked each other what was underneath this. Why did all of our tools fail? They found an interesting literature base around disruptive innovation. Ward says a lot, if not all, of our core disruptive events throughout history started with a technological innovation. [6:38] Aaron and Ward went further, looking at all the disruption in the marketplace now: new silicon chips, our speed toward AI, agentic AI, the things we can do now with data that we couldn't do or see five years ago. That's creating a very interesting, disruptive environment. [7:10] Disruption needs to be considered as part of the decision calculus for most organizations. Similarly, disruption is a new risk issue that has not been well understood, measured, or evaluated in the past. That's what Ward and Aaron were trying to look at. [7:30] In the book and at RISKWORLD, Ward and Aaron looked at it from several perspectives: How is disruption creating advantage? How is disruption creating new opportunities? How is it changing the way we think about risk, risk management, and risk mitigation? [7:58] Aaron says one of the things we uncovered as we got into this was that going back 10 years ago, on any given day, your average executive was maybe dealing with one crisis or issue coming at them. [8:14] Aaron says that today, an executive coming into the office or dialing in on Zoom is probably dealing with two or three simultaneous challenges, and that has a compounding effect. Technology is an accelerant and also an amplifier. [8:37] The combination of speed and severity means that organizations deal with an external environment that has multiple concurrent risks. Then you have internal execution risks, and they, too, are more complicated. [8:52] Take AI, as an externality, but also inside. All kinds of new risks are surfacing as AI is changing workflows, processes, and the nature of people's jobs and work. That is a level of complexity we have not had to deal with in most of our professional lifetimes. [9:12] Ward says most of the tools that we use to mitigate those risks are now obsolete. When you look at a heat map, it is point-specific. You look at various risks along a series of axes. These point-specific numbers or locations don't answer the question, "So what do you do?" [9:59] You understand where the risk might be, on a frequency, severity, or likelihood scale, but if you were the CFO, you would be asking, "What investment do I have to make to move something that's at an extraordinarily high, or even uninsurable space, into someplace more acceptable?" [10:18] Those comparative static tools don't give you enough information to make significant decisions, especially now that a problem may have adjacencies that impact a decision, so that needs to be broader in terms of its context and execution. A lot of those tools don't work now. [10:41] A Quick Break! There are so many other wonderful RIMS events coming up in 2026. The 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference will be held from July 28th through August 1st at the lovely Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. A link to the event is in this episode's show notes. [11:02] Register now for the Second Annual RIMS Texas Regional Conference, which will be held from August 10th through 12th at the Grand Hyatt on the San Antonio River Walk. Advance rates are available through June 5th. [11:16] The 11th Annual Chicagoland Risk Forum will return to the Old Post Office on Thursday, September 24th, 2026, in Chicago. Visit ChicagolandRiskForum.org for more information. [11:29] The RIMS Western Regional Conference will be held from October 4th through the 7th in Seattle, Washington. Registration is open, and you can also submit a session. Visit RIMSWesternRegional.com and the link in this episode's show notes for more information. [11:46] Save the dates October 18th through the 21st. We will be in Quebec City to celebrate the 50th Live RIMS Canada Conference. Booth sales are already open. Early-bird registration will open in June. [12:01] Visit RIMSCanadaConference.ca for more information. Also, remember to check out RIMS.org/Canada for our spinoff show, RIMScast Canada, hosted by National Conference Committee Chair, Aaron Lukoni. [12:15] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 18th and 19th in Columbus, Ohio. Details will follow on RIMS.org. [12:24] Let's Return to our Interview with Ward Ching and Aaron Olson! [12:33] Aaron built the strategy agent at Aon. Aaron shares how it was done. He was a one-man team on this project. Aaron tells about vibe coding. He took a routine that he and Ward have been doing for years, and he realized that an agent could do some of that work.  [13:36] Aaron and Ward have been working together for a couple of years. On the academic side, they wrote a book and codified some of the work they do with their clients. Aaron says they took a framework and turned it into a simple worksheet. [13:53] Aaron now uses that worksheet to prepare for clients. It's an analysis tool for what is going on in that client's industry, what key issues they need to deal with, and what insights, decisions, and risks Aaron will discuss with them. [14:09] As Aaron started to look at agents, he realized that he didn't have to do all that work himself. [14:16] Aaron uses ChatGPT. There's an ability within ChatGPT to create a Custom GPT. It asks you to follow a set of instructions. It isn't coding, just guidance. [14:36] Aaron wrote out his guidance, uploaded his worksheet, and constructed prompts. A prompt is a good question to ask. Aaron preloaded some good prompts to get an agent. [14:52] Aaron, Ward, and others use this agent, which they call the Strategy and Change Diagnostic. They input the client's name and problem, the type of conversation they want to have with the client, the situations they are focusing on, and the present disruptive changes. [15:16] Aaron asks the agent, "What are the things we should be focusing on?" It comes back with a lot of the work Aaron would have had to think through himself. It's pulling on the logic he taught it and pulling real-time, relevant financial information from the internet. [15:43] Aaron says it would have taken a team of people working for months to get the same result. We're living in a different world. [15:52] Ward says that Aaron can change the persona of the agent. The agent is looking at it from one point of view. It can look at it from a different point of view or a competing point of view. All of those will generate additional insights into what the client's issues might be. [15:14] Aaron built the Strategy and Change Diagnostic over a weekend and refined it by trying it out with some real situations. Aaron thinks this type of agent is in the future for all of us. [16:27] Ward says, Strategy and Change: Finding Opportunity in Disruption Through Insight, Choice, and Risk, and the recent RISKWORLD 2026 session, cover disruption and disruptive innovation in a clinical way, and case studies, new tools, and responsibilities that are coming out.  [16:54] Ward talks about the necessary skills. Many people in risk management are asking what skills and capabilities they need to be successful going forward. That's a big issue. What is the impact of AI? What is the impact on data analysis and on the types of things they need to do? [17:19] Risk professionals wonder if they should be coders, actuaries, or engineers. Ward says, the answer is yes. They need to be all of those, going forward. That's a big issue in question. [17:28] Justin says an editorial strategy shift at RIMS is that it's no longer just about identifying risk. It's how to leverage it to do your job better. It's what you need to know now to enable you to succeed later. It's not just about the "what." It's about the "why" and the "how." [17:52] Another Quick Break! The Spencer Educational Foundation's Risk Manager on Campus application period is now open, and it will close on June 30th. Grant awardees, colleges, and universities are typically notified in September. [18:14] The Course Development Grant application deadline for Interval Number 2 will be on June 15th, 2026. Award notifications will be sent out in late July. [18:27] General Grant applications are open, and the application deadline is July 30th. Internship Grant applications open on August 15th and close on October 15th. [18:39] Links to each of these grants are in this episode's show notes. Visit SpencerEd.org for more information. [18:48] The Spencer 2026 Funding Their Future Gala will be held on Thursday, September 17th, from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. at a different venue this year. It will be at the fabulous Waldorf Astoria in New York City. [19:03] Sponsorship opportunities and benefits are available now. A link to the Funding Their Future Gala is in this episode's show notes. [19:12] Be on the lookout for some of the honorees and Spencer Board members to join RIMScast in June and July. [19:21] Let's Conclude Our Interview with Ward Ching and Aaron Olson!! [19:32] Aaron says this is the second book he has written and the first book he has written with Ward. They enjoyed the opportunity to bring together some things they had been doing in their respective professional backgrounds. [19:46] The book is an investigation into what is driving us to live in a world that's more complicated and faster-moving, where risk is different, and we need to work differently because of it. [20:01] They go into practical things with three different lenses on the issues we all face in a world of disruptive change. The lenses are insight, choice, and risk. They get to the practical aspects of what that means for us. [20:15] They address success in a world that's more complicated, is moving faster, and has a lot more volatility that's not going away. They use case examples. They look at real organizations. What happened to GE over the last decade? How did they navigate changes in their industry? [20:35] How did S&P Global evolve from a very different business a decade ago? They were McGraw-Hill, the publisher. These are real companies that have faced real challenges, and they've taken proactive approaches that have evolved the way they do business. [20:52] The book brings it down to individuals and how you lead through that kind of change. There are practical things and a few tools to use. [21:05] Ward adds that it points to some additional literature to think about. [21:09] Clayton Christensen at Harvard did a lot of interesting work associated with the innovator's dilemma, in which he was asking the question, "How do organizations that have been innovative throughout their lifespans, when they continue to be innovative, fail?" [21:28] Ward says it has to do with disruptive elements in the marketplace. It raises the question of how you, in risk management, can help the organization think slightly disruptively to help it push through the biases and barriers that might cause it to have difficulties going forward. [21:40] The issue of understanding disruptive innovation is part of the new toolkit that the next generation of risk professionals is going to have to have, sharpened up, with a strong acumen around, to help their organization succeed going forward. [22:09] Those are some of the more subtle elements of the book. It also talks about a risk ecosystem as opposed to separate distinct property and casualty, wealth, well-being, and more. [22:27] They're not in separate locations; they're in an ecosystem. The data is showing us how they interact with each other. New skills, new capabilities, and new perspectives are highlighted in the book. [22:44] Special thanks again to Aaron Olson and Ward Ching of Aon for joining us here on RIMScast! Remember to check out their book Strategy and Change: Finding Opportunity in Disruption Through Insight, Choice, and Risk. It is available worldwide right now. [22:57] If you are looking for the slides from their RISKWORLD 2026 presentation, open up the RIMS Events app and go to the Attendees Service Center. Also visit RIMS.org/ASC. Navigate over to their names, and you should find it. [23:13] Be sure to check out the links in this episode's show notes for the past appearances of our friend Ward Ching. [23:20] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes. [23:48] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information. [24:07] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [24:24] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [24:41] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [24:54] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. Please remember to subscribe to RIMScast on your favorite podcasting app. You can email us at Content@RIMS.org. [25:06] Practice good risk management, stay safe, and thank you again for your continued support!   Links: RIMS Canada Conference — Oct. 18‒21, 2026 | Quebec City | Registration Opens in June RIMScast on YouTube! Spencer Educational Foundation — Scholarships and Grants | Open Calls and Timelines. RIMS-CRO Certificate Program In Advanced Enterprise Risk Management | July‒Sept. 2026 Cohort | Led by James Lam 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference | July 28‒Aug. 1 | Register Now RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2026 | Aug. 10‒12 in San Antonio | Register Now! ChicagoLand Risk Forum | Sept. 24, 2026 RIMS Western Regional Conference — Oct. 4‒7, 2026 | Seattle, WA | Register Today and Submit an Educational Session! RIMS Risk Management magazine | Contribute RIMS Now RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) | Insights Video Series Featuring Joe Milan! The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center RIMS Diversity Equity Inclusion Council RIMS-CRMP Stories RIMScast Canada — Episodes Now Live RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RISKWORLD 2026 Presentations Available via Attendee Service Center — www.RIMS.org/Asc — and via the RIMS Events App Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep | June 9‒10 RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep with AFERM | June 16‒17, 2026 Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops   Upcoming RIMS Webinars: From Underwriting To Risk Management: What To Expect From The Growing Demand For Data Center Construction | May 28 | Presented by Zurich RIMS.org/Webinars   Related RIMScast Episodes: "Live from RISKWORLD 2026!" "RIMS Risk Manager of the Year Jeff Bray" "James Lam on ERM, Strategy, and the Modern CRO" "Rethinking the Impact of Disruption on ERM Tools and Processes with Ward Ching and Dr. Paul Walker" "Disruption and the Digital Age with Ward Ching"   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: "AI-Scale, Risk Ready: Engineering Controls for the New Data Center Boom" (New!) | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Facing Into Risk: Navigating the New Risk Landscape" (New!) | Sponsored by AXA XL "Secondary Perils, Major Risks: The New Face of Weather-Related Challenges" | Sponsored by AXA XL "The ART of Risk: Rethinking Risk Through Insight, Design, and Innovation" | Sponsored by Alliant "Mastering ERM: Leveraging Internal and External Risk Factors" | Sponsored by Diligent "Cyberrisk: Preparing Beyond 2025" | Sponsored by Alliant "The New Reality of Risk Engineering: From Code Compliance to Resilience" | Sponsored by AXA XL "Change Management: AI's Role in Loss Control and Property Insurance" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Demystifying Multinational Fronting Insurance Programs" | Sponsored by Zurich "Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding" | Sponsored by Zurich "What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping" | Sponsored by Medcor "How Insurance Builds Resilience Against An Active Assailant Attack" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips" | Sponsored by Alliant   RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Manny Padilla!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   About our guests: Ward Ching, Managing Director, AON Adjunct Professor of Risk Management, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California   Aaron Olson, EVP, Enterprise Client Group, Exec Sponsor, University Partnerships, AON Lecturer, Northwestern University   Production and engineering provided by Podfly.

“… Let me tell you a story … “ Un 12 de Enero de 1998, en el Waldorf Astoria de la ciudad de New York, se realizaba la ceremonia del Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame para celebrar la inducción de unos cuantos genios a la clase del año 1998 (cara B) Hörns Üp continúa con sus aulas abiertas para dar a conocer a todos aquellos que quieran recordar a las leyendas y los pioneros del Rock ‘N' Roll, un espacio para rendirle homenaje a los clásicos mientras aprendemos y disfrutamos. Bienvenidos a clase, todos a sus puestos … y sean buenos La "teacher", Carolina Rico - Eagles – Earlybird. - Eagles – Take It Easy. - Eagles – Hotel California. - Eagles – Take It to the Limit. - Eagles - New Kid in Town. - Fleetwood Mac – Everywhere. - Fleetwood Mac – My Heart Beat like a Hammer. - Fleetwood Mac – Why. - Fleetwood Mac – Landslide. - Fleetwood Mac – Go Your Own Way. - Fleetwood Mac – Silver Springs. - Fleetwood Mac – Gypsy. - Fleetwood Mac – Hold Me. - Fleetwood Mac – Little Lies. “ … I'll be waitin' for you If you ever wanna be there … “ “ ... And Tell all the stars above: This is dedicated to the one I love … “ Con la colaboración de Metal Hammer: https://metalhammer.es/ Playlist HORNS UP SEMANAL (Más de 6.000 canciones) https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vJgw1Zc6Upx6JO4jCcsIQ?si=0c307bfc958a4b66 Síguenos en: #hornsuppodcast https://hornsup.es Canal de Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaFJWCQJJhzZzHtuYs0i Instagram: @hornsuppodcast Twitter: @HornsUp2020 YouTube: SUSCRÍBETE !!! https://www.youtube.com/@hornsuppodcastspain Puedes ayudar a Horns Up como nuestros "Fans": Ander, Ricardo, Eric, Charly, Mau, Raspu, Óscar, Pedro, Juankar, Carolina, Moy A.M., Iñaki, Carlos Blasco, Valentín, Baal, José Manuel Ruiz, David García, Rick Bass Baker, Fran, Fonchi, Moy Lora, Carlos Makina, Jesús Jiménez, Esther "Impala" Miguelón, Jorge, Pablo, Pere, Una vida de cine, Alberto Chabrán y Anónimo 1. APOYA AL PROGRAMA EN ESTE ENLACE: https://www.ivoox.com/support/835002 #HornsUp #CarolinaRico #ClassRoom #FleetwoodMac #RockandRollHallofFame #RHOF #Classof1998

“… Let me tell you a story … “ Un 12 de Enero de 1998, en el Waldorf Astoria de la ciudad de New York, se realizaba la ceremonia del Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame para celebrar la inducción de unos cuantos genios a la clase del año 1998 (cara B) Hörns Üp continúa con sus aulas abiertas para dar a conocer a todos aquellos que quieran recordar a las leyendas y los pioneros del Rock ‘N' Roll, un espacio para rendirle homenaje a los clásicos mientras aprendemos y disfrutamos. Bienvenidos a clase, todos a sus puestos … y sean buenos La "teacher", Carolina Rico - Eagles – Earlybird. - Eagles – Take It Easy. - Eagles – Hotel California. - Eagles – Take It to the Limit. - Eagles - New Kid in Town. - Fleetwood Mac – Everywhere. - Fleetwood Mac – My Heart Beat like a Hammer. - Fleetwood Mac – Why. - Fleetwood Mac – Landslide. - Fleetwood Mac – Go Your Own Way. - Fleetwood Mac – Silver Springs. - Fleetwood Mac – Gypsy. - Fleetwood Mac – Hold Me. - Fleetwood Mac – Little Lies. “ … I'll be waitin' for you If you ever wanna be there … “ “ ... And Tell all the stars above: This is dedicated to the one I love … “ Con la colaboración de Metal Hammer: https://metalhammer.es/ Playlist HORNS UP SEMANAL (Más de 6.000 canciones) https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vJgw1Zc6Upx6JO4jCcsIQ?si=0c307bfc958a4b66 Síguenos en: #hornsuppodcast https://hornsup.es Canal de Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaFJWCQJJhzZzHtuYs0i Instagram: @hornsuppodcast Twitter: @HornsUp2020 YouTube: SUSCRÍBETE !!! https://www.youtube.com/@hornsuppodcastspain Puedes ayudar a Horns Up como nuestros "Fans": Ander, Ricardo, Eric, Charly, Mau, Raspu, Óscar, Pedro, Juankar, Carolina, Moy A.M., Iñaki, Carlos Blasco, Valentín, Baal, José Manuel Ruiz, David García, Rick Bass Baker, Fran, Fonchi, Moy Lora, Carlos Makina, Jesús Jiménez, Esther "Impala" Miguelón, Jorge, Pablo, Pere, Una vida de cine, Alberto Chabrán y Anónimo 1. APOYA AL PROGRAMA EN ESTE ENLACE: https://www.ivoox.com/support/835002 #HornsUp #CarolinaRico #ClassRoom #FleetwoodMac #RockandRollHallofFame #RHOF #Classof1998

News; birthdays/events; listener John B story...what did you believe until you were an adult?; word of the day. News; game: quiz; game: feud; weird TV shows you like to watch/fall asleep to. News; do you plog?; what do you think about this usage of A.I.?; things that warm you heart...Ashley saw something adorable over the weekend. News; what does your favorite ice cream flavor say about you?; game: calendar trivia; goodbye/fun facts....National Cheese Soufflé Day honors this French delight. The word 'soufflé' comes from the French word 'souffler,' which means 'to puff up' or 'to blow up.' A soufflé is basically a white sauce filled with egg yolk. Stiff egg whites are folded into the mixture. You can add whatever flavor you like at this point such as vegetables, cheese, chocolate, or fruits making it either sweet or savory. The tricky thing about soufflés is that, after a certain point, they will collapse due to the cool air outside the oven. So they need to be served and eaten as soon as they are taken out of the oven. Soufflés gained popularity in fine dining from the early to mid-1900s. According to the New York Public Library menu archives, soufflés made frequent appearances in menus at upscale venues like the Waldorf Astoria, The Biltmore, and Hotel Astor but today they are found on brunch menus everywhere!

In dieser Folge von How to Hack spricht Carsten Puschmann mit Daniel Müller, dem CEO der Motel One Group. Daniel Müller führt das Familienunternehmen in zweiter Generation und hat maßgeblich dazu beigetragen, dass die Marke heute als Inbegriff für „Viel Design für wenig Geld“ gilt. Mit über 100 Hotels und einem Jahresumsatz von mehr als 1 Milliarde Euro zeigt er, wie man aus Deutschland heraus eine internationale Love Brand in der Hotellerie erschafft.Daniel gibt tiefe Einblicke in den spektakulären Wandel vom Autobahn-Motel zum Budget-Design-Konzept in Top-Innenstadtlagen. Er erklärt, warum die „Champions League der Hotellerie“ nicht an der Anzahl der Sterne, sondern am Mindset der Mitarbeitenden gemessen wird und wie die Gruppe den Generationenwechsel im Familienunternehmen erfolgreich gemeistert hat. Ein Gespräch über unternehmerischen Mut, die Verdrängung von Mittelmaß und den Weg zum Hotel der Zukunft.Wir reden über:

Send us Fan MailWe take you inside the new spring tea service at the Waldorf Astoria, recap the storytelling magic of Cyndi Lauper's limited run at The Colosseum, and give you an exclusive preview of Tailgate Beach, Mandalay Bay's sports-driven answer to the traditional pool club.In This Episode:Spring in the Sky: We break down the whimsical new menu at Peacock Alley, featuring everything from Matcha Banana Pudding Macarons to savory pastrami on rye—all served with a great view of the Strip.Vegas Becomes "Cyn City": Cyndi Lauper is back for a final celebration. We share our experience from opening night, where storytelling took center stage alongside her legendary hits.The "Sports-Dayclub" Evolution: Get the details on Tailgate Beach Club at Mandalay Bay. With its own parking and a focus on live sports and reality TV watch parties, find out why this $50 entry + lounge chair is one of the best deals for the upcoming Kentucky Derby weekend.Summer Value Hits the Strip: We navigate the "Summer of Live" $30 ticket promotion and dive into a massive summer package at Tuscany Suites that offers breakfast, all-you-can-drink perks, and—most importantly—no resort fees.Vegas on Screen & In the Air: We spot the local landmarks featured in the newest season of Hacks and look ahead to May 17th, when a high-stakes motorcycle jump at the Caesars Palace fountains aims to evoke the spirit of Evel Knievel for the resort's 60th anniversary.Plus: A candid look at the current pace of the city, from the nail salons to Chinatown, and where to find a $10 drink menu at the Sahara.VegasNearMe App If it's fun to do or see, it's on VegasNearMe. The only app you'll need to navigate Las Vegas. It's FREE! VegasNearMe AppIf it's fun to do or see, it's on VegasNearMe. The only app you'll need to navigate Las Vegas. Support the showFollow us on Instagram: @vegas.revealedFollow us on Twitter: @vegasrevealedFollow us on TikTok: @vegas.revealedWebsite: Vegas-Revealed.com

Jason Wild is a globally recognized innovation strategist and co-author of the groundbreaking book “Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive Innovation,” written alongside Dr. Linda A. Hill of Harvard Business School and Emily Tedards. A former child actor turned business leader, Jason has shaped innovation strategy for some of the world's most iconic brands—including Microsoft, Salesforce, and IBM—while advising CEOs across six continents. As the former Global Vice President of CEO Co-Innovation and Customer Engagement at Microsoft, Jason brings a rare blend of practitioner experience and thought leadership to the art and science of scaling breakthrough ideas.Takeaways:Stop Falling in Love with Ideas and Start Falling in Love with Problems: Most companies pour millions into brainstorming and ideation—and then wonder why nothing actually changes. Jason nails it: innovation isn't about getting to the top of the mountain, it's about making it back down alive. More initiatives die in execution than in conception. The Waldorf Astoria didn't have a slow elevator problem—they had a boring wait problem. An intern with a mirror solved what a million-dollar algorithm couldn't. Leaders, stop rewarding ideas and start rewarding impact. Pick the right problem and the solution will follow.Innovation Is a Social Process—You Can't Mandate It, Delegate It, or Dictate It: Jason has spent 25 years in tech and he'll tell you straight: it's more about people than technology. The most innovative companies don't obsess over the “what” of innovation—they master the “how.” They build communities where the best ideas rise organically, not because someone with the biggest title pounds the table. Creative abrasion, psychological safety, and diverse perspectives aren't corporate buzzwords—they're the operating system of every company that's actually scaling something that matters. AI isn't going to replace you. But a clueless leader who thinks AI can do your job? That's the real threat.Wayfinding Is the New Leadership—Forget the Five-Year Plan: The old playbook of pathfinding—point A to point B, remove barriers, minimize turbulence—is dead. AI, quantum, blockchain—the ground is literally shifting under our feet every week. Jason and his co-authors call it wayfinding: figuring out the destination while you're already on the way there. It's uncomfortable. It demands humility. And it's the only leadership approach that actually works when you're leading in fog. Stop pouring new technology on old thinking and start building the framework to navigate what's next.Sound Bytes:“The most innovative companies don't focus on the what, they focus on how. And they focus on creating a community where organically innovation happens and the best ideas thrive.”“I don't think people should be necessarily worried about the conversation of AI taking your job. But I think you should be more worried about some leader who is clueless, thinking that AI can do your job.”“Get in the right mindset and you surround yourself with the right people that are willing and able to innovate and seemingly impossible is not.”Connect & Discover Jason Wild:LinkedIn: Jason WildBook — Genius at Scale: How Great Leaders Drive InnovationAmazon: Genius at ScaleWebsite: GeniusatScale.com

From fur traders to rulers of the New York social scene - how did the Astors rise to the top? What did it mean to be 'Old Money' in the Gilded Age? And where did that power go?Don is joined by New York Times best-selling historian and novelist, Katherine Howe. From the Titanic, to the slums of New York, to the penthouse of the Waldorf Astoria, Katherine today guides us through a family story like no other.Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  All music from Epidemic Sounds.American History Hit is a History Hit podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Save big on Vegas with Las Vegas Advisor — get 10% off a membership with code MTM (new members, affiliate): lasvegasadvisor.com In this episode, Shawn checks in from Four Seasons Las Vegas while breaking down a strange mix of Vegas news: the Strat land sale moving forward, Bally's running a temporary casino to preserve its license, fresh progress on the A's stadium, and the latest proof that Las Vegas is becoming even more of a major sports city. He also reviews the room, talks value versus Mandalay Bay and Waldorf Astoria, and dives into a classic Vegas myth that may not be true after all. What we cover: April Fool's Day casino jokes from around Las Vegas VICI's approved Strat land deal and what it means for Vegas ownership Bally's temporary casino and why Nevada license rules create weird moments like this Four Seasons Las Vegas review including room, service, pricing, and value The Lefty Rosenthal metal plate myth and Las Vegas landing the 2029 Super Bowl Episode Guide: 0:00 Welcome to MTM Vegas 0:29 April Fool's Day casino jokes in Vegas 1:20 Strat sale approved and VICI's growing Vegas footprint 3:37 Bally's temporary casino and new A's stadium views 5:01 Four Seasons Las Vegas review 9:33 The Lefty Rosenthal metal plate myth gets challenged 11:05 Las Vegas lands the 2029 Super Bowl Want more MTM Vegas? Get our exclusive weekly aftershow and join the community.

He spent years managing luxury restaurants in Los Angeles and London. Then he walked into a recruiting office with zero industry knowledge — and became one of Europe's top billing recruiters. Jean-Louis-Philippe Girardet (JLP) didn't just cross industries. He rewired how recruiting gets done.

Jason Wild, an author, strategist, and former leader at Salesforce, IBM, and Microsoft, shares the revealing story of how a creative intern at the Waldorf Astoria saved a ton of money and time with a creative solution to an abstract problem.Hear Jason's full interview in Episode 501 of The Action Catalyst.

In this episode, Cody & Meagan take you inside one of the most iconic luxury resorts in the world—Waldorf Astoria Grand Wailea. Fresh off their trip to Maui, they break down the full guest experience from arrival to departure, sharing what this property gets right—and what independent operators can learn from it.This isn't just a review—it's a masterclass in luxury hospitality, design, and service execution.

In today's episode, Cindy Adams has a detailed interview with John Doherty, the former executive chef of the Waldorf Astoria, who recounts his journey from washing dishes to managing the culinary operations of one of the world's most prestigious hotels. Interspersed with this dialogue are Adams' signature monologues, which range from critiques of Oscar fashion and New York real estate scandals to personal grievances regarding the American Kennel Club's breed rankings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jock McDonald is a fine art photographer who incorporates woven images, video projection and lenticular printing into his works. (You may have seen them hanging in an airport or projected on the side of a building.) In this episode of Dyslexic Design Thinking, Jock discusses the inspiration behind his most ambitious photography projects, the Richard Avedon anecdote that influenced his approach to portraiture and his experiences living and working with dyslexia.In this episode:Jock McDonald's websiteCraig FrazierAl Farrow“The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Waldorf Astoria, Suite 28A, New York” by Richard Avedon“Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters” by David Hockney

Jason Wild, an author, strategist, and former leader at Salesforce, IBM, and Microsoft, addresses misconceptions around what innovation is and isn't and the way leadership can help or hinder it, creating culture, the as-of-yet unmet promise of AI, the ABC's inside of organizations, how a creative intern at the Waldorf Astoria saved a ton of money and time with a creative solution to an abstract problem, identifying who the customer REALLY is and what you're REALLY selling, and the strangely important lessons he learned from being a child actor.

TDS, Waldorf Astoria, and Yelling! "This Evening"

The National Hockey League trade deadline has passed, and The Minnesota Wild have locked their roster for the 25-26 season. With alot of chatter around the league for the last month or so, Billy Guerin has made his deals, and the Wild can exhale and focus on finishing the regular season strong. Ryan Carter is joined by fellow sweet tooth Al Stalock at the Waldorf Astoria in Vegas, as the Wild warmup for tonights battle against the Knights, and Kinger holds it down in Saint Paul, where the Boys State Tourney is in full swing. Grab yourself a T-Rex cookie, exhale, and imagine the Stanley Cup Playoff run of your dreams, because we've got our team, and now we go!

Jeff's best-known for being a mainstay of New York's world-famous speakeasy-behind-a-phone-booth Please Don't Tell (PDT), where he was hired by Jim Meehan and has worked since 2010, and which post-pandemic he bought from its founder Brian Shebairo along with the hotdog stand it's housed inside, Crif Dogs. In a city where bartenders hop around jobs willy-nilly, Jeff credits his tenure at a single bar with helping him gain the trust of investors (Apres Cru Hospitality) and become an owner. I've known Jeff since 2011, when he was a world finalist in the G'Vine Gin Connoisseur Program, a contest I created and executed for several years; we had a lot of fun that Finals week in Cognac, France!This is a really great episode: we talked about starting his career in Seattle, his break into NY bartending, working at PDT, how he became an owner, his new businesses Tacos 1986, Cocteleria Mixteca (with fellow longtime PDT bartender Victor Lopez) and elegant speakeasy Kees (where we recorded), how he scaled back his travel to spend more time with his wife and children, helping Hilton reopen the Waldorf-Astoria's historic Peacock Alley bar and Lex Yard restaurant, keeping Jet Blue airline supplied with cocktails, and a bunch more of really thoughtful, insightful stuff. Classic Jeff. Enjoy!Jeff on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeffreymbell/Apres Cru Hospitality: https://www.aprescru.com/PDT: https://www.instagram.com/pdtnyc/Crif Dogs: https://www.instagram.com/crifdogs/Mixteca: https://www.instagram.com/cocteleriamixteca/Kees: https://www.instagram.com/seekkeesnyc/ (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries: consulting@liquidsolutions.org (PR friends: we're only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won't supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.) Retain Philip's consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: philip@liquidsolutions.orgPhilip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Facebook: facebook.com Old Duff Genever on X/Twitter: ...

David Waldman and Greg Dworkin cut through the confusion and clamp down on the chaos for a tidbit of today. Hey, do you know who the guest was on The Late Show with Steven Colbert? Sure, you do, yet you can't say that very often, can you? That's because that guest, James Talarico, Democratic candidate for Senate, was given a huge promotional lift by Brendan Carr, Donald K. Trump, and a panicked herd of frightened lawyers, who say that they didn't want to make Jasmine Crockett mad. Jasmine Crockett isn't mad. This Blue Wave is raising all Dem boats. Just talk about the SAVE act is encouraging voter suppression, and spurring plans for new voter suppression. Don't let it get to you but do pay attention. Our generics beat their generics. Zohran Mamdani is the most popular Democrat. Donald's pal Jeffrey Epstein led a global criminal enterprise, creating crimes against humanity. Kristi Noem scuttles the Coast Guard. We kill boaters while cocaine booms, while the guy responsible for shipping 400 tons to the US gets all expenses paid vacation to the Waldorf Astoria. Federal Judges can hardly believe the administration's lawlessness, as they have ruled over 4400 times that ICE detentions were illegal. Trump is getting sick of all of the winning… must be why he hasn't been golfing lately. Hope nothing's wrong with the old boy.

Donate (no account necessary) | Subscribe (account required) Join Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA Operations Officer, as he dives into today's top stories shaping America and the world. In this Friday Headline Brief of The Wright Report, Bryan covers the partial government shutdown as Democrats refuse to fund DHS, President Trump's sweeping move to dismantle the legal foundation of climate regulations, and rising market volatility driven by the accelerating AI Revolution. Bryan then turns global, revealing new details about alleged foreign intelligence chatter involving Jared Kushner, a covert U.S. effort to move thousands of Starlink systems into Iran during mass protests, and a looming showdown over deported Venezuelan gang members after a federal judge orders them returned. He also sounds the alarm on China's expanding influence in Peru, covert corruption in Pacific island nations, suspicious seed packages arriving in American mailboxes, and the strategic mystery behind Beijing's 2 billion dollar renovation of New York's Waldorf Astoria. The episode closes with hopeful medical news from Canada, where researchers report a dramatic breakthrough in treating glioblastoma using high-dose vitamin B3.   "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32     Keywords: February 13 2026 Wright Report, partial government shutdown DHS funding filibuster, Trump endangerment finding climate rollback, AI Revolution stock market volatility, Matt Schumer viral AI essay, Jared Kushner NSA intel Iran chatter, Starlink covert operation Iran protests, James Boasberg deported Venezuelan gang ruling, China Peru Chancay port control, CIA recruit Chinese officials purge Xi Jinping, Chinese seed packages brushing scam threat, Waldorf Astoria China renovation espionage concerns, vitamin B3 glioblastoma Canada study

What exactly happened in El Paso yesterday? Waldorf Astoria’s Chinese Owners Plan to Sell NYC Hotel After Extravagant Makeover. House votes to overturn Canada tariffs. Thursday Music Moment: Jackie Wilson - (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher.TV Theme Song: LA LawSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

House ends tariffs on Canada. SAVE Act passes House. NY Times lies about Canadian shooter. Mad Maxine may not be going to Trump's State of the Union, but Tony will (tentatively). ICE is coming to Carmel Working on getting Kroger Whippies for Tony's event. James Van Der Beek dead at 48. Today’s Popcorn Moment: Pam Bondi Circus. Today on the Marketplace: Nothing says Happy Valentine's Day like used Balenciaga. Scott Jennings: What voting rights is Trump taking away from Black voters. What exactly happened in El Paso yesterday? Waldorf Astoria’s Chinese Owners Plan to Sell NYC Hotel After Extravagant Makeover. House votes to overturn Canada tariffs. Thursday Music Moment: Jackie Wilson - (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher.TV Theme Song: LA Law See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hour 3 Segment 1 Tony starts the final hour of the show talking more about Tom Homan, saying that the Minnesota ICE crackdown operation has concluded. Hour 3 Segment 2 Tony talks about Waldorf Astoria’s Chinese owners planning on selling the New York City hotel after an extravagant makeover. Hour 3 Segment 3 Tony talks about Carl Higbie, saying Pam Bondi’s testimony was a complete disaster. Hour 3 Segment 4 Tony wraps up another edition of the show talking about the Save Act passing the House. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hour 3 Segment 1 Tony starts the final hour of the show talking more about Tom Homan, saying that the Minnesota ICE crackdown operation has concluded. Hour 3 Segment 2 Tony talks about Waldorf Astoria’s Chinese owners planning on selling the New York City hotel after an extravagant makeover. Hour 3 Segment 3 Tony talks about Carl Higbie, saying Pam Bondi’s testimony was a complete disaster. Hour 3 Segment 4 Tony wraps up another edition of the show talking about the Save Act passing the House. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   In this episode, Justin interviews Megan Miller, the CEO of the Spencer Educational Foundation, and John Button, ERM strategist and RIMS-CRMP Workshop instructor. The episode is divided into two interviews. Justin and Megan review the Spencer activities coming up around RISKWORLD 2026 and later, with a focus on driving students into insurance and risk careers and on providing risk scholarships to build the industry. Justin and John focus on John's ERM and risk philosophies and the key skills and knowledge the next wave of risk practitioners will need as risk management moves into strategic risk modes. They discuss the RIMS-CRMP virtual workshops that John teaches, and James Lam's RIMS-CRO Certificate Program in Advanced Enterprise Risk Management, which John endorses. They talk about RISKWORLD 2026, which is coming up.   Listen for tips on inviting the next wave of students into the risk profession and preparing for upcoming trends in risk.   Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:17] About this episode of RIMScast. We will be joined by Spencer Educational Foundation CEO, Megan Miller, and ERM strategist and RIMS-CRMP Workshop instructor, John Button. But first… [:47] RIMS Risk Foundations Certificate Program. This beginner program will guide you through the risk landscape and help evaluate the purpose, function, and process of risk management. On completion, you will receive a Digital Risk Foundation certificate and 24 RIMS CE credits. [1:07] Cohort Number One starts on February 10th and 11th, with "Fundamentals of Risk Management," and then, on February 25th, "Risk Taxonomy," followed by two on-demand courses. Register now because the next cohort will be held in August. A link is in the notes. [1:28] RIMS members always enjoy deep discounts on the virtual workshops. [1:32] Webinars The next RIMS webinar will celebrate Women's History Month by exploring the success of women in construction risk on March 6th. We'll be joined by a Chief Risk Officer, an underwriter, and a broker. [1:45] They will explore their career paths, risk and safety philosophies, and lend some insight as to why this is the time for the next generation of leaders to rise. Visit RIMS.org/webinars and check out the link in this episode's show notes. [2:00] RISKWORLD General registration is open for RISKWORLD 2026, which will be held from May 3rd through the 6th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Visit RIMS.org/RISKWORLD or RIMS.org. Register today to take advantage of those sweet advance rates through the end of this month! [2:24] On with the Show! Returning to RIMScast is one of my favorite people, the CEO of the Spencer Educational Foundation, Megan Miller! Spencer Day is coming up on February 23rd. We want to hear all about what she has in store for us this month, and at RISKWORLD 2026. [2:50] Megan Miller will also present a special introduction for the "Hard Hats and High Stakes" Webinar on March 6th. Let's get to it! [3:08] Interview! Spencer Educational Foundation CEO Megan Miller, welcome back to RIMScast! [3:30] Megan says the Spencer Educational Foundation had a great year in 2025. They surpassed their goals. They're riding into 2026 on top of the wave. They are also starting Year 1 of implementing their next Five-Year Strategic Plan through 2030. [3:55] Megan says they have some big growth goals; they're hoping to raise $10 million a year by 2030. They ended last year at just over $4 million. [5:13] Spencer Day on February 23rd is held in conjunction with Insurance Careers Month. The Insurance Careers movement is to get students thinking about careers in insurance. [5:29] Holding Spencer Day during Insurance Careers Month raises awareness about what the Spencer Educational Foundation is doing to help drive more students into insurance careers. [5:36] The Spencer Educational Foundation tries to raise at least $7,500 from individual contributors that day to fund an additional scholarship. If they can raise $7,500, they can give out one more scholarship in 2026 and set one more person on the path to a career in risk. [6:18] At RISKWORLD, the Spencer Educational Foundation holds three events: Pickleball Social on Saturday, May 2nd, with sponsor Optum, the Gallagher Topgolf Golf Tournament on Sunday, May 3rd, and the 5K Fun Run on Tuesday, May 5th, with new sponsor Bold Penguin. [7:59] The 5K Fun Run will take place at Boathouse Row at 6:30 a.m. [8:57] The Spencer Soirée will be held on Monday, May 4th, at 5:30 p.m. It's Spencer's big donor appreciation event. At the Spencer Soirée, Spencer announces the winners of the International Student Risk Management Challenge that takes place all day on Sunday, behind closed doors. [9:16] On Monday morning, you'll have the opportunity to see the top three student teams present. Over 50 teams are competing. They submit their papers online, and the judges select the top eight teams to be flown to RISKWORLD. In 2025, half of the teams were international. [10:01] For some students, it was the first time they had ever been to the U.S. It's an incredible opportunity. In 2024, the team from Hyderabad, India, won. Justin had them as RIMScast guests. [10:20] The 2025 winning team was from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. [10:32] At the RISKWORLD conference, the top eight teams present behind closed doors on Sunday, and the judges select the top three. On Monday, those presentations are open to the public. It's impressive to hear the students talking through their cases. Come and watch! [10:53] On Monday, at the Spencer Soirée donor appreciation event, the first, second, and third place winners are announced, with cash prizes. It's a big audience, and the students answer the judges' questions. Megan says that the students are poised and super bright. [12:08] The 2026 Spencer Funding Their Future Gala will be held on Thursday, September 17th, back at the Waldorf Astoria, which was recently reopened after extensive renovations. Megan says it's stunning. [13:30] There are two honorees for the gala, Sierra Signorelli from Zurich, and Marya Propis from RT Specialty. Marya was one of the earliest RIMScast guests. She has been heavily involved in Spencer. [13:51] Megan says Zurich has been a strong partner of the Spencer Educational Foundation for a very long time. Sierra has taken on an expanded role at Zurich. [14:09] Marya is the former board chair who hired Megan within the Spencer organization. [14:35] For more information about the Funding Their Future Gala, listeners can reach out to Megan Miller or Brianne Kelly-Prensa at the Spencer Educational Foundation. [15:00] Megan mentions some of the new names at the Spencer Educational Foundation. Brianne Kelly-Prensa is the new Development Manager, helping Megan with fundraising and finding new partnerships. Amisha Kitani is the new Program Administrator. [15:31] Amisha was an intern at LVMH through Spencer's internship grant program. [16:10] Megan was a Spencer scholarship recipient. While she was at Swiss Re, she received a Spencer scholarship for the part-time Master's program. Spencer was very instrumental in helping Megan complete her MBA. [16:37] Spencer also has two board members who are Spencer scholarshop recipients: Robin Roeder and Cristina Vigilante. As Spencer grows and impacts more students, he loves to see them come back into the fold. [17:13] Justin shares details about the presenters of the RIMS webinar on March 6th, "Hard Hats and High Stakes: Women Leaders Shaping Construction Risk Management," including a special introduction by Megan Miller. Megan is excited about it. [19:01] The webinar is not only in honor of Women's History Month but also in advance of Construction Safety Awareness Week in May. Justin says this important sector deserves the spotlight. [19:39] If you have any questions for Megan, find her at SpencerEd.org. Justin tells Megan, it is such a pleasure to see you again. [19:56] Our next interview features John Button, CRMP, an Enterprise Strategic and Technology Risk Strategist for American Systems and an Instructor for the UCLA Extension Business School, specifically for implementing their Enterprise Risk Management course. [20:24] John Button is one of the instructors for the RIMS-CRMP Virtual Workshop Series. John will be leading the March 10th and 11th Workshop, and the June 9th and 10th Workshop. [20:39] We are going to get a glimpse into his risk perspective and philosophy. We're going to talk about strategic risk management and where he believes ERM is headed in the short and long term. Let's get to it! [20:52] Interview! RIMS-CRMP Commissioner John Button, welcome to RIMScast! [21:10] John heard about the RIMS-CRMP from other practitioners who were getting certified. John worked with Joseph Mayo on a couple of his books, the latest being Cultural Calamity. Joseph suggested the RIMS-CRMP to John. John looked into it. [21:41] John fell in love with the RIMS-CRMP, as it is a foundational risk management certification. [21:52] Justin adds that John Mayo was the first RIMS-CRMP Story. John says the RIMS-CRMP has been a pretty exclusive club, but it's spreading quickly around the globe, and once you've gotten it, you start to see who else has it. [23:16] Justin asks about strategic risk management. John says when he was studying for the RIMS-CRMP, he was well aware of strategic risk management, and he had been an enterprise risk management advisor at Gartner, but it wasn't practiced as much then as we see it today. [23:45] While studying for the RIMS-CRMP, John learned of the RIMS Strategic Risk Management Framework. He thinks it is one of the clearest ways of thinking about strategic risk management. It started connecting the dots for him about the value chain and benchmarking. [24:21] John says there's been an evolution in business from hazard risk to operational risk to strategic risk, and the real value is within strategic risk management. With strategic risk, what we focus on is largely the business model or foundational assumptions of the organization. [25:22] It will involve your customers, your financial model, your capabilities, and your value proposition. Strategic management deals with deciding the direction of a company, where you are trying to go, and the business model for how you are going to achieve success. [25:48] John says strategic is fundamentally different from operational, which may involve the execution of parts of the strategy, keeping the lights on, and running the business. [26:21] John says the most important skills for future risk leaders are to understand the decision science and analysis component of measuring uncertainty. That involves a basic understanding of statistics, probability theory, and the psychology of biases. That's critical. [27:23] John tells of helping develop risk quantification courses for RIMS for risk managers to learn how to measure and communicate risk in economic terms, for leaders in an organization. That skill set will differentiate risk practitioners in companies in achieving goals and objectives. [28:18] The people in an organization doing the work of mitigating the risk are often labeled as owning the risk. John says a risk is an uncertainty that will negatively impact an objective. Whose objective is threatened by the risk? Knowing that, you can build the accountability bridge. [29:58] John says when the ownership of risk is not known, most executive decision-makers use System One, instinctive thinking. System Two thinking requires deliberation and problem-solving. When a risk owner is identified, executives switch to System Two thinking. [31:37] Accountability is a by-product of risk owner identification. [32:09] Quantitative risk analysis allows you to accurately and mathematically measure risk. You can't count risk with ordinal scales that only tell you the order of things. When you measure risk quantitatively or statistically, you can accurately forecast the financial impact of an event. [33:51] That forecast enables executives to make more informed decisions. You can add risks in a mathematically coherent way. You can see how risks hang together for the organization. [35:12] John says a good risk culture is an organization that practices what it preaches. John would expect to see incentives built into measuring performance. It's not just whether you met your goals and objectives, but also whether you followed good risk management practices. [36:38] John says a lot of organizations speak to it, but what they say and what they do are often two separate things. [37:13] There's a big push right now for using more quantitative tools and skills for doing risk management. Risk management is more than quantitative measurement or decision analysis. John sees mistakes from companies looking only at the short term. [37:57] If you do risk management well, with a solid risk culture, there is always the possibility or probability of failure. Any company, even with great risk management, can be susceptible to systemic risk and big surprises. Having a good risk culture lowers the probability of failure. [38:47] John says they touch on risk culture during the RIMS-CRMP Workshops. It's about trying to develop a programmatic and systematic approach to risk that is consistent, coherent, and serves as the foundation for further growth. It's the beginning of the journey, not the end of it. [39:30] John discusses flipping the script from uncertainty to opportunity. He notes that risk managers often focus on compliance, which was great in the past. The future, with its move toward strategic risk management, will need far more than risk event forecasts. [41:03] John believes the next phase will come from using your imagination, in collaboration with AI, to see beyond the five-year strategy timeframe, to develop hypotheses and a different kind of forecast about where trends, drivers, and conditions will show up in the risk landscape. [41:56] John thinks risk management will move outside of the organization. The next wave of practitioners will be equipped quantitatively, helped by AI, and will help to steer strategy and the strategic direction of business models to find the opportunities for innovation. [42:27] Justin says this has been such an enlightening conversation and mentions that John will be leading the virtual workshops for RIMS-CRMP on March 10th and 11th and June 9th and 10th. What is John Button's instruction style? [42:53] John enjoys teaching. He's currently teaching Implementing Enterprise Risk Management at UCLA. What's important to him is making sure people are crystal-clear, understand the foundation, and can analyze the concept. [43:19] John reduces most challenges in risk management to communication. What one person means by cyberrisk may not be what somebody else means. He makes sure those he is teaching feel confident when they walk away, ready to go. His teaching style is thorough. [43:59] John always stays back after the webinar to answer questions. Some people contact him later with questions, and he's more than happy to help them. [44:18] Justin mentions the RIMS-CRO Certificate Program in Advanced Enterprise Risk Management, hosted by James Lam. John introduced himself to James Lam at the FAIR Conference 2022, after reading his book. John took the RIMS-CRO Certificate Program. [45:07] John says they worked live for about four hours every other week for six sessions, with each module building on the previous one. The next cohort will begin in April. Registration closes on April 6th. That course will run biweekly from April 14th to June 23rd, 2026. [45:55] Check out RIMS's social channels to see a testimonial from John talking about the course. It was extremely beneficial for him and for the others who shared their perspectives on it. [46:40] John will be at RISKWORLD 2026. Last year was his first RISKWORLD, and having attended a lot of business conferences, he shares that he was blown away by how awesome RISKWORLD is. John invites you to reach out to him if you go, and he'll be happy to talk to you. [47:15] Special thanks to both of our guests, Megan Miller, the CEO of the Spencer Educational Foundation, and John Button, one of our valued RIMS-CRMP Commissioners and virtual workshop instructors. [47:29] Links to SpencerEd.org and to John's upcoming virtual workshops for the RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep are in this episode's show notes. Register now, and let them know how great they sounded on RIMScast in February 2026! [47:46] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes. [48:15] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information. [48:33] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [48:50] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [49:07] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [49:21] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. Please remember to subscribe to RIMScast on your favorite podcasting app. You can email us at Content@RIMS.org. [49:33] Practice good risk management, stay safe, and thank you again for your continuous support!   Links: RISKWORLD 2026 Registration — Open for exhibitors, members, and non-members! Reserve your booth at RISKWORLD 2026! Spencer Educational Foundation | Spencer Day — Feb. 23, 2026 RIMS Legislative Summit — March 18‒19, 2026 on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. | Register now! RIMS-CRO Certificate Program In Advanced Enterprise Risk Management | April‒June 2026 Cohort | Led by James Lam RIMS Risk Management magazine | Contribute RIMS Now RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) | Insights Video Series Featuring Joe Milan! The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center RIMS Diversity Equity Inclusion Council RIMS-CRMP Story, featuring John Button Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam PrepMarch 10‒11 | April 21‒22, 2026 | June 9‒10, Virtual Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops "Applying and Integrating ERM" | Feb 4. Risk Foundations Certificate Program | Feb. 10 "Facilitating Risk-Based Decision Making" | March 4‒5 Upcoming RIMS Webinars: "Hard Hats & High Stakes: Women Leaders Shaping Construction Risk Management" | March 6 | Presented by RIMS RIMS.org/Webinars   Related RIMScast Episodes: "Risk Decision-making in 2026 with Joseph A. Milan, Ph.D." "The Evolving Role of the Risk Analyst" "Risk Rotation with Lori Flaherty and Bill Coller of Paychex" "Energizing ERM with Kellee Ann Richards-St. Clair"   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: "Secondary Perils, Major Risks: The New Face of Weather-Related Challenges" | Sponsored by AXA XL (New!) "The ART of Risk: Rethinking Risk Through Insight, Design, and Innovation" | Sponsored by Alliant "Mastering ERM: Leveraging Internal and External Risk Factors" | Sponsored by Diligent "Cyberrisk: Preparing Beyond 2025" | Sponsored by Alliant "The New Reality of Risk Engineering: From Code Compliance to Resilience" | Sponsored by AXA XL "Change Management: AI's Role in Loss Control and Property Insurance" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Demystifying Multinational Fronting Insurance Programs" | Sponsored by Zurich "Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding" | Sponsored by Zurich "What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping" | Sponsored by Medcor "How Insurance Builds Resilience Against An Active Assailant Attack" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips" | Sponsored by Alliant   RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Manny Padilla!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   About our guests: Megan Miller, CEO, Spencer Educational Foundation John Button, RIMS-CRMP, Enterprise, Strategic & Technology Risk Strategist, American Systems   Production and engineering provided by Podfly.  

This week's Eye on Travel Podcast with Peter Greenberg - from The Waldorf Astoria in Washington, DC. Peter sits down with  Chris Nassetta - President and CEO of Hilton - for an extended conversation on the state of the global hotel industry. Then, Zane Kerby - President & CEO at The American Society of Travel Advisors - stops by with his predictions in the world of travel for 2026. Finally, President of the US Travel Association Geoff Freeman joins the program to discuss who is - and is not - coming to America. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chase Sapphire Referral Link - Earn 125,000 points with Sapphire Reserve® or 75,000  bonus points with Sapphire Preferred® Chase Ink/Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business Referral Link (if you've never had one!) - Earn 200,000 bonus points with the new Sapphire Reserve for Business credit card and access over $6,500 in value your first year . You can also earn bonuses with the Ink Business Premier® card,  Ink Business Preferred® card, Ink Business Unlimited® card or Ink Business Cash® card.*if the links above do not work, please DM me on instagram @travelpartyof5 and I will send you a fresh one! Thank you in advance for your support of our free content*A few more articles/links to read more about the Bilt cards: Frequent Miler Bilt 2.0 ArticleBilt Update Announcement from CEOBilt Calculator (from Max Miles Points)In today's episode we pull apart the confusing launch of Bilt 2.0 to decide when, if ever, it's worth it. The short answer: value beats vibes, and simple beats complicated.• AA Gold to Platinum Pro to Platinum: what changed and what did not• Group boarding, Main Cabin Extra, and upgrade odds from an AA hub• Booking Park Hyatt Los Cabos and Waldorf Astoria with points and FNCs• Extending an expiring Hilton Free Night via chat• Real cents-per-point math across flights and hotels• Bilt 2.0 structure: Blue, Obsidian, Palladium, and mixed “points” vs “cash”• Mortgage and rent earning explained, fees, ACH, and opportunity cost• CEO's two new paths and why most families should pass• Niche first-year use case for Palladium with transfer bonuses• Starter strategy: open Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve firstWe would be so grateful if you are going to apply if you would utilize our links above!

Welcome to 2026! In this episode I breakdown what I think will happen to a few new and redone concepts on the strip. I review the redone Hard Shake Cocktail Lounge at the Waldorf-Astoria.

There are few places outside of the White House that are as deeply connected to the American Presidency as the Waldorf Astoria New York. For almost a century, this luxury hotel has welcomed every U.S. President since Herbert Hoover through its elegant Art Deco doors on Park Avenue. After leaving office, President Hoover even lived in the Waldorf Astoria Residence for more than three decades before his passing at the age of 90. White House Historical Association president Stewart McLaurin was joined in the newly renovated Waldorf Astoria Residences New York by guests David Freeland, author of American Hotel: The Waldorf-Astoria and the Making of a Century and Jasmin Howanietz, the Executive Director of Sales at the Waldorf Astoria. The hotel and residence underwent an almost eight year renovation, reopening in 2025. The White House Historical Association is thrilled to be a partner in the creation of the Presidential Library and Bar at the Waldorf Astoria Residences New York, a private amenity for the residents that features a curated collection of books and artifacts that bring presidential history to life. Take a peek inside and learn about the rich history of diplomacy that has taken place inside the rooms of the Waldorf Astoria during sessions of the United Nations General Assembly, see a few of the items gifted by U.S. presidents after their stay in the Presidential Suite - including a rocking chair from President John F. Kennedy - and find out why President Richard Nixon loved the Waldorf Astoria so much that he booked the ballroom for his 1968 Election Night party.

There are few places outside of the White House that are as deeply connected to the American Presidency as the Waldorf Astoria New York. For almost a century, this luxury hotel has welcomed every U.S. President since Herbert Hoover through its elegant Art Deco doors on Park Avenue. After leaving office, President Hoover even lived in the Waldorf Astoria Residence for more than three decades before his passing at the age of 90. White House Historical Association president Stewart McLaurin was joined in the newly renovated Waldorf Astoria Residences New York by guests David Freeland, author of American Hotel: The Waldorf-Astoria and the Making of a Century and Jasmin Howanietz, the Executive Director of Sales at the Waldorf Astoria. The hotel and residence underwent an almost eight year renovation, reopening in 2025. The White House Historical Association is thrilled to be a partner in the creation of the Presidential Library and Bar at the Waldorf Astoria Residences New York, a private amenity for the residents that features a curated collection of books and artifacts that bring presidential history to life. Take a peek inside and learn about the rich history of diplomacy that has taken place inside the rooms of the Waldorf Astoria during sessions of the United Nations General Assembly, see a few of the items gifted by U.S. presidents after their stay in the Presidential Suite - including a rocking chair from President John F. Kennedy - and find out why President Richard Nixon loved the Waldorf Astoria so much that he booked the ballroom for his 1968 Election Night party.

One of San Francisco's most infamous stalled developments — the Oceanwide Center near Salesforce Tower — is reportedly set to sell for around $95 million, a fraction of the more than $1 billion invested before construction halted.Once planned as a massive mixed-use complex with luxury residences, office space, and a Waldorf Astoria hotel, the project has sat unfinished for years, symbolizing the broader struggles facing downtown San Francisco's commercial real estate market.

The guys take on a turn-of-the-century twist on the Manhattan, created at the original Waldorf Astoria in New York.ROB ROY RECIPE:2oz/60ml SCOTCH .75oz/22ml SWEET VERMOUTH3 dashes ANGOSTURA BITTERS Add ingredients into a mixing glass with ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with speared brandied cherry.Recipe via Liquor.comWANT MORE SLOP? Check out:PatreonSHOP the webstore at:The Sloppy Boys WebsiteLISTEN to The Sloppy Boys hit songs on:Apple MusicSpotifyYoutubeTOUR DATES, SOCIALS and more at:LinktreeT H E S L O P P Y B O Y S L L CExpand Ascend Conquer Retain Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is especially helpful if you're searching for:How to prepare for divorce without filingEmotional separation before divorceHow to survive the holidays before divorceWhat is a silent divorce?How to tell your spouse you want a divorce (but not yet)Divorce timing strategyHow to protect kids during separationIf you're quietly planning your next chapter, this one is for you.In this episode of How Not to Suck at Divorce, Morgan Stogsdill and Andrea Rappaport dive deep into the concept of the silent divorce: the unofficial, emotional separation that happens when one or both partners know the marriage is ending, but they're not ready to officially file yet.If you're feeling emotionally checked out, unsure of timing, scared of disrupting the holidays, or stuck in a “limbo marriage,” this episode helps you understand what a silent divorce is, the signs you're in one, and most importantly : what to DO about it.Andrea and Morgan break down two scenarios:1️⃣ When both spouses know divorce is coming but are waiting.2️⃣ When only one spouse knows, and the other has no idea.You'll hear practical guidance, emotional support, and legal strategy to help you prepare without panicking, protect your kids, and avoid major divorce mistakes.Plus, you'll hear hysterical QuickBooks chaos, psychic readings on Oak Street, and a glamorous side quest to the Waldorf Astoria. Classic HNTSAD energy.What You'll Learn in This Episode:✔ What a “silent divorce” actually isHow emotional withdrawal and parallel living become the early stage of divorce long before filing papers.✔ Signs you're in a silent divorce– Minimal communication– Loss of intimacy– Roommate vibes– Emotional loneliness– Avoidance of conflict– No partnership energy✔ If both partners know divorce is comingDo this:Keep things predictableSet temporary boundaries (separate bedrooms, shared spaces, routines)Treat this time as preparation, not limbo✔ If only you know divorce is comingDo this:Understand your secrecy is not deceit — it's strategyConfide in only ONE trusted personStart preparing emotionally, financially, and legally✔ Why timing matters (especially during the holidays)Morgan explains why the holiday season is almost never the right moment for a divorce announcement — legally, strategically, and emotionally.Andrea shares how to survive the “holiday performance pressure” without pretending everything is perfect.✔ How to handle parenting when you're silently divorcingSimple scripts, routines, and communication tips to help keep kids grounded and minimize emotional fallout.✔ The #1 thing that reduces divorce fear: preparationFear = confusionConfidence = clarityThis episode shows you how to take the first steps safely, smartly, and privately.“A silent divorce is not a selfish move — it is a strategic move.”“You don't have to file today to...

Behind every legendary hotel reopening is a team that makes the impossible look effortless. I spoke with Mary D'Argenis-Fernandez, President of MDA Hospitality Solutions, about her company's incredible work training the team at the newly reopened Waldorf Astoria New York — one of the most anticipated returns in hospitality. Mary explains how her team prepared staff across every outlet — from Peacock Alley to Lex Yard — to deliver flawless service from day one. We also explore how training drives profitability, retention, and guest satisfaction in today's high-turnover world. This conversation on #NoVacancyNews is a reminder that hospitality excellence starts with investment in people.