2019 RIMS Risk Manager of the Year Awarded to Luke Figora

Luke Figora, senior associate vice president and chief risk and compliance officer at Northwestern University, has been named the 2019 RIMS Risk Manager of the Year. The 2019 Risk Management Honor Roll inducted David Stills, vice president, global risk management for Walmart Inc.

Both individuals will be recognized at the RIMS 2019 Annual Conference & Exhibition scheduled for April 28–May 1 in Boston.

According to RIMS, the risk management society®, the Risk Manager of the Year program aims to raise the profile of the risk management profession and the outstanding programs the honorees have implemented within their organizations. The program was initiated in 1977, and the Risk Management Honor Roll was added in 1981.

"Building a strong risk management program demands a blended approach that effectively addresses exposures while also supporting new, value-generating initiatives," said RIMS CEO Mary Roth.

She continued, "Luke Figora masterfully captures this focus at Northwestern University. His accomplishments have resulted in tremendous cost savings and have paved the way for many wonderful educational opportunities for its students."

"Similarly," she said, "David Stills has embraced the evolving, more strategic role expected of today's risk professional. Deservingly, we proudly welcome Mr. Stills to RIMS Risk Management Honor Roll and recognize him for his extraordinary success advancing Walmart's robust risk management program."

Mr. Figora oversees a portfolio of risk governance operations, including risk management, internal audit, compliance, and environmental health and safety. Under his leadership, Northwestern's enterprise risk management (ERM) program combines risk awareness and transparency, with actionable operations on key risk issues. The program has helped make strides in the areas of athlete safety, minors on campus, venue security, crisis communications, conflict of interest, and Title IX. His ERM efforts are currently focused on embedding an expectation of escalation of key issues across a federated university, and improving the university's process for handling investigations and issues that arise.

Mr. Stills' responsibilities include global property insurance, global management liability insurance, global casualty and excess casualty insurance, global cyber insurance, aviation and fixed-base operator insurance, and all other global insurance programs. He also has responsibility for insurance claims impacting the globally-relevant policies and management of Walmart's captive insurance company. Annually, his team manages more than 180,000 casualty claims.

The risk management team at Walmart embraces the company's focus on technology to improve productivity. Among its many accomplishments, the team has implemented processes for instant closed circuit television access in its stores and clubs, case manager scorecards to better identify, emulate, teach and reward best practices, a mobile app for a more efficient accident intake, bot technology, and more.