NEW YORK (April 13, 2021) — RIMS, the risk management society®, has announced Michael Harrington, Vice President-Risk Management and Assistant Secretary for Lockheed Martin Corporation, as the 2021 Risk Manager of the Year. The 2021 Risk Management Honor Roll inducted Cheryl Lloyd, Associate Vice President, Chief Risk Officer and Vice President Systemwide Human Resources for University of California.
“As our organizations and communities continue to sort through the disruption and disarray caused by recent events, risk professionals have demonstrated their value as strategic leaders who adapt to change, strengthen resilience and power innovation,” said RIMS CEO Mary Roth. “Michael Harrington embodies this, embedding risk management practices to address risks that were, quite literally out-of-this-world. His dynamic leadership has revolutionized risk management at Lockheed Martin and made him a deserving candidate for this year’s RIMS Risk Manager of the Year Award.
“Cheryl oversees a massive risk portfolio for the University of California and has successfully inculcated corporate culture where ‘everyone is a risk manager who plays a role in identifying and mitigating risk’ across its entire system. She instills confidence in the University of California senior leadership, staff and faculty that risk management is ready for anything. RIMS could not be prouder to present her with the Honorable Mention recognition.”
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.
Any full-time professional who administers risk management programs for a corporation, nonprofit institution or government entity is eligible for submission in the Risk Manager of the Year program. The nominations are judged by an independent panel comprising prior honorees and other risk management and insurance industry leaders.
ABOUT THE WINNERS
RISK MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Michael Harrington
Michael Harrington is the Vice President of Risk Management at Lockheed Martin Corporation, the largest defense contractor in the world, with over 114,000 employees globally.
As Lockheed Martin’s risk management lead, Michael has made revolutionary changes to the company’s approach to risk management and enterprise risk management. He has transformed risk management from being mostly an insurance procurement function that provided administrative and compliance support into a strategic department connected to the business, managing risk on an enterprise-wide basis.
Michael continues to lead a joint insurance effort between industry, NASA and the United States government to help reinvigorate the U.S. space program. This globally important and exciting endeavor has presented multiple challenges for defense contractors, critical among them being catastrophic liability risk. To address this, he formed a coalition of risk professionals and other leaders across the Defense Industrial Base to explore key risk management issues that could cause delays and roadblocks for the space program while also leading the effort to reinstate NASA’s indemnity protection. This innovative insurance program protects Lockheed Martin’s balance sheet, the financial interests of all prime contractors and showcases the value of this public-private partnership between NASA and the private sector.
Under Michael’s leadership, risk management became part of Lockheed Martin’s emergency response protocol for cyber intrusions, as well as an integral part of the organization’s COVID-19 response efforts. His team’s efforts played a critical role in the company’s ability to source parts for ventilator manufacturers, activating disaster recovery firms to keep the organization operational, as well as establishing processes to support communities that were heavily impacted by the virus.
His team was tremendously successful establishing and integrating a Risk Management Information System to modernize information collection and management across the enterprise. Through this effort, Lockheed Martin’s risk management has created a library that more efficiently and strategically catalogues, indexes and digitizes current and historical insurance policies to improve benchmarking and forecasting.
RISK MANAGEMENT HONOR ROLL: Cheryl Lloyd
As Chief Risk Officer for the University of California (UC), Cheryl is responsible for providing strategic leadership and vision and overseeing a robust risk management program to protect the university’s 10 campuses, five academic medical centers, over 230,000 employees, over 280,000 students and a $40 billion operating budget (2019-2020).
Cheryl successfully leads Enterprise Risk Management, Environment, Health and Safety, Emergency Management, Mission Continuity, Behavioral Threat Assessment and more. She serves as the president of Fiat Lux Captive Insurance (FLCI), UC’s multi-billion-dollar captive reinsurance company. FLCI has reduced risk transfer costs and increased UC’s investment earnings substantially. To date, the largest captive of its kind in California, the University’s Captive platforms quickly realized savings and new revenues at $185M in just four years. In turn, Cheryl works diligently to use those savings to reduce premiums and implement new risk mitigation programs for the campuses.
In this unprecedented year of COVID-19, Cheryl was challenged with serving two of the most impacted sectors of the economy, healthcare and higher education. Her team developed and employed a robust Emergency Management Structure to advise on a plan to continue to educate 280,000 students, address the needs of students studying abroad, as well as the special risks of student athletes and on-campus housing a remote workforce and frontline workers in the University’s hospitals.
Additionally, with more than $70 billion in property exposure throughout the State, it was imperative that Cheryl create and develop parametric earthquake cover for this significant exposure. Today, the parametric policy provides each location with a plan to prepare and continue operations after a significant quake.
Finally, Cheryl took on the added systemwide responsibility of running UC’s human resources program, a complex and broad array of responsibilities including the management a $2 Billion health insurance benefits portfolio. She continues to serve as the Interim Vice President, Human Resources.
Cheryl is an active member of the University Risk Management and Insurance Association where she served as a board director, as well as contributing to support RIMS Golden Gate Chapter.
About RIMS
RIMS, the risk management society®, is a global not-for-profit committed to advancing the practice of risk management throughout the world. We bring networking, professional development, certification, and education opportunities to our membership of 10,000 risk management professionals in over 60 countries. Founded in 1950, the Society represents more than 3,500 industrial, service, nonprofit, charitable and government entities throughout the world. To access RIMS Risk Knowledge resource library and for additional information about the Society, visit www.RIMS.org.