At the Spencer Educational Foundation reception, case-study provider Robert Zhang, RIMS Board Director and IKEA China’s Risk and Compliance Director, announced Saint Joseph’s University student team as the winners of the 2019 Spencer-RIMS Risk Management Challenge. The team, comprising four risk management students, competed against 28 other universities and delivered the award-winning risk management presentation in front industry leaders at RIMS 2019 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Boston.
Members of the Saint Joseph’s winning team included:
- Joseph Angelina
- Katherine Branson
- Ashley Myers
- Daniel Tan
- Academic Advisor: Michael Angelina
“Spencer is committed to delivering educational opportunities, like the Spencer-RIMS Risk Management Challenge, that create a pathway to rewarding risk management and insurance careers,” said Spencer Chairperson Marya Propis. “The Spencer Board could not be more proud of this year’s winner Saint Joseph’s University and all of our 2019 university teams.”
“Beyond the remarkable presentations delivered by each university team, our Spencer-RIMS Risk Challenge students continue to demonstrate the highest-degree of professionalism and an exceptional grasp of sophisticated concepts,” said RIMS CEO Mary Roth. “Congratulations to Saint Joseph’s University, our 2019 winner, our runner-ups and all who participated. We look forward to welcoming these aspiring professionals to the RIMS community in the very near future.”
The challenge began with 28 universities, eight months ago, who were each presented with a risk management case-study, provided by IKEA. Asked to identify the top five risks of integrating new physical and digital commerce opportunities for IKEA’s customers, the teams developed solutions and nine of the teams were selected to attend RIMS 2019. During the conference, the field was narrowed to three and those finalists presented one last time in front of risk professionals at the conference.
Second place in this year’s Challenge was St. Mary’s University and the third place team was Butler University. The first place university received $4000, second $3,000 and third $2,000.
About Spencer
Spencer was founded in 1979 and to this day remains the premier organization funding the education of tomorrow’s risk management and insurance leaders. Since its beginning, Spencer has awarded more than 1,050 scholarships totaling over $6.9 million, and $3.25 million in grants to universities and professional institutions for educational programs and conferences. To learn more about Spencer, visit www.SpencerEd.org.