Annual Report 2020

While it was a challenging year for all and one that has not made it easy for our community to connect, we had Risky Women Radio and our ROAR newsletter to keep us all sharing and growing and it clearly was a year that demonstrated how important risk management as a function and capability is for business.

Another first for 2020 was our new partnership with My Compliance Office (MCO) and having the talented Kelly-Ann McHugh as our first guest host of Risky Women Radio. Kelly-Ann and the team at MCO hosted 3 episodes and it was great to hand over the reins and bring a new voice to the podcast.

Risky Women Radio Season 3 became our focus and given we couldn’t speak to Pru at the planned Melbourne event, she joined us on the podcast to kick off the new season.  Pru Bennett who is formerly of BlackRock, gave us some fabulous insights on the spectrum of Environment, Social and Governance with a board level vantage on what Boards should be asking themselves, how they can proactively manage risk, and the benefits of diversity.

Given the challenges of the pandemic our community wanted to hear from their Asian peers.  Asia had an almost 8 week lead on the pandemic creating havoc for business far and wide and Asia had seen several areas of risk and what regulators were looking at.  Joined by Meena Datwani, Senior Advisor at EY and former HKMA regulator, and Lonneke van Zundert we gained the benefits of two APAC compliance and security experts to discuss COVID-19 policies in compliance, workplace, regulatory affairs and security.

For episode 3 we dug into the results of the MyComplianceOffice’s global survey on  conflicts of interest, gifts and entertainment and the industry best practices.  This was a great way to introduce Kelly-Ann who then took the helm of the next 3 powerful episodes.  Namita Bhide brings years of focus on innovation and has a wealth of experience across many multinational organisations.  Definitely worth a listen to hear her take on if common sense is uncommon in risk and compliance.  The next episodes continued with innovation and you should not miss Elke Bichele introducing AMALIA, her AI reimagining of how to tackle Financial Crime Risk.  The finale of the season was a ripper with Kate Miller sharing a fascinating area of how behavioural science is changing the way we tackle compliance.

While the year was challenging, our Risky Women continued to show how dynamic and talented they are.  We are here to work with you and help connect and share best practice and ideas on how to find the way forward as the regulatory landscape continues to change and the world presents more risks to navigate. We are planning and scheming for some new fabulous ways to continue to champion our wonderful Risky Women in the future – so watch this space.

Thank you all for your ongoing support and participation in the Risky Women network. We look forward to continuing to connect, champion and celebrate all of you who make this network so powerful.

Best Wishes,
Kimberley Cole