The Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA) hosted the Risk Management Awards in conjunction with Santam last week, 22 October 2009, in Johannesburg where Dr. Gert Cruywagen of Tsogo Sun Group walked off with the title, Risk Manager of the Year.
The winners in the various categories are as follows:
Dr. Cruywagen, Risk Manager for the Tsogo Sun Group, is recognized as one of the pioneers of Risk Management in South Africa and at the same time acknowledged for his continued contribution to the field of risk management.
His career highlights include risk management positions within the heavy industry environment at Mittal Steel and SAPPI, and his contribution since joining the Tsogo Sun Group. He has written two books: “Jungle Risk Management: Risk lessons from the African Bush – How animals in the African Bush manage their risks and the lessons Businesses can learn from it” and “Jungle Business Management – Business Lessons from the African Bush”.
Quinten Matthew, head of Specialist Business at Santam says the awards play an important role in creating benchmarks for the risk management industry to measure itself against. “The awards pay tribute to representatives in the industry for their achievements, innovation and their contribution to industry. Dr. Gert Cruywagen’s award is testament to the good work he is doing at Tsogo Sun Group and how the organisation has ensured that risk management forms part of its day to day activities. He is also an international keynote speaker and has done presentations at CRIMS (Canada) in Toronto; Swedish Business Insurance in Stockholm; PolRisk (Poland) in Warsaw; Rusrisk (Russia) in Moscow; and CICA (USA) in Indian Wells”
Winners in the Best Government Risk Management Initiative category, The Central Energy Fund (CEF), has managed to engrain risk management into the organisation's culture by creating awareness and providing ongoing assurance that all measures are being taken to safeguard the CEF’s investments and ensuring business continuity. IRMSA applauded the work done by Mattie Joubert, CEF Risk Office.
Teba Bank, winner of the Most Effective Company Risk Management Programme category was awarded for the improvement of the overall risk profile of Teba Bank as management understand their responsibility in respect of risk management. The growth of the balance sheet has been attained within the set risk parameters thus ensuring quality growth and protection of the bottom line. Zienzile Musamirapamwe, general manager of Risk & Governance, has ensured a risk management culture has been deepened starting from the Board to the lowest levels in the organisation. Teba Bank has a strong risk governance process in line with industry best practice, thus enabling the business to safely grow.
The awards were launched in 2005 and aim to recognise and reward risk management as an important business discipline.
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