Looking to Satisfy Risk Management Demand

Companies are now beginning to shore up their risk management practices and are hiring more risk management professionals as a result.  An article in the New York Times this week discusses the increase in demand for risk management skills and how prominent business schools are preparing graduates for the field.

Among the hot areas now are positions related to minimizing risk, as firms try to mitigate the chances of another financial crisis. Risk in general is a relatively new focus, and the openings range from business, credit and operational risk to product and technology risk. “Risk is everywhere,” said Jeanne E. Branthover, head of the global financial services practice at Boyden Global Executive Search.

This year, the Stern School of Business at New York University started offering an executive master’s in risk management in partnership with the Amsterdam Institute of Finance. During the program, which lasts a year and costs 42,000 euros, or about $60,000, students meet 10 times for multi-day sessions and study subjects including risk metrics, credit risk and liquidity risk. The course covers about 75 percent of what one is required to know for the professional risk manager certification, said Ingo Walter, a professor of finance at Stern.

Stern also offers a less technical three-day executive education session on integrated risk management. Columbia Business School and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University are among other institutions that offer similar programs, which range in cost from $3,750 to $10,000.

As more business school graduates with a foundation in risk management enter the corporate world, corporations will certainly benefit from having these skills proliferate throughout the organization.