Season 1, Episode 1: Alexander Larsen meets with Gregory Irgin in the UAE to share experiences and insights

In this series of Risk Managers Getting Coffee, we’ll be meeting with seven Risk Managers to gain insight into their risk experiences, areas of expertise and to learn more about risk management in the country they work in.

In this first episode, Alexander Larsen met Gregory Irgin in the UAE. Gregory influences and drives integrated risk management – enterprise risk management, insurance, resilience (business continuity management and crisis security management) – resulting in shareholder protection and return on investment. He has worked across the Middle East and Africa and has exciting stories to share around geopolitical risks.

Introduction: Gregory is Head of Group ERM and Insurance within the aluminium and smelting sector in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, producing and selling aluminium in its 100% form. His customers are all over the world including big companies such as BMW. A mine coming online in Guinea and sales offices are based in America, Europe and China.

Episodes will be released every few weeks here on the Risk Guide website and via our LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/risk-guide) and YouTube pages (https://www.youtube.com/c/riskguide).

Episode 1 Overview:

2:36 How did you get into Risk? Gregory originally trained as a lawyer in England, worked in New York until 9/11. Following this he worked in the UK in insurance construction claims and contracts. He has always been an advocate of ethical leadership. Worked all over the world in places such as Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. He discusses headlines v reality, understanding whats really going on in the country and once you know there’s no going back.

3:47 Geopolitics: Africa & Latin America: Working in London, Gregory was travelling to Africa and Latin America. Previously had a trip to Guinea to meet a Government representative and while boarding the plane, received a call saying the person he was due to meet had just been shot. Looking at it now, the stability in Guinea has changed a lot over 10 years.

4:38 People Risk: Nationalisation & Recruitment: Alexander and Gregory discuss bringing on board nationals to be involved and trained early in a project. They want to feel valued, rather than just expats on site. Bringing nationals in early so they are mentored and embedded within the team before expats leave. There will be an issue with Brexit as skilled workers may be leaving.

6:28 What makes a good risk manager, soft skill set vs quantitative and technical knowledge. Gregory is pro soft skills and breadth in risk management. It is essential to step back and review the situation, communication is key. A Risk Manager can draw on technical experts in any industry and don’t need to be quant heavy. They need to analyse information and interpret this to the top level management. Ultimately need a balance around the table to extract the right information from the right people and experts in the company.

9:03 People Bias- How do we engage people? The fundamentals to any organisation are the people. There is a duty of care to lead with ethics, manage people well and drive behaviour. However how can we do that? Each department has own agenda, KPIs arise as tick-boxes and everyone should all be working towards same goals. Alexander had previously worked with a national park senior management team in the UK. Some directors hadn’t ever seen company objectives and some didn’t agree with them. The CEO had just put them together and assumed they would be backed by the rest of the board. How can the whole organisation work together if the CEO and board management aren’t even aligned?

We hope you find this interview useful and informative!