These wet days have found the FERMA office team busy with plans, for the board meeting and general assembly in June and then, of course, for the seminar in October. The 2012 benchmarking survey is well underway. Our social media presence is expanding and we now have more than 700 twitter followers.

Florence Bindelle, Executive Manager

FERMA’s reputation continues to grow. At the annual RIMS conference in Philadelphia, we received a number of interesting proposals for future collaboration, and we were given a special welcome at the gala dinner to celebrate Zurich’s 100 years in North America. For me, one of the highlights of RIMS this year was a presentation by the biographer of Apple founder Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson. Innovation is a risk, he said. He spoke about Jobs’ ability to focus on essentials and keep things simple.

I was delighted to represent FERMA at the gala dinner of the 2012 European Business Summit, which took place in the presence of royalty. The invitation to FERMA came from Jurgen Thumann, President of Business Europe, and from Pierre Alain De Smedt, President of the Federation of Belgian Enterprises. It provided an opportunity to talk to many interesting stakeholders about risk management and our work.

Another interesting development is the inquiry FERMA has received from the Azerbaijan Risk Professionals Association about possible membership. We are happy to see the spread of both risk management and the awareness of FERMA.

Florence Bindelle
Executive Manager