John Kline Talks of the Evolution of Risk: From Transactional Insurance to Corporate Strategy : Risk & Insurance

Risk & Insurance: What was your first job?  

During high school and college, I worked at construction jobs and at a Babcock & Wilcox refractory plant making fire bricks. My first job in the risk management industry, after graduating from the University of Georgia with an MBA with a concentration in Risk Management, was at The Wyatt Company in their Chicago office. The Wyatt Company was the largest independent risk management consulting firm in the country.   

R&I: What is the risk management community doing right?  

One of the things I’ve really been impressed with is the career development within the industry. I’m absolutely amazed at the number of young professionals graduating from programs that have dedicated risk management tracks. That has been such a change over my career. The internships college students can receive are absolutely amazing. The development of career networking opportunities like the RIMS Rising Risk Professionals groups provides opportunities that people did not have previously.   

The risk management community continues to shift from the transactional buying of insurance to a broader focus on enterprise risk management. Increased use of data and analytics empowers us to become better business partners, thus allowing the risk manager to evaluate alternative risk financing strategies as a business solution versus using traditional insurance procurement.  

R&I: And what could the risk management community be doing a better job of? 

Risk professionals should embrace constant process of improvement. Historical program structures should be challenged. Too often, I hear, “well, we’ve always done it this way.” That’s an answer, but I don’t believe that’s the best answer.  

As risk professionals develop into risk leaders, we need to become focused on the business risk. We need to become key business partners internally and focus less on the transactional work.  A key skill is executive level communication. We need to learn to succinctly communicate what is important to the CFO and CEO in meaningful financial and reputational terms they understand.  

R&I: What would you say has been the biggest change in the risk management and insurance industry since you’ve started in it?  

The speed at which things happen now is exponentially quicker than it was when I got into the business — and it continues to accelerate. A risk professional needs to understand and be responsive much more quickly. 

The increased level of professionalism and diversity has allowed the industry to advance by introducing new ideas and perspectives that didn’t exist years ago in a less diverse industry.  

R&I: What is one emerging commercial risk that most concerns you? And why? 

There are so many challenges — it’s difficult to narrow down to just one. Cyber and artificial intelligence are interrelated. Cyber has been talked about for probably 10 years; but AI just brings it to a whole different level. Now, we have to be concerned about how our cybersecurity protects us from outside AI attacks.  

Related to cyber and AI is the impact on our supply chain or systemic risk across all lines of coverage. How are we protecting ourselves, not only externally, but also internally? What policies and procedures are we implementing to make sure we don’t develop programs that infringe on somebody’s intellectual property or develop processes and procedures that are discriminatory and have certain biases built into them? 

R&I: If you could point to one or two mentors who influenced you, who would they be and why? 

Warren Brockmeier at The Wyatt Company was my first mentor. Warren headed up the risk management consulting practice, and I reported directly to him in Chicago.  I was fresh out of graduate school with lots of curiosity and willingness to learn. He taught me how to be a great consultant, and I think the consulting skills I developed are so important even today, as I’m working in more of an internal consultation relationship than in an external relationship.  

Reggie Dickens was my second most important mentor during my tenure at NationsBank.  During my tenure, we doubled in size every year until we eventually bought Bank of America, becoming the largest bank in the country at the time. Reggie helped me learn how to navigate within a rapidly changing corporation and the importance of execution. This was a large transition for me from having a consultative, strategic perspective to having day-to-day responsibilities and accountabilities.    

R&I: What do you find most fulfilling about your work? 

Problem solving. I view myself as a consultant who works with internal and external business partners finding solutions to problems and anticipating what may be coming down the road. I enjoy finding solutions to help my colleagues achieve their goals. 

R&I: And what accomplishment are you proudest of? 

I served on the USA Swimming Operational Risk Committee for seven years. USA Swimming is the national governing body for U.S. amateur swimming, with over 3,100 swim clubs and 400,000 members ranging from youths to Olympians  

During my tenure we made program improvements to the insurance program; but, more importantly, we developed and improved programs that would reduce costs, streamlined the report of occurrence process allowing injuries to be triaged more quickly, established Concussion Protocol and helped in the development of a Minor Athlete Abuse program to support the Safe Sport program. It was so different from my past experiences, and I had an opportunity to work with leaders in the sport of swimming. It was a blast.  

R&I: What do your friends and family think you do? 

Honestly, I don’t know if my parents ever fully understood. My wife understands what I do, as she was previously a commercial underwriter.  

For other family members, I start out at a high level: I’m responsible for the strategy and execution of large corporations’ property, liability, and professional liability insurance programs — they understand that. Then you go to the stories or examples. By telling stories, they then understand what I do.   

R&I: What is the riskiest activity you’ve ever engaged in? 

We moved from Illinois to New Jersey with a newborn into a house that my wife had never seen. Moving your wife away from friends and family with a newborn to a house she had no role in choosing is risky! Everything worked out well … and we’re still married.  

During my college days, I was into rock climbing, so my friends and I spent a lot of time climbing and rappelling, including building zip lines across ravines. You learn to make proper risk assessments and implement loss mitigants when you are dangling 50 feet above a stream in a ravine. You also learn to trust the people you work with and thankfully nobody ever got hurt. &