He has quashed prescription drug loopholes, coped with Category 5 hurricanes, and changed the way that nurses handle insurance claims. Scott Clark, the new president of the Risk and Insurance Management Society, has a reputation as a reformer.
“Some people say I like to shake it up a bit, and I do,” says Clark, the risk and benefits officer for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the nation's fourth largest school district. Clark recently rocked the boat when he noticed doctors were dispensing repackaged pharmaceuticals at inflated prices to school district employees and spoke up, leading to an amendment in Florida Workers' Compensation Law and cost savings for employers across the state.
As president of RIMS since Jan. 1, Clark believes networking and sharing practical information about such reform efforts with RIMS members is vital. “It sets the tone of what risk managers can do if they put their noses under the tent and look at things more strategically,” he says.
Clark, who served as secretary of RIMS since 2000, aims to grow the membership of the group through increased engagement with its 81 chapters. He plans quarterly webinars with chapter presidents to discuss industry issues and ideas for improvement. “I want to have a direct dialogue,” he says, “so they understand what resources they have.”
New issues include cyber risk, which is “probably very under-value-weighted as a risk” and will be “a very hot topic” this year, Clark says. He plans to focus on the topic at the annual conference in May. Another big issue for risk managers is supply chain interruption related to terrorism, he says.
Clark also plans to increase RIMS' visibility as an advocate for risk managers. RIMS has actively lobbied against the use of contingent commissions, for example. It will continue to be “very vocal” in its opposition, while providing advice and support to risk managers using brokers that collect such commissions, he says.
Aside from contingent commissions, risk managers are concerned about demonstrating their value to their organizations, he says. “It's important a good risk manager not be viewed as a cost center, but as a lynchpin for a company's asset protection.”
For more on the commissions controversy, see Aon Flips on Contingent Commissions.
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