How Leaders and Risk Professionals Can Navigate Challenges Together

Clear communication, cross-functional collaboration, and aligned priorities enable the risk function to gain traction, influence outcomes, and drive meaningful progress. This session at RISKWORLD^® 2026 explored how to achieve strong leadership advocacy that elevates the impact of risk management across an organization.

Speakers included:

• Eric Tilles, Deputy General Counsel at Arkema, Inc.
• Wendy Conroy, Senior Manager Insurance and Risk Management at Arkema, Inc.

Effective leadership support partnered with the right communication approach can transform the role of risk management from operational necessity to a strategic driver in each organization.

To establish a shared purpose with internal stakeholders, everyone must understand the overall corporate purpose. That includes company goals, financial goals, and how they will help accomplish the CEO’s vision through associated tactics. It includes understanding where the company wants to go, how it wants to get there, and what its risk tolerance is in connection with those factors.

It is important to balance risk versus rewards and not allowing insurance to get in the way of that. Determine how the topic of discussion can help achieve goals by understanding the risk involved. To do this effectively, it is essential for the risk manager to be included in planning conversations so that they can provide their perspective and feedback. Eliminate the silos. It can help the risk manager to have advocates within the organization, which can include stakeholders in departments like legal and finance, that can suggest including the risk manager if not already included in strategic discussions.

To create trust with executive management, it is important to identify objectives and quantify them. Clarify what the facts are through analysis versus what information is just speculation. Collectively this helps prevent unrealistic expectations and helps position risk managers as strategic partners instead of transactional partners. To help obtain answers from upper management, it is important to manage expectations, including what the risk manager knows today rather than what they need to go research. State that clearly in each meeting.

Executives are numbers people by nature. Research costs involved and an anticipated value to the company, which can help risk managers obtain investment in their efforts. It is important to remember that shared purpose means the risk manager might not get everything they want immediately, but it will help find a way to merge visions and a path to achieve them.

If risk managers lay the groundwork, ask and answer the right questions, and trust their analysis and recommendations, they have to then sit back and trust the process. Doing your best to build that foundation and address concerns can help them get through even the hardest discussions with executive management. It is best to manage expectations proactively to avoid a terrible misunderstanding later. This is an effective way to illustrate strategic value.