Center for Excellence in Enterprise Risk Management
What We Do
The Center for Excellence in Enterprise Risk Management was established at St. John’s University’s Peter J. Tobin College of Business. The Center, lead by Dr. Paul L. Walker, is housed in The Maurice R. Greenberg School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science (GSRM) at 101 Astor Place in Manhattan.
Mission Statement
Become a leading center that brings together students, academicians, executives, and board members for the purpose of developing and sharing knowledge, tools, and best practices in Enterprise Risk Management.
Executive Director Bio
Dr. Walker co-developed one of the first courses on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and has done ERM training for executives and boards around the world. This training includes helping boards develop risk oversight practices, benchmarking ERM practices, identifying strategic disruptions and risk, and identifying black swans and unknown risks. He has also researched ERM at the headquarters of companies such as Wal-Mart, Microsoft, DuPont, Intuit, Harley-Davidson Inc, Raytheon, and others. He has written extensively on risk and ERM including the books Improving Board Risk Oversight through Best Practices, Making Enterprise Risk Management Pay Off and Enterprise Risk Management: Pulling it All Together. He has also coauthored numerous articles on ERM including: Is your Board Ready for ERM, The Strategic Advantage of ERM, Managing Risk: An Enterprise-Wide Approach, A Road Map to ERM, and ERM and the Strategy-Risk Focused Organization, Enabling Organizational Agility in an Age of Speed and Disruption. Dr. Walker worked with COSO on the original 2004 ERM framework and was on the 2017 COSO ERM Advisory Council.
Contact Information
Paul L. Walker, Ph.D., CPA
James J. Schiro / Zurich Chair Enterprise Risk Management
101 Astor Place
St. John’s University
New York, NY 10003
212-284-7011
[email protected]
Additional Information
Welcome to the Center for Excellence in ERM.
We are growing the body of knowledge in the field of risk, enterprise risk management, strategic risk analysis, and board risk oversight through a combination of research, workshops, whitepapers, and conversations. Take a look at some of our scholarships in the additional tabs.
Working alongside our key partners, outstanding alumni, and business friends, we strive to bring together boards, executives, professionals, and students to discuss risk and ERM. We regularly hold an ERM Summit that brings together risk executives and leaders to go deep on important risk topics. Learn more about our ERM Summits in the additional tabs.
Come join us as we explore the knowns and unknowns.
Dr. Paul L. Walker
Kimberly Chacko
Senior Manager, Risk and Compliance, Protiviti
Russ Charlton
Chief Audit Executive, Advance
Blake Eisenhart
Retired Chief Audit Executive, Unisys
Geralyn Fanelli
Global Enterprise Risk Management Sr. Director, PepsiCo
Stuart Horn
Director of Enterprise Risk Management, IBM
Deon Minnaar
US Lead for Board Advisory Services
Adrian Mueller
Vice President, Risk Management, Enterprise Risk Management, MasterCard
Rich Muzikar
Enterprise Risk Management Advisor, Long Island Power Authority
Matthew Perconte
Managing Director, Protiviti
Steve Richard
Senior Vice President, Chief Risk Officer,
Becton Dickinson & Co
Cynthia Vitters
Managing Director, Risk and Financial Advisory, Deloitte
Rob Ryan
Partner, PWC
Kelli Santia
Risk Manager, Strategic Risk Management,
General Motors
Denise Sobczak
Director Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) – BIC Group
Jarod Wright
Program Manager, Enterprise Risk, Harley-Davidson Inc.
Arya Yarpezeshkan
Chief Risk Officer, Global Specialty, AIG
Mei Young
Executive Director, Enterprise Risk Management
The Estee Lauder Companies Inc
2012. PWC partner/director training. Trends in enterprise risk management practices.
2012. AAA Auditing Mid-year Meeting. Teaching Risk Management.
2012. Operating in a Risky World. Meridium.
2012. ERM for College and Universities. Ethics and Compliance Programs for Colleges and Universities.
2012. ERM Benchmarking and Trends. Allianz Global CRO conference.
2012. The Conference Board. The disconnect in board, strategy, and risk.
2013. IIA Philadelphia Conference. Maximizing Internal Audit’s Involvement and Contribution to Your Company’s Strategic Process.
2013. RIMS LA Conference. Communicating with your Board on ERM.
2013. Meridium Global Conference. Linking Strategy to Effective Risk Management.
2013. Webinar with HBR and Zurich on ERM survey results and current applications.
2013. Webinar for Financial Executives International. The Dynamical Nature of ERM.
2013. Taking an enterprise-wide view of risks. Marine War College.
2013. Good, great, going, gone (managing risk from a strategic perspective). RIMS ERM Conference.
2013. Board risk oversight for new IPOs.NYSE IPO Conference.
2014. Working with your Board on Risk Oversight. RIMS National Conference. With Pugh and Yarpezeshkan.
2014. Black swans, Friday the 13th, Scenario Analysis, and Game Theory Workshops. RIMS National Conference.
2014. Risk and strategy foundations. Conference Board.
2014. IMA National Conference. Building a risk challenge culture.
2014. ERM Roundtable keynote. Center for Excellence in ERM and RIMS. Los Angeles.
2014. ORSA implementation for insurance companies. Center for Excellence in ERM risk event.
2014. Tools for managing known and unknown risks. RIMS ERM Conference.
2015. Becoming a Strategic Auditor. IIA GAM Conference.
2015. Tying risk to strategy. IIA Conference.
2015. Becoming a more strategic auditor. IIA NY Annual Conference.
2015. ERM Roundtable keynote. Center for Excellence in ERM and RIMS. NY.
2015. ERM in the Energy Industry: survey and benchmarking.
2015. ERM Roundtable keynote. Center for Excellence in ERM and RIMS.
2016. Risk Lessons for Boards of Directors. Center for Excellence in ERM Board Risk Oversight Summit.
2016. Risk Management for the Legal Profession.
2016. ERM and Value. Loss Executive Association Conference.
2016. Innovation and risk toolsets. RIMS/St. John’s ERM Roundtable.
2016. The State of ERM in the Energy Industry. Aegis National Policyholder Conference.
2016. Strategic Implications of the new COSO ERM. Logic Manager Customer Conference.
2016. ERM Roundtable for the Power Industry. New York Power Authority.
2016. Board Risk Lessons Not Yet Learned. RIMS ERM Conference. With Minsky.
2016. Keynote at RIMS/St. John’s Risk Roundtable. Hosted by Microsoft.
2017. Role of ERM in Internal Auditing. Hosted by COSO Academy and Institute of Internal Auditors Singapore.
2017. Board Risk Oversight. Singapore Stock Exchange.
2017. ERM for CAEs. Hosted by COSO Academy and Institute of Internal Auditors Singapore.
2017. Managing Reputation Risk in Higher Education. Panel at TIAA CFO conference.
2017. The new ERM Framework. RIMS National Conference. With C. Fox.
2017. Using ERM to Enhance Innovation. RIMS National Conference. With M. Merrifield.
2017. Managing the Risk in M&As. RIMS National Conference. With A. Bent.
2017. The CFO and Risk Conversation. RIMS/St. John’s ERM Roundtable. Hosted by Protiviti.
2017. The Strategic CFO. Institute of Management Accountants National Conference.
2017. ERM Roundtable. Aegis National Conference.
2017. ERM and Careers. St. John’s Global Business Conference. Cork, Ireland.
2017. Strategy and Risk Connections. IIA Long Island.
2017. Webcast. Oversight of Corporate Culture: A Core Asset in Driving Performance and Deterring Fraud. Sponsored by FEI, NACD, IIA, and the Center for Audit Quality. With Gilly Lord (PWC), Brenda Gaines (Audit Committee Chair Tenet Healthcare), and Mark Carawan (Citigroup).
2017. Webinar. The Intersection of COSO ICIF and COSO ERM Frameworks. Sponsored by the AICPA.
2018. Keynote at the Center for Excellence in ERM Summit on The ERM Journey.
2018. The Clunky Dance between Strategy and Risk – Practical Approaches. Presented at NEU ERM Benchmark Group. Hosted by Marathon Oil.
2018. Board Risk Oversight and Disruption. Board presentation to Government Entities Mutual.
2018. Strategy and Risk for ERM Practitioners. Keynote at RIMS NY ERM Roundtable.
2018. Panel: How Commissioners and Examiners Should View Model Risk. Society of Financial Examiners. Palm Spring, CA.
2018. Insurance Regulations: ORSA and Strategic Risk Keys. Society of Financial Examiners.
2018. Strategic Management of Information Security Risks. With Frigo and Wang. American Accounting Association Annual Meeting.
2020. Managing risk in disruptive times. Financial Executives International Conference keynote.
2020. Board risk oversight. RIMS ERM Conference.
2022. Strategic Risk Management. International Aerospace Conference.
2022. Risk Management for Financial Professionals at IBM.
“Enterprise-Wide Risk Management: Recommendations to COSO.” Research report prepared for COSO to determine if an enterprise risk framework is necessary. With Scott and Shenkir. 2000.
“Teaching a Risk Assessment Course.” With Shenkir. Advances in Accounting Education, 2000.
"Managing Risk: An Enterprise-wide Approach." With Barton and Shenkir. Financial Executive, March/April, 2001.
"A Road Map to Risk Management." With Bodine and Pugliese. Journal of Accountancy, December, 2001.
“Developing Risk Assessment Skills: An Investigation of Business Risk and Controls at Prudential Insurance Company of America." With Hunn and Shenkir. Issues in Accounting Education, 2001.
"Making Enterprise Risk Management Pay Off." With Barton and Shenkir. Financial Executives Research Foundation, 2001. Reprinted by the Financial Times in 2002. Reprinted by Toyo Keizai in 2003 (Japanese translation). Reprinted in Russian in 2003.
"Enterprise Risk Management: Pulling it All Together." With Barton and Shenkir. Institute of Internal Auditors, 2002.
“Enterprise Risk Management in Practice.” August, 2003, Internal Auditor. With Shenkir and Barton.
“Implementing Enterprise Risk Management.” May, 2004, Kinzai. With Shenkir.
“Enterprise Risk Management and the Strategy-Risk-Focused Organization” (with Shenkir). Journal of Cost Management, May/June 2006.
“Accounting Policy and Practice: Enterprise Risk Management.” Book published by the Bureau of National Affairs. With Shenkir.
“Implementing Enterprise Risk Management.” Journal of Accountancy. With Shenkir. 2008.
“Ensemble Performance: Enterprise Risk Management,” Business Officer. With Shenkir. 2008.
“Managing the Unthinkable Event,” Financial Executive. With Barton and Shenkir. 2008.
“Enterprise Risk Management: Evolution of a Balancing Act,” Financial Executive. With Barton and Shenkir. This paper was selected by the Financial Executives Research Foundation to be in their “Hall of Fame” publications presented at their Annual Gala (which celebrated 65 years of FERF research). 2009.
“Enterprise Risk Management: Lessons from the Field,” book chapter in Enterprise Risk Management: Today’s Leading Research and Best Practices for Tomorrow’s Executives. With Barton and Shenkir. 2010.
“A New Look at ERM from Crisis Aftermath,” Financial Executive. With Barton and Shenkir. 2010.
“Issue Alert – Proxy Disclosure Enhancements and ERM Opportunities,” With Barton and Shenkir. This project was sponsored by and published for Financial Executives International. 2010.
“Improving Board Risk Oversight Through Best Practices.” Institute of Internal Auditors. With Barton and Shenkir. 2011.
“Strategic Advantage of Enterprise Risk Management.” Risk Management. With Driscoll and Torok. 2011.
“Enterprise Risk Management: Is Your Board Ready for ERM.” Financial Executive. With Barton and Shenkir. 2011.
“Enterprise Risk Management: A Process for Enhanced Management and Improved Performance.” Management Accounting Quarterly. With Gates and Nicolas. 2012. In 2013, this paper received a “certificate of merit” award for being one of the best papers in this journal.
“Enterprise Risk Management: Skipping the ERM Tune-Up: Pay Now or Pay Later.” With Barton and Shenkir. Financial Executive. 2012. Republished by the FEI Daily in Feb 2015.
“A Risk Management Heat Map for the U.S.” With Barton and Shenkir. Financial Executive. 2013.
“Enterprise Risk and the Board of Directors.” Business Horizons, Issue 10, 2014.
“Becoming a More Strategic Auditor.” Institute of Internal Auditors. 2014.
“Establishing a Risk Challenge Culture.” Strategic Finance. 2015.
“Own Risk and Solvency Assessment: Origins and Implications for Enterprise Risk Management.” Journal of Insurance Regulation. With Pooser. 2015.
“Innovation vs. Negligence.” Risk Management. With Minsky. 2016.
“The Innovation Game.” 2017. Accounting and Business.
“The CFO as Chief Risk Manager.” Charterd Global Management Accountant (CGMA). With Frigo.
Issue 2 – 2017.
“ERM Checklist: Implementing the New COSO ERM Framework.” Journal of Accountancy. Feb., 2018.
“Boardroom advice for handling disruptive risk.” Journal of Accountancy. Feb., 2020.
“Incorporating Risk Acumen and Enterprise Risk Management into Innovation,” book chapter in Enterprise Risk Management: Today’s Leading Research and Best Practices for Tomorrow’s Executives. 2021.
“Managing Noise and Change in a Disruptive World.” Journal of Accountancy. With Jim Irving. Nov., 2021.
"Emerging Risks in an Uncertain World" Paul L. Walker, Ph.D., CPA (PDF)
Enabling Organizational Agility in an Age of Speed and Disruption. Sponsored by COSO. (PDF)
ERM and Mission Critical Risks (PDF)
ERM and Third Party Risk Management (PDF)
Emerging Risks and ERM CEERM (PDF)
ESG and ERM Alignment (PDF)
Embedding ERM into the Organization (PDF)
Digital Disruption and Transformation Risks (PDF)
The ERM Journey (PDF)
Corporate Risk Disclosures: Consistency or Disparity (PDF)
Managing Risk in a Disruptive World (PDF)
Strategic Risk: Another Link in the Supply Chain (PDF)
Enterprise Risk Management: Frameworks, Elements, and Integration (PDF)
Enterprise Risk Management: Tools and Techniques for Effective Implementation (PDF)
Proxy Disclosure Enhancements and ERM Opportunities (PDF)
CFO of the Future (PDF)
Macro Risk Analysis (PDF)
ERM and Reputational Risk (PDF)
Innovation and ERM – Partners in Managing the Waves of Disruption (PDF)
Noise to Signal to Business Models (PDF)
Risk Challenge Culture (PDF)
| Summit | Theme |
|---|---|
| April 24, 2025 | ERM Going Forward |
| October 17, 2024 | Managing Emerging Risks in Uncertain Times |
| May 3, 2024 | Managing and Reporting Risks in a Rapidly Evolving World |
| October 26, 2023 | Understanding and Managing AI risk; Increasing Organization Resilience |
| April 20, 2023 | Cyber Risk Oversight and ERM Integration |
| October 13, 2022 | Tools & Expectations for managing risk and improving resiliency in uncertain times |
| May 5, 2022 | Supply Chain and Third Party Risks |
| October 21, 2021 | Emerging Risks and ERM |
| April 22, 2021 | ERM and ESG Alignment |
| October 29, 2020 | How the ERM leader enables oversight and management of the big risks |
| Fall 2019 | Integrating ERM into the Business |
| Spring 2019 | Risk Culture |
| Fall 2018 | Digital Disruption and Transformation Risks |
| Spring 2018 | Building and Sustaining ERM' |
| Fall 2017 | Strategy and Risk |
| Spring 2017 | Noise and Emerging Risks |
| Fall 2016 | ERM Framework Development Update and Board Risk Oversight |