Institute translates environmental threats into financial risks
The new Institute for Risk Management and Insurance Innovation will accelerate research on extreme weather and cybersecurity.
A new institute will research how a growing number of threats translate into financial risks, Vice Chancellor for Research Penny Gordon-Larsen announced Aug. 8.
Operating under her office, the Institute for Risk Management and Insurance Innovation will act as a research and innovation hub, bringing together investigators from multiple disciplines.
“UNC-Chapel Hill is a world leader in translating extreme environmental events into financial risk and now seeks to expand into a wider range of emerging perils,” said Gordon-Larsen, also W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health’s nutrition department.
The institute’s major mission will be to accelerate research on evaluating and managing financial risk from threats including weather-related disasters to cybersecurity. Using research as a platform, it will create a pipeline of uniquely trained graduate students ready to enter the risk management and insurance industry. The institute is also developing, in collaboration with its industry partners, an undergraduate minor in risk management. The minor will focus on preparing students to use cutting-edge modeling and data science techniques to better understand risks.
The leader of the institute will be Greg Characklis, W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health’s environmental sciences and engineering department. Characklis is also the founding director of the Center on Financial Risk in Environmental Systems, which will be absorbed into the new institute and serve as a platform to support its rapid development.
“The new institute will conduct research that improves our understanding of society’s emerging financial risks and our ability to better manage these risks, even as we prepare a new breed of student to become leaders in the risk management and insurance industry,” Characklis said.
The institute will receive significant industry support, with more than 25 firms making financial commitments to fund research and training activities. Industry partners will sit on the industry advisory board chaired by Carolina alumnus Tony Ursano, a co-founding managing partner of the firm Insurance Advisory Partners.
“IRMII will be a powerful force for new ideas and beneficial change for the risk management and insurance industry, with the ability to address real-world problems in a comprehensive manner,” Gordon-Larsen said. “These efforts will help attract external funding to the University for this important work and will yield tangible benefits for the citizens of North Carolina.”
The institute has the full support of Carolina’s Board of Trustees, Gordon-Larsen said.
It’s “a program that both expands knowledge and prepares our students to be strong contributors to the 21st-century workforce,” said John Preyer, trustees’ chair.
