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President's Corner
Hi all,
Welcome to the new RIMS New Zealand and Pacific Islands (NZ&PI) Chapter) website.
In 2025 the Risk Management Society (RIMS) Global proudly celebrated its 75th Anniversary, marking over seven decades of advancing the art and science of risk management. Throughout this journey, RIMS has elevated the importance of risk management, proving its value to organisations worldwide.
RIMS is dedicated to fostering growth, sustainability, and resilience for a safer future, and remains focused on the evolution of risk management, ready to embrace new challenges and opportunities.
For our local Chapter 2025 flew by and we continued with our focus on delivering outstanding value to local risk and insurance management professionals through education and networking opportunities, which we can only do with the support of our fantastic sponsors - Marsh, KPMG and AIG.
I wanted to provide a few updates on the Chapter as we support our members’ organisational and career development goals and promote diversity, equity and inclusion within the risk and insurance profession.
Chapter Board
Our Board is made up of volunteers who dedicate their time to supporting the Chapters activities and provide appropriate oversight and strategic direction.
Currently our Board is made up of the following Directors and position holders:
- Iain Gallie - President and Director Strategic Relationships
- Kerry Bakkerus - Vice President and Treasurer with responsibility for our financial accounts
- Donna Everett - Chapter Secretary, ensuring corporate governance
- Martyn Fair - managing our Insurance workstream
- Sam Kerry - having just returned from a sabbatical to explore this beautiful country
- Kevin Gao and Katsia Zorych - leading our social media & communications presence
For more information on our Board members who represent a wide range of diverse industries please take the time to view their profiles.
If you have an interest in joining the Board in the future, please express your interest with any one of us and we can keep you updated on any vacancies. It’s a fantastic and rewarding opportunity to support the functions of the Chapter on a volunteer basis and work with an inspirational team and my personal thanks goes to all those who serve on the Board regardless of whether past, present or in the future.
A special thanks both personally and on behalf of the Chapter goes to Kerry Bakkerus for a decade of service to the Chapter and her tireless work in developing and promoting the Chapter and supporting our members. Kerry has indicated a desire to step away from the Board this year and no doubt will enjoy the spare time she will suddenly discover she has.
Strategic focus
Our strategic focus for the coming years includes continuing to deliver quality events, providing insightful and continuous training opportunities, and ensuring the effective and sustainable financial management of the Chapter.
We embraced a theme in 2025 of Risk Rebalanced - with a particular focus on resilience. Our goal was to help members develop and maintain resilience, balancing both sustaining and thriving in these uncertain economic times. We also introduced an Insurance Risk workstream and were exploring opportunities for our Pacific Island members.
As a Board we came together recently to discuss our what our 2026 strategy could look like and landed on Fit for the Future - Keeping pace with risk, together. More on that to come as we explore what that looks like with our 2026 events calendar.
Membership structure
Since the inception of the RIMS NZ & PI Chapter we have been able to provide networking and education opportunities to a significant number of risk professional supported financially by our sponsors which has led to us building up a mailing list of over 700 risk and insurance professionals. The harsh economic reality is that we can no longer rely solely on our sponsors and in order to be able to maintain sustainable financial management and continued to provide value add we are excited to announce a new membership structure effective this year.
Local chapter membership classes (annual fees):
- NZ $150 Individual - for individuals working in organisations in risk management related roles. Please note currently reduced to $120 for first year's membership to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
- NZ $750 Corporate - for organisations that may have several employees (up to 10 individuals).
- NZ $450 Associate - for organisations or individuals that provide services to the risk and insurance sector (up to 5 individuals).
- NZ 35 Student- for students who have an interest in or are studying risk management.
- NZ $75 Retired - for individuals who previously worked in risk, insurance or a related field and would like to stay connected.
This annual membership grants you access to all our local events and webinars for free, providing you with even more opportunities to enhance your professional development. Please see the Join Us section for more details and keep an eye out for an e-mail from us to confirm your membership choice.
RIMS USA International Membership
RIMS USA is the headquarters of the International Association. RIMS international membership connects you with a global community of more than 10,000 risk professionals. You can also gain access to networking, exclusive tools, preferential pricing and more. To become an RIMS USA International Member join here.
Global Certification – Certified Risk Management Professional
Global RIMS membership also offers the opportunity to gain an internationally recognised risk qualification through becoming a Certified Risk Management Professional (CRMP). More details are on the website.
Social Media
We continue to maintain a strong LinkedIn presence with updates on events and topics of interest. We welcome feedback and comments and sharing amongst your colleagues and networks. We currently have more than 1,000 followers which is fantastic so if you don’t already please follow the page to stay informed.
You may not be aware but RIMS NZ & PI also has a YouTube channel you can subscribe to watch historical and recent events that we have hosted if you wanted to refresh your memory or were not able to make it. Please take the time to visit the channel and subscribe to follow us.
Events - summary of 2025
We kicked off 2025 with my attendance at the RIMS Leadership forum in sunny Florida in January where it was fantastic to meet with so many Chapter Leaders and share ideas on providing quality events and services to our members.
Photos taken at the RIMS Global Leadership Forum 2025
Following that we had an insightful session on Cyber Resilience and data protection – organisational resilience hosted by KPMG in February. In March Marsh hosted a session with insights into the annually much anticipated Global Risks Report.
In April we held an online event with a session on Mastering Enterprise Risk Management: Strategies, Foundation and Tactics which was followed by the launch of our popular and engaging 2025 Lunch and Learn sessions delivered by Ross Liston from Crucible Consulting with the first one focused on From Silo to Synergy: Embedding Risk Management in Strategic Planning.
In May KPMG hosted a session on the Intersection of Risk and Diversity highlighting that a diverse workforce can lead to a more resilient and adaptable organization, which was followed by another Lunch and Learn on Resilience redefined: Integrating Strategy, Risk, Continuity and Business Sustainability.
Another Lunch and Learn session in June addressed Managing both Threats and Opportunity before a timely session in July hosted by Marsh with Jane Arnott on Guidelines and guardrails: a NZ perspective on Ethics, AI and Risk, and then we explored How Effective Controls drive Risk and Compliance Excellence. with another lunchtime session.
In August we were fortunate to invite our members to an AIG speaker series event where AI in the Real World: The Risk emerging from Opportunity was discussed by a panel from AIG, KPMG and Wotton Kearney with some fascinating insights, and in October we heard from Ross Liston again on Risk Maturity Models; Diverse Approaches, One Destination, followed by one in November on Project vs. Operations: Tailoring Risk Management for Success and we are currently working through options for 2026 for what has proved to be a popular learning opportunity for members.
In November we were also delighted to be able to Celebrate 75 years of Advancing Risk Management Together as part of the global 75th anniversary events to honour this remarkable milestone. We heard some optimism from Kiwibank's Chief Economist - Jarrod Kerr on Surviving 2026: will 2026 be NZ's time to thrive and I was fortunate to be able to moderate a panel discussion on 75 years of Resilience: Shaping the Future of Risk Management with fascinating insights from the Board Chairs of our sponsors - Matt Prichard (KPMG), Mary-Jane Daly (AIG) and Toni Ferrier (Marsh). It was a wonderful event and fantastic to be able to celebrate in person with so many members.
In summary...
Well we 'survived 2025' and as we look to remain 'Fit for the future - keeping pace with risk, together' in 2026 its going to be an exciting year ahead for the Chapter, our Board, and our members filled with valuable events and opportunities for networking, gaining awareness, and education. Please make the most of the opportunities and participate wherever possible, and we heartly welcome your feedback on future topics and any areas for improvement, as your input is invaluable in helping us ensure that our events and activities continue to meet your needs and support your professional growth.
Kind regards,
Iain Gallie
President, RIMS New Zealand and Pacific Islands Chapter