Suzanne Brown has won InsuranceERM's young risk professional of the year award at the 2025 UK & Europe Awards.
Working as senior controls assurance lead at AXA Health, Brown has been recognised for her dedication to risk management and her ability to drive meaningful change within her organisation.
Over the past year, she has played a pivotal role in enhancing risk maturity within her company, demonstrating a strong commitment to both strategic and operational risk management.
"I am incredibly honoured," Brown said. "Over the last 12 months, the business I work in has come on leaps and bounds in terms of risk maturity, and I'm incredibly proud of the work that we've done collectively."
Brown emphasised: "The recognition serves as a lovely reminder of not just my own, but my team's accomplishments over the last year."
Nominated for her ability to strengthen internal processes and influence the way teams approach risk, making it more accessible and actionable, Brown answered InsuranceERM's questions to share more about her journey.
Can you share about your journey in the risk industry and what led you to this point?
"I joined AXA seven years ago in March 2018, and I've worked at all three of the business units here in the UK. I first encountered the risk team when I was about a year into my first role in the commercial insurance area. We were working on a large project to overhaul our finance system, and I worked with some great people who made risk 'make sense' in a way I hadn't seen before.
"I moved into the retail business first line risk team shortly after that project wound up and worked within a conduct and quality assurance team to support the business with the upcoming Consumer Duty regulations at the time, and managed the team when our manager at the time moved on.
"I moved into my current role in our health business in September 2022 which was new and exciting, and I've spent the last couple of years helping to educate people, improve our risk and control framework, and providing guidance on projects to help people think about things from a risk-based perspective."
What are some of the biggest challenges and opportunities you see in the field right now?
"I think the biggest challenges we're facing in the field right now go hand in hand with cybersecurity risks. With the increasing reliance on digital technology across all sectors, organisations are exposed to a growing number of cyber threats, such as data breaches, ransomware attacks, and phishing scams.
"These risks aren't going to go away, and as an industry (particularly in financial services) we have a great opportunity now to do things better from the outset when we're building new systems and processes. I believethat being proactive rather than fire fighting reactively when something goes wrong will serve us well in the long term."
Do you have any advice for other young professionals looking to make an impact in risk management?
"Bring it back to basics, and help people care. I've been on the receiving end of mandated changes that haven't been explained properly, and it's left me wondering 'so what?'. I like to try and understand what makes people tick. For example, if someone needs to implement new controls because of regulatory change, I like to look at things pragmatically, and help them understand why it matters, rather than just telling them it needs to be done."
What's next for you—any exciting projects or goals for the future?
"I'm about to start working on some new projects – looking at new systems and bringing some of our older products into them. I'm looking forward to seeing how robotics and AI can help our people and our business while striking the right balance with the environmental impact that comes along with it.
"As I'm a bit of a geek at heart, working on fast-paced moving projects is exciting to me – especially when there's new technology involved! Outside of work, I've been fortunate to be volunteering with a small educational trust building an audit framework for them, and I'm looking forward to doing more volunteering in the future."