Renzo Avesani, CRO, Unipol
Avesani leads risk management for Italian insurer Unipol and last year was chair of the Solvency II steering committee of Insurance Europe, vice-chair of the CRO Forum, chair of the Italian CROs association and a member of the Eiopa stakeholders group. Currently, he chairs the CRO Forum and is vice-chair of Insurance Europe's Ecofin committee.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
The possibility to work very close to the line of business and design risk reduction strategies. In recent years, risk management has been an area of innovation and as such I had the possibility to hire young, innovative staff. I very much enjoyed integrating these people in the normal working process of the company.
What are the major challenges ahead?
1) development of new products in a digital world; 2) use of huge digital information platforms to discover the clients' profile and needs; 3) capital management and allocation in the new low interest rate situation; and 4) high performance computing
Who or what has inspired your work?
Daniel Mudge at Bankers Trust and Robert Litterman at Goldman Sachs.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to emulate your success?
Have an enormous amount of passion for what you are doing.
What have you learnt about communicating risk?
Be intuitive and simple. People do not remember more than three things in a row…
What are your other interests?
Mountain biking and jazz.
