Risk & Resilience Series:

Christopher E. Mandel is Founder, President and Managing Consultant for Excellence in Risk Management, LLC and independent risk consultancy founded in Texas in 2004. He is the recently retired SVP, Strategic Solutions for Sedgwick and the Founding Director of the Sedgwick Institute. Chris has more than 30 years of experience in insurance and large global corporate risk management. He has pioneered the development of integrated risk management at USAA, where S&P rated USAA as “excellent” and a “leader in ERM”. His career included leadership roles at Liberty Mutual, Marsh, Verizon, American National Red Cross, PepsiCo and the USAA Group.
He was named Risk Manager of the Year – 2004, by Business Insurance and RIMS for whom he served as President and 7year board member. RIMS awarded Mr. Mandel with its lifetime achievement award (Goodell) in 2016 and finally in 2008 he was voted in as a member of Risk Who’s Who (RWW). He is recognized by his peers as a thought leader in ERM and related disciplines

Ms. Galer is a consultant, author, and lecturer. Her top selling books include: Enterprise Risk Management – Straight To The Point, Enterprise Risk Management – Straight To The Value, and Enterprise Risk Management – Straight Talk For Nonprofits, with co-author Al Decker. She is an active contributor to the Insurance Thought Leadership website other industry publications and has given presentations at RIMS, CPCU, PCI (now APCIA), and university events.
Currently, she is an independent consultant on ERM, ESG and strategic planning. She was recently a Senior Advisor at Hanover Stone Solutions. She served as the Chairwoman of the Spencer Educational Foundation, from 2006-2010. From 1989 to 2006, she was with Zurich Insurance Group where she held many positions both in the U.S. and in Switzerland, including: EVP Corporate Development, Global Head of Investor Relations, EVP Compliance and Governance, and Regional Manager for North America. Her last position at Zurich was Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer for Zurich’s world-wide General Insurance business ($36 Billion GWP), with responsibility for strategic planning and other areas. She began her insurance career at Crum & Forster Insurance.
She has served on numerous industry and academic boards. Among these are: NC State’s Poole School of Business’ Enterprise Risk Management’s Advisory Board, Illinois State University’s Katie School of Insurance, Spencer Educational Foundation. She won “The Editor’s Choice Award” from the Society of Financial Examiners in 2017 for her co-authored articles on KRIs/KPIs and related subjects. She was named among the “Top 100 Insurance Women” by Business Insurance in 2000.