COURSE NUMBER: MBA 237.11

This class is cross-listed with the EWMBA Program

 

COURSE TITLE: Risk Management

 

UNITS OF CREDIT: 1 Unit

 

INSTRUCTOR: Carlos Blanco, Jean Hinrichs, Robert Mark

 

E-MAIL ADDRESSES: carlos@blackswanrisk.com, jhin3333@msn.com, bmark.blackdiamond@tmo.blackberry.net

 

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION (HTTP URL): TBA

 

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Sundays 10:00AM – 6:00PM

Please note the non-standard format of this course which meets all day on two Sundays: September 30 and October 14

 

PREREQUISITE(S): Core Finance (MBA203)

 

CLASS FORMAT: Lecture and class participation

 

REQUIRED READINGS:
Essentials of Risk Management: McGraw Hill (2005): Crouhy, Galai and Mark.
Harvard Case Study Notes on LTCM
PriceWaterhouseCoopers Report on NAB
Disney litigation document

 

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:

Class participation (25 %)

Individual Project (50%)

Group project (25%)

 

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
This MBA level course on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) provides a comprehensive description and analysis of modern risk management, including organizational issues, regulatory aspects, potential problem areas, and tools to control and manage firm-wide risk with particular emphasis on market, credit, and operational risk.

In today's world of multibillion-dollar credit losses and bailouts, as well as new regulatory initiative such as the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), it has become increasingly imperative for corporate leaders to monitor and manage risk on all fronts. Risk Management introduces the foundation for creating an integrated, consistent, and effective risk management strategy.

Our course presents a comprehensive examination of the modern risk management function and provides an overview of how to design a firm-wide risk management program as well as techniques to measure and manage market, credit and operational risk.

The course is based on the rich practical and academic experience of the three instructors, and provides an inside look at many aspects of financial risk management covering policies, methodologies and infrastructure.

 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

 
Carlos Blanco, Ph.D.
Dr.
Carlos Blanco is Managing Director of Black Swan Risk Advisors, LLC, a risk management advisory firm. He is an expert in financial, energy and commodity risk management and modeling. His expertise ranges from risk and pricing model development to strategic risk management and policy related issues.


Carlos is a former VP, Risk Solutions at Financial Engineering Associates. There, he worked over six years being an essential contributor in the development of the energy and risk management models of the firm, and providing strategic and tactical leading-edge risk advisory and educational services to over 500 energy and commodity trading firms and financial institutions worldwide. He also managed the development and execution of short-term and long-term market and product strategic plans and created and managed the world-class support and professional services department within the firm.


Prior to FEA, Carlos worked for an Emerging Markets hedge fund and an asset management firm in Madrid, Spain. He has published over 75 articles on risk management and derivatives pricing, and lectures extensively on topics related to enterprise wide risk management, financial risk measurement, energy derivatives pricing and hedging and other risk topics. He is a co-regional director of the Professional Risk Managers' International Association (PRMIA)

Jean Hinrichs, CIA, CFE
Jean Hinrichs is a senior enterprise risk management executive with a distinguished background in audit, risk management, regulatory compliance, and corporate governance related to asset management, credit cards, and payment systems. Jean is the former Chief Risk Officer at Barclays Global Investors (BGI). Her global responsibilities included Legal, Compliance, Credit and Market Risk, Operational Risk, Internal Audit, Insurance, and Corporate Security. BGI is one of the largest institutional investment managers in the world with over $1 trillion in assets under management across a broad range of products and business lines. Jean served on the Executive Management Committee, Governance and Control Committee, three boards for Japanese subsidiaries, and as Chief Fiduciary Officer for the U.S. trust bank.


Jean was publicly recognized for "radically upgrading approach to risk management and analytics" resulting in BGI being awarded 2003 Buy-Side Risk Manager of the Year by Risk Waters Group. She designed and implemented significant enhancements to revenue-producing initiatives through fund restructures and regulatory exemptions. Jean redesigned the global risk assessment methodology and reporting to comply with anticipated regulatory requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II, CP 195, and other new investment and accounting requirements.


Prior to BGI, Jean served as General Auditor of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank where she specialized in controls over payment systems, including development of innovative audit approaches for distributed processing and external computer connections that were adopted by all twelve reserve banks. Prior to the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, Jean held a variety of increasingly responsible positions at Unocal Corporation where she led the restructure and consolidation of several Area Internal Audit groups at corporate headquarters in Los Angeles.


Jean earned a MBA from San Francisco State University, with an emphasis in quantitative analysis and global marketing. She has published articles on enterprise risk management and ethics. Jean has made presentations at risk management and internal audit conferences and also at San Francisco State University. She is a Certified Internal Auditor and Certified Fraud Examiner. Jean is a past president and currently serves on the Board of Governors of the San Francisco Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors, one of the largest chapters with over 800 members. She is also co-regional director of the Bay Area Chapter of The Professional Risk Managers' International Association (PRMIA).

Robert Mark, Ph.D.
Dr. Robert M. Mark is the Chief Executive Officer of Black Diamond which provides corporate governance, risk management consulting and transaction services. He serves on several Boards such as the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, IBM's Deep Computing Institute, Checkpoint Canada, The Royal Conservatory and is an Advisory Director on Entergy Koch's Audit Committee of the Board . He also serves on Checkpoint's Investment Committee. In 1998, he was awarded the Financial Risk Manager of the Year by the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP). He is the Chairperson of The Professional Risk Managers' International Association's (PRMIA) Blue Ribbon Panel

Prior to his current position, he was the Senior Executive Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer (CRO) at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). Dr. Mark was a member of the Management Committee. Dr. Mark's global responsibility covered all credit, market and operating risks for all of CIBC as well as for its subsidiaries. Prior to his CRO position, he was the Corporate Treasurer at CIBC.


Prior to CIBC, he was the partner in charge of the Financial Risk Management Consulting practice at Coopers & Lybrand(C&L). The Risk Management Practice and C&L advised clients on risk management issues and was directed toward financial institutions and multi-national corporations. This specialty area also coordinated the delivery of the firm's accounting, tax, control, and litigation services to provide clients with integrated and comprehensive risk management solutions and opportunities.

Prior to his position at C&L, he was a managing director in the Asia, Europe, and Capital Markets Group (AECM) at Chemical Bank. His responsibilities within AECM encompassed risk management, asset/liability management, research (quantitative analysis), strategic planning and analytical systems. He served on the Senior Credit Committee of the Bank. Before he joined Chemical Bank, he was a senior officer at Marine Midland Bank/Hong KongShanghaiBank (HKSB) where he headed the technical analysis trading group within the Capital Markets Sector.


He earned his Ph.D., with a dissertation in options pricing, from New York University's Graduate School of Engineering and Science, graduating first in his class. Subsequently, he received an Advanced Professional Certificate (APC) in accounting from NYU's Stern Graduate School of Business, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program. He is an Adjunct Professor and co-author of "Risk Management" (McGraw-Hill), published in October 2000. He also served on the board of ISDA as well as the Chairperson of the National Asset/Liabilty Management Association (NALMA).