Philadelphia, PA (September 26, 2017) —
The Australian Chapter of The Risk Management Association
(RMA) has elected Chris Williams, chief risk officer, Business and Private
Banking, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, as the new president of RMA Australia.
Williams succeeds Catherine Thrum, head of commercial credit risk, Westpac
Bank, who had held the position for two years before retiring from the helm
this year.
In his
current role at Commonwealth Bank, Williams leads a team of 200 staff members
that provides credit risk assessment, operational risk control and compliance
oversight for the business and private bank which supports financing activities
to small- and medium-sized enterprises, regional and agriculture banking
customers, and private bank customers.
Prior to his
current role, Williams held the position of general manager, Institutional
Client Coverage, Risk Management, covering the risk decisioning of the Institutional
Banking & Markets division, a role he held for more than nine years. He has worked throughout Australia, two years
in the United Kingdom, and four years in New York.
“It is an
honor to serve as President of the Australian Chapter of RMA, and I look
forward to working with the entire RMA Management Committee to continue RMA’s
mission of advancing the use of sound risk management principles in the
financial services industry,” said Williams.
The RMA Australia Chapter includes 42 institutional and
1,200 individual members and holds monthly events in Sydney and Melbourne and
quarterly events in Brisbane. The Chapter has experienced 100 percent growth in
institutional membership and a 50 percent boost in individual membership during
the past five years.
About RMA
Founded in 1914, The
Risk Management Association is a not-for-profit, member-driven professional
association whose sole purpose is to advance the use of sound risk management
principles in the financial services industry. RMA promotes an enterprise
approach to risk management that focuses on credit risk, market risk and
operational risk. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, RMA has 2,500
institutional members that include banks of all sizes as well as nonbank
financial institutions. They are represented in the Association by 18,000
individuals located throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and
Asia/Pacific.
Media Contacts
Stephen Krasowski,
215-446-4095, skrasowski@rmahq.org
Frank Devlin, 215-446-4137, fdevlin@rmahq.org