RIMScast: RIMS 2023 Rising Star Emily L. Bloedel

RIMS 2023 Rising Star Emily L. Bloedel

Apr 25, 2023

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

Today’s guest is RIMS 2023 Rising Star Emily L. Bloedel, the face of the RIMS Rocky Mountain Chapter. Emily shares highlights of her career so far, her participation in RIMS, and her expectations as an involved risk professional.

Key Takeaways:

[:01] About RIMScast.

[:26] I will be joined by RIMS 2023 Rising Star Emily L. Bloedel.

[:34] All about upcoming RIMS webinars, workshops, events, and more!

[1:15] About RIMS-CRMP.

[1:28] About RIMS-CRMP-FED.

[2:03] About RISKWORLD 2023 with closing keynote speaker Danica Patrick!

[2:40] About today’s episode with Emily L. Bloedel, the manager of contracts and legal affairs and corporate counsel at Merrick & Company, an engineering and architectural firm, based in Denver, Colorado.

[2:53] Emily is the face of the RIMS Rocky Mountain Chapter where she is concluding her term as president in 2023. She contributes much to Merrick and RIMS on the local and global levels as well as the legal and risk professions, which is why she was named RIMS Rising Star for 2023.

[3:10] We’re going to learn about her risk philosophy, some of her processes, and how she maintains balance in her legal and risk roles. Read her profile in the Awards edition of RIMS Risk Management Magazine this month and she will be with me at RISKWORLD Global Studio for RIMScast Live on May 1st at 3:00 p.m. She’s omnipresent, folks!

[3:33] RIMS 2023 Rising Star Emily Bloedel, welcome to RIMScast!

[3:55] Emily was thrilled to be selected as the RIMS 2023 Rising Star! There are so many wonderful people in the profession! It made her year!

[4:14] Justin wrote an article in Risk Management magazine supplement, “Rising Star 2023: Emily L. Bloedel.” During law school, Emily interned for Merrick & Company and enjoyed it. On graduation, Emily passed the bar and spent a few years practicing law.

[5:09] Practicing law was not all Emily had hoped, so she looked for other opportunities. Her former boss at Merrick told her about an opportunity to start an in-house department. She jumped at the chance and has been at Merrick for eight years.

[6:14] Merrick reaches out to local politicians and organizations so they can help to shape legislative changes in the industry that are coming.

[7:35] Colorado has different terrains and soils. What works in one location may be unsuitable for another location. Merrick looks carefully at that and builds it into contracts to make sure that what the clients are doing in a location is done safely.

[8:21] Merrick has a water group that looks at how clients are treating water safely and ensuring that it flows. They help clients restore balance to areas that have been affected by industry.

[9:40] About Merrick’s Technology Disruptors Committee. They look at technology that may disrupt Merrick’s business or their clients. They have eight areas of focus. They have a working group looking solely at Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality. Merrick funds an initiative to use VR/AR on projects to provide value to clients.

[11:07] Emily tells how the committee developed and focused on specific areas of technology. She is no longer on the committee as her risk focus is no longer needed.

[12:16] Cyberrisk is top-of-mind now for Emily. Merrick has formed a cyber-incident response plan and cyber-incident response team. Emily continues deepening her involvement in this area. They are subject to new and different attacks every day.

[13:22] Emily looks forward to going into depth on the Merrick risk matrix when she appears in the RISKWORLD Global Studio for RIMScast Live on May 1st at 3:00 p.m. Her boss, Carter Boardman, set up a matrix to help project managers, teams, and support staff evaluate the risk of a project. Emily explains the categories of risk.

[14:51] The risks Emily finds acceptable generally go through. As an employee-owned firm, everyone approaches carefully the risks the company takes. A risk that goes badly impacts them all. They are purposeful about what projects they bring for consideration. But sometimes they accept poor contract terms because they want the client.

[15:19] In the case of a poor contract, Merrick mitigates the risk as much as it can. It is challenging for Emily. The lawyer in her does not like those contracts!

[15:33] RIMS plug time! Sponsor a weekly or dedicated episode of RIMScast! Contact us at pd@rims.org. Register for RISKWORLD 2023, and the workshops before RISKWORLD.

[16:35] Justin revisits his interview with Johnny C. Taylor Jr., President and CEO of SHRM, about what Johnny has in store during his opening keynote at RISKWORLD. It relates to COVID-19!
[18:27] About awards and additional RISKWORLD keynotes, including Danica Patrick!

[18:52] RIMScast Live will be held at the Global Studio on May 1st, 2nd, and 3rd while at RISKworld featuring chats with leaders from the international risk community.

[19:19] Merrick has an annual employee ownership celebration week. For Emily, employee ownership means pride and responsibility.

[20:58] Emily started with RIMS when she interned for Merrick in law school. She attended chapter meetings and a golf tournament with her boss. When Emily came back to Merrick, she was excited that the company was still involved in RIMS. Her boss encouraged her to get as involved as possible to develop as a young professional.

[21:44] Emily joined the local chapter. Then she had the opportunity to join the RIMS Rising Risk Professional Advisory Group where she met and connected with other risk professionals across the globe. She was invited to apply to join the Rocky Mountain RIMS Chapter Board, so she did and later became Vice President.

[22:34] Emily will be finishing her tenure as President of the Chapter in early September. Emily gives a shoutout to her Vice President who will take over as President.

[23:31] Justin and Emily met virtually during COVID-19 when Emily did a webinar with Rebecca Clement from LLoyd’s. RIMS broadcast the webinar globally and it was a great way to call attention to the Rocky Mountain Chapter. Emily enjoyed getting to know Rebecca Clement and working with Justin through the webinar.

[24:32] Justin and Emily also met at RISKWORLD 2022 and they networked there. Emily has found a lot of value in networking and agrees that the rising generation of risk professionals needs to network to have a fulfilling career. In-person connection is impossible to replace. It creates a network of support.

[26:25] On October 4th‒6th, The RIMS Western Regional will be held in Vail, Colorado. The Rocky Mountain Chapter is very excited to host it. Emily shares her thoughts on the opportunity.

[27:21] Justin congratulates Emily again on being named RIMS Rising Star for 2023.

[27:35] Emily’s parting thoughts: “You can be as involved or uninvolved in RIMS as you want. You get out what you put in. I’ve been very fortunate to have the opportunity to be involved. I would encourage you to look at the different ways you can be involved. There are opportunities here that you might not even be aware of, that might help you grow!”

[28:13] On May 1st at 3:00 p.m. in the Global Studio at RISKWORLD, Emily will join Justin for RIMScast Live to talk granularly about the risk matrix and other topics.

[28:38] Special thanks to RIMS 2023 Rising Star Emily Bloedel for joining RIMScast. Read about her in the Special Awards Supplement to RIMS Risk Management magazine and visit the Global Studio on May 1st at 3:00 p.m. at RISKWORLD for RIMScast Live with Emily Bloedel. Audience participation is encouraged!

[29:09] Sponsor a RIMScast episode to reach a global audience! Justin shares other RIMS offers, including a transitional membership!

Mentioned in this Episode:

RISKWORLD 2023 — April 30‒May 3 in Atlanta, Georgia! Public registration is open!

Riskworld: In-Person Workshops April 29‒30 | Save 30% on pre-conference workshops when you register to attend RISKWORLD!

RIMS-CRMP-FED Virtual Prep Course — May 8‒10, 2023 | Register by May 1.

RIMS Diversity Equity & Inclusion page

Spencer Educational Foundation

Contribute to Risk Management Magazine

RIMS Risk Management Magazine: Awards Edition 2023

RIMS Western Regional - Oct 4-6, 2023.

Upcoming Webinars:

The Green Transition | Sponsored by Beazley | May 9, 2023