Christopher Palm is the Chief Risk Officer at the Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA).
Christopher spent 27 years with a South African Power Utility, of which the last 18 were at senior executive level -from Group Audit Manager and Head of Forensics to Head of Enterprise Risk where he established the Utility’s integrated risk management capability in 2008.
Some two years ago Christopher joined IRMSA as their Chief Risk Officer and are now collaborating with risk practitioners, C-Suites and Boards across South Africa to identify and effectively respond to the risks and opportunities of the Country and its industries.
One area of focus is the risks and opportunities that exist in South Africa specific to the way the environment is impacted nationally, continentally and globally.
Christopher is positioned perfectly to speak about his first-hand experiences from a risk and opportunity perspective having been the head of risk for a utility operating coal fired power stations, solar, hydro, wind and nu-clear.
Now Christopher is on the other side of the fence working with the Institute of Risk Management of South Africa – a totally different perspective.
It is accepted that global initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions will take many decades. As such the negative impacts of climate change will become a reality to which we must adapt in order to sustain ourselves. In South Africa we have seen increased numbers and severity of droughts and floods, human settlement and thus infrastructure movements and risks to people.
Christopher will discuss the South African risk profile and context with regard to environmental policy, strategy and global commitments as well as how South Africa is responding to its environmental risks and opportunities. These views will be shared focussing on the three major industries in South Africa, banking, mining and agriculture and also the biggest polluter in South Africa, Eskom.
