When Growth Demands a Stronger Risk Change Leader
The Role
U.S. Director of Risk
The Challenge
Our client needed a leader to stabilize and scale a risk management function responsible for a large, complex real estate portfolio and self-insured operating environment to bring structure, accountability, and analytical visibility to a high-volume function while building the team and infrastructure needed to support continued growth.
The mandate extended beyond traditional insurance management. This leader would strengthen claims oversight, reduce unexpected exposure, refine the company’s insurance and self-insurance strategy, and help executives, investors, lenders, and external partners understand the organization’s risk decisions. Success required someone who could protect the organization while operating pragmatically within its analytical, business-minded approach to risk.
Our Approach
The search required a risk executive who combined technical expertise with operational leadership and sound business judgment. Candidates needed to understand the practical realities of managing property, liability, and claims exposure across a decentralized, multi-site organization.
We focused our search on leaders who had:
Led risk management, insurance, or claims functions in complex, high-volume environments
Built or restructured teams, processes, workflows, and reporting infrastructure
Managed property claims, severe liability matters, litigation exposure, and third-party legal resources
Improved claims analytics and visibility into trends, financial impact, and emerging exposure
Designed or refined insurance, self-insurance, captive, or layered liability programs
Evaluated when to transfer risk and when retaining risk produced a better financial outcome
Managed broker, carrier, lender, investor, and legal relationships
Operated within multifamily, real estate, construction, hospitality, retail, student housing, or similarly complex environments
Balanced strategic thinking with urgency, operational discipline, and hands-on execution
Our team targeted risk leaders who could introduce structure without unnecessary bureaucracy. Each candidate was evaluated for technical fluency, leadership readiness, change agility, and the ability to communicate complex risk decisions credibly across internal and external stakeholders.
The Results
Our team identified a select group of leaders equipped to transform the client’s risk management function from a reactive, individually driven operation into a scalable and data-informed business capability. The shortlist of candidates presented to the client included individuals with technical depth, organizational leadership, and commercial judgment required to support a large and growing portfolio.
The winning candidate’s background included experience leading risk functions, strengthening claims operations, optimizing insurance or self-insurance programs, and building scalable teams and processes, positioning the organization to improve claims visibility, strengthen risk-financing decisions, reduce unexpected exposure, and build a more sustainable function aligned with the organization’s growth and risk tolerance.
“Your team not only delivered a stellar slate of candidates, and an ideal hire, but provided us with the transparent data and market coverage we needed to be ultimately confident in our decision.”
— Chief Financial Officer
