TORONTO, April 22, 2010 -- What do accountants, disaster specialists and health-care professionals have in common? Each of these occupations struggles daily with the challenge of having to evaluate and manage risk.
A Risky Business: Risk and Accountability symposium at York University on Friday, April 30, will focus on the organizational challenges and issues managers and employees face in terms of risk and accountability.
Some of the key questions to be explored include: How does accountability influence different risk management processes? In what ways are decision-makers’ values and ideals incorporated into risk management?
Organized by the School of Administrative Studies in York's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, the full-day symposium will feature a keynote address by Moshe Milevsky, professor in the Schulich School of Business, about personal longevity risk – asking the critical question: Will we outlive our money?
Plenary speakers include Antoinette Bozac, vice-president of human resources and legal affairs for the Canada Lands Company, who will discuss managing risk and staying accountable to stakeholders; and York Professor Emeritus Howard Adelman, who will present a talk titled "The Financial Crisis, Early Warning Systems."
"The financial crisis has certainly raised our awareness or risk, yet oftentimes when organizations talk about managing risk they are really focusing on demonstrating that they are following due process," says Professor Joanne Jones, who organized the conference. “I think that this rules-based mindset has not fostered the creative thinking that is necessary to balance uncertainty while trying to avoid harm. We hope that by bringing in different viewpoints, that this symposium will encourage that kind of thinking.”
Three panels will be held concurrently in the afternoon:
Sex, Lies & Computer Tape: Accountants Dream of Taking Risks
Mark Adams, president of Edenbrook Hill Capital Ltd.
Jay McMahan, associate partner with Deloitte – Enterprise Risk Practice
Chris Robinson, professor in the School of Administrative Studies, LA&PS
Be Afraid – Be Very Afraid: Risk Perspectives on the Environment, Society & Catastrophe
Adrian Gordon, president & CEO of the Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness
Rodney White, professor emeritus in the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto
David Etkin, director of York's Graduate Program in Disaster & Emergency Management and a professor in the School of Administrative Studies, LA&PS
Risks in Health Care: Complexity is the Easy Part
Dr. Anne Matlow, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and medical director of Patient Safety at the Hospital for Sick Children
Rhonda McGlasson, executive director of the Bone and Joint Health Network, Holland Orthopaedic and Arthritic Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Kelly Thomson, professor in the School of Administrative Studies, LA&PS
The symposium has been made possible through funding from LA&PS, York's Graduate Program in Financial Accountability and contributions from KNOWLEX – The Knowledge Exchange Project, funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada.
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 200,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 Faculties and 28 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
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Media Contact:
Janice Walls, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x22101 / wallsj@yorku.ca
