About UA Risk Management
Overview
Everyone manages risk. When you buckle your seatbelt and drive responsibly, you are taking ownership of your risk and mitigating it. We all do this in a number of ways on a daily basis both personally and professionally. The role of the UA Office of Risk Management is to support those efforts. We help departments analyze their risk and assist them as needed. In our support role, we employ three types of techniques: risk control, risk financing and risk transfer.
Risk Control is a category of techniques designed to reduce loss frequency and loss severity. We work collaboratively with all departments to analyze exposures and select appropriate risk control measures. The departments implement and administer the measures. Examples include working with Housing to make the “move-in” process safer and working with Student Life to make Homecoming events safer. Our office and the departments collectively monitor the results.
Risk Management is directly responsible for implementing and administering four risk control programs: the Driver Safety Program, the Security Vendor Program, the Utility Cart and Golf Cart Program and the Outside Vendor Catering Program.
Risk Financing is a category of techniques designed to pay for losses that occur. Both the expected long-term cost of the program and the potential disruption to the university in the event of a loss are considered when selecting the technique. These techniques include insurance, self-insurance and retention.
Risk Transfer is a category of techniques designed to contractually transfer exposure from the university to other entities. We also addresses requests from other entities to contractually transfer exposure to the university. The category includes contracts, waivers, releases, assumptions of risk, requests for proposals and similar documents. We provide general, non-legal risk management advice to departments related to risk transfer, and we coordinate these efforts with the Office of Counsel.
Director’s Philosophy
In the West, we typically think of good and bad as polar opposites on a spectrum. For Aristotle and in Eastern philosophy, virtues are a balance in the middle of the spectrum with vices at the polar extremes. In other words, virtues are a balance between “not enough” and “too much”. A healthy diet is a middle path between not eating enough and consuming too much. And courage is a middle path between cowardice and recklessness. Likewise, sound risk management is a middle path between paralysis by analysis and irresponsible recklessness.
Bios
Wade Bond, UA Director of Risk Management
Wade grew up in the small town of York, Alabama and was a student at the Capstone in the early 90’s. His favorite classes were business law, business leadership and a survey in world religions. He worked as an RA in Friedman Hall and Rose Towers. Wade majored in business management and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce and Business Administration degree in 1995. He gained insurance and risk management experience in Birmingham at EMC Insurance, Compass Bank and Vulcan Materials before his UA homecoming in April of 2014. Wade lives with his wife, Tracy, and their whippet, Linus.
Robby Plumb, UA Assistant Director of Risk Management
Robby Plumb is a native of Houston, Texas and a 2009 graduate of The University of Alabama. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Commerce and Business Administration degree. He majored in finance with a concentration in insurance and risk management. Before returning to the Capstone, he worked at McGriff, Seibels and Williams in Birmingham as an insurance broker in their Energy and Marine Division. He and his wife, Stephanie, have a daughter, Margaret, and a golden retriever, Briggs. Stephanie graduated from UA in 2008.
Kaci McDonald, UA Risk Control and Claims Analyst
Kaci graduated from The University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Science degree in December of 2014. She began her career at Infinity Insurance as an Automotive Claims Adjuster. Kaci went on to become a Bond Account Manager for the Fitts Agency where she secured her Property and Casualty Insurance Agent’s License. UA Risk Management welcomed her back home when she was hired as a Risk Control and Claims Analyst in January of 2018. Kaci lives with her husband, Cory, and their son, Will.