Greetings CPCU friends and colleagues, 

Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your president for the coming year! Continuing in the traditions established by our excellent past presidents, I look forward to another great year of professional development, community service, and outreach to our risk management and insurance students. What an “interesting” time to be in our industry. Global natural catastrophes have made 2011 the highest loss year on record after just the first six months—creating opportunities for risk managers to review coverage and issues such as supply-chain disruption (Robert Hartwig, 2011). Additionally, Dr. Hartwig notes that the “extraordinary accumulation” of severe natural catastrophes, earthquakes, tsunami, floods and tornadoes have caused $260 billion in global economic losses—a new record for the first six months, exceeding the previous record of $220 billion in 2005. (http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2011/09/22/2011-cats-create-case-study-for-risk-management). 

Now more than ever, it is important for educated professionals such as CPCUs to step into the forefront of risk management and insurance and help lead the global business community. In order to help businesses reach their goals, we must help them understand the importance of pre-loss and post-loss objectives. Business continuity, supply chain management, business interruption exposures and the impact of catastrophic events on human capital are issues being examined through CPCU webinars and training sessions. We hope to bring current and relevant topics to you through our monthly meetings and continued professional development events. Join us September 27 as Trent Massey shares with us his views on sustainable energy resources, “green” buildings which are on the rise, and the implications on the current commercial property coverage form.

Great news! Because of generous support from the Fort Worth Chapter CPCU, more university students are entering the risk management and insurance program at the University of North Texas! We have 64 majors in the program, and close to 300 in the RMI classes! On October 18, please join us as we award scholarships to this year’s brightest, and hear about the great work being done by the Harry J. Loman Foundation. October 22-25, we will be taking five UNT students to the CPCU Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, sponsored in part by this Chapter. Thank you for your continued generosity towards our future leaders! 

We are proud to recognize eight new professionals were earned their CPCU designations this past year! William Dunn, Wes Edison, Vivian Lynn, Coleen Myers, Julia Naumann, Page Poland, Jason Reece and Carl Scannicchio will be awarded their designations at our conferment ceremony at All Industry Day in Dallas on November 22. We hope they will become an active part of our Chapter. Please welcome them! As we enter this new Chapter year, I encourage you to consider your involvement with the Chapter. Please share your time and talents with others in the Chapter, even if it is only to help mentor a new designee or encourage a UNT student to start taking CPCU exams while still in school. Come to as many meetings as you can, and support us in spirit when you cannot attend. Make the most of your CPCU experience and membership! Each member counts…Each member is critical to our success as a Chapter!

Best of success to all, and I look forward to serving you this year.

Debra