US risk officers move to form powerful standards committee

Chief risk officers (CROs) at North American energy companies are planning to set up a potentially powerful best practice standards body, provisionally dubbed the CRO Committee. The committee is still in the planning stages, but is believed to be attracting a lot of interest among energy company CROs.

Richard Osborne, CRO of Duke Energy, and Bob Stibolt, CRO of Tractebel North America, are understood to be the driving forces behind the formation of the CRO Committee. The committee plans to outline its proposed areas of activity by June. Likely areas for discussion include disclosure of risk information and the development of standard industry practices.

Despite the problems faced by bankrupt energy trader Enron, a CRO at an energy company who declined to be named claimed the committee’s formation illustrated the leading role that the energy industry plays in promoting sophisticated risk management by corporates.