Like many young people, FERMA’s newest board member Alessandro De Felice started his career in insurance and risk management without a definite intention. After finishing a degree in political science, he went to work for the broker Sedgwick, now part of Marsh. “It wasn’t a precise wish,” he says, “I just saw an opportunity to work in the London market which interested me.”

Alessandro spent seven years in broking and then joined Italy’s famous tyre maker, Pirelli, as risk manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa. In June 2005, he moved to his present job as Group Risk Manager for Prysmian Group, a leading player in high technology cables and systems for energy and telecommunications. He is also Managing Director of the company’s Dublin captive.

Alessandro De Felice

Based in Milan, Alessandro is actively involved in FERMA’s Italian member ANRA where one of his enthusiasms is spreading knowledge of risk management to Italy’s many medium and smaller sized businesses (SMEs). The 150 or so large companies with a dedicated risk management function, almost all members of ANRA, are not representative of the whole Italian market, he says.

Alessandro wants to show SMEs that they can add value by improving risk management procedures and practices. “We are trying to link the process with acknowledgement from stakeholders, investors, banks and other financial institutions. For example, if a financial institution is going to select companies to loan money, then risk management should be one of the criteria which is relevant to the discussion,” he explains.

Prysmian Group is a large, international company with subsidiaries in 50 countries, 98 plants, 22 research and development centres and 22,000 employees. Not surprising then, Alessandro plans to contribute his knowledge of multi-national insurance programme and risk mapping to the FERMA board, and he also can advise on reporting risk to company boards. He has consolidated experience in project risk management, in particular for offshore projects related to submarine energy cables, one of the main businesses of Prysmian Group.

FERMA’s principal role, Alessandro believes, is pan-European promotion of risk management culture, which means organising activities like the coming FERMA Seminar and Forum, and opportunities for risk managers to share experience and knowledge. Second, he says, is lobbying on behalf “of our professional family” with regulators, financial institutions and other bodies.

He said: “For me, being a member of the FERMA board, is a great privilege in consideration of the high profile of the other board members. I will do my best to serve the interests of our professional in ways that add value to companies in a very difficult international economic situation.”

You can follow Alessando on twitter at @defelal