Interview
PRACTICE
The Risk Academy Jonathan Bloomer wanted to create an environment where people could enjoy a compelling career in risk management. But would any one at Capital One listen? BY ARTHUR PIPER
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ike many people of his generation, Jonathan Bloomer, Director at the financial services firm Capital One and Head of its UK Risk Office, fell into his first job in risk management by accident. “My Dad answered a letter I’d received from Deloitte because I was his last dependent and he wanted to get rid of me,” he recalls with a smile. That was back in 1997 when risk management was not a well-recognised career among recent graduates and when entry and progression within the discipline was amateurish and ad hoc in most organisations. Roll forward almost twenty years and with a spate of high-profile corporate collapses – Enron and WorldCom to name just two – and a fully-fledged financial crisis part of recent history, and things have changed radically. Governments, investors, regulators and, closer to home, company executives have all raised their expectations over the role and responsibilities of risk managers, especially in the financial services and regulated businesses sectors where Bloomer works. While it is well recognised that businesses such as Capital One, which is headquartered for the UK in Nottingham, are based on sound risk management on the credit side, Bloomer is innovating and exploring what it means to improve operational risk management. If it’s
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Above: Capital One’s UK headquarters in Nottingham.
Enterprise Risk
