February 6, 2014
Risk Management Advisory Firm of the Year – Global Risk Management Advisors
Samuel K. Won is the Founder and Managing Director of Global Risk Management Advisors, Inc. (“GRMA”), the leading risk management advisory and implementation firm that provides asset managers and institutional investors with complete, independent and institutional- quality investment risk management solutions and programs on a managed services basis.
The company differentiates itself through the breadth and depth of its services, which no other risk management company offers in totality. However, there are also important differences between GRMA and firms that offer a small proportion of its services.
Firstly, the quality, experience and pedigree of its principals are unrivalled. With an average of 25 years’ front-line experience at top global financial and asset management institutions, GRMA’s principals are well-recognized thought leaders in risk management.
Secondly, GRMA goes beyond just measuring risk: it helps its clients better manage their risks by implementing solutions and providing on-going managed services for their strategy, infrastructure, processes/controls and governance around risk management.
Mr Won says: “We are honored to receive this award be- cause, although we are the leading provider of investment risk management, we are aware that there are other firms that offer partial solutions for what we do. Therefore, we appreciate being recognized by our clients and other service providers as being the best risk management advisory firm for a second year in a row.
“Our objective is always to provide our clients with a sound, scalable and sustainable risk management program that is also the most cost-effective solution for a client’s investment risk management needs.”
The most pronounced trend that GRMA noticed in 2013 was that asset managers faced substantially more de- mands for risk management from both regulators and in- vestors. Therefore, they consider helping clients with the many challenges associated with risk-related reporting and transparency that regulators and investors now require (e.g. Form PF, CPO/PQR, OPERA, etc.) as one of the year’s greatest achievements.
A second achievement for 2013 has been working with institutional investors such as pensions, endowments, foundations and family offices that, as a group, are just starting to perform formal risk management.
As well as demanding teamwork at the highest level, addressing these new audiences has required changes for GRMA. Mr Won explains: “We have come to realize that some funds and institutional investors want to take an incremental approach to risk management. Therefore, even though we believe that a holistic approach makes the most sense, we have modified our programs to accommodate funds or institutions that want to take a more gradual approach to risk management.”
And what of 2014 and beyond? Mr Won says: “We believe that hedge funds will continue to be under pressure from both investors and regulators to demonstrate that they are institutional-quality with regards to their infrastructure, processes, controls and governance. To that end, we aim to help our clients have and maintain an institutional-quality risk management program.”
To view the full PDF of the article and Acquisition International press release, please click here.