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A chief risk officer (CRO) is an executive- or senior-level position within a company. The chief risk officer is responsible for analyzing and governing that company’s risk.
They are responsible for evaluating IT security as well as other potential threats to business.
Techopedia Explains Chief Risk Officer
A chief risk officer deals with a variety of categories of risk. One of these is insurable risk, where the executive can look at applicable insurance that minimizes risk. Another area is regulatory risk, where the chief risk officer typically has to make sure that the business and all of its operations are in full compliance with industry regulations.
On the IT side, the chief risk officer often uses specific enterprise applications or other IT resources to help guide risk management. For example, risk management software can be instrumental in mitigating and handling various kinds of risks for business. These software applications, which often use predictive analytics, help the chief risk officer and other professionals to identify risks and avoid them.
The specific nature of what a chief risk officer does varies according to the industry that the business is in. The duties of a chief risk officer for an energy business will be significantly different from the duties of a chief risk officer at a business that is primarily run based on data, such as a legal business or other knowledge-management operation. However, in general, a chief risk officer’s use of IT to collect business intelligence to support decision-making is a classic example of how executives across the board are using new technologies and software to enhance their leadership roles in business operations.
