The Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies, in conjunction with McKinsey & Company, is pleased to announce the winners of the first annual Cambridge – McKinsey Risk Prize. The prize recognises the best submission on risk management by a current student at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. Mr Sven Heilitag, Principal at McKinsey & Company, awarded the first prize and two honorable mentions on Monday 17 June during the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies 4th Risk Summit.
Minko Dudev – an MBA candidate at the University of Cambridge – was awarded the first place prize for his submission “Risk-weighted IT development for the financial industry”. He presents senior IT/operations management with a comparative overview of IT risk reduction practices at financial firms, and offers a novel risk-based approach to systematically allocate resources based on the potential direct monetary impact of system failure. Prior to his MBA Minko worked on fixed income trading technology at a US investment bank in London. He also earned a MSc in Computer Science with the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Germany.
Two honorable mentions were awarded to Nina Andreeva and Esmer Dashdamirova, PhD and MBA candidates at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.
Nina describes her submission – “The search for unknown unknowns: stress testing in the financial sector” – as “a perfect opportunity to leverage her practitioner knowledge and present an analysis of stress testing from both a practitioner and an academic perspective”. Nina’s research interests are varied and span financial markets, risk management, rare events, behavioural finance and economics as well as social studies of finance. Before she returned to academia Nina worked at a European investment bank for the Chief Risk Officer and later managed the London Traded Products Desk specialising in traded credit risk approval.
Esmer’s submission introduces the actual study presented for the BP Global Activity Planning Team. The paper addresses offshore logistics optimisation as a means for business risk mitigation and strategic planning. The quantitative model throws light on the balance between decreasing the number of “person on board days” wasted on the platform and increasing the number (and cost) of ship visits. Prior to her MBA, Esmer held various business development and business analysis positions at Microsoft Corporation and BP. Esmer holds a BSc degree in Applied Mathematics from Moscow State University.
The reviewers for the prize included members from McKinsey’s Global Risk Practice, the Editor-in-Chief of the McKinsey Working Papers, and members of the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.