Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

In this episode, Justin interviews Emily Buckley, Insurance Risk Manager at Specialized Bicycle Components. They discuss how, in her career, she arrived at risk management, from tossing T-shirts into the stands at Ball Stadium. They talk about her work leading risk at Kroenke Sports and Entertainment for years, and then joining Specialized Bicycle Components to become their Risk Management program and launch ERM for them. Emily talks about Specialized hiring the best people, including professional and Olympic athletes, to make the best product. Emily's purpose is to build the best Risk Management and ERM Program for them. Justin and Emily discuss how she feels about being named the RIMS 2026 Honor Roll Recipient. They discuss her involvement with the Rocky Mountain RIMS Chapter and her engagement in the ERM Engage Group. Listen for the excitement and energy Emily brings to the ERM Program at Specialized.

Key Takeaways:

[:01] About RIMS and RIMScast.

[:16] About this episode of RIMScast. We are so excited to welcome back to the show Emily Buckley of Specialized Bicycles. She was recently named to the RIMS Honor Roll at RISKWORLD, so we have lots to discuss regarding safety, career development, and ERM. But first…

[:48] RIMS Virtual Workshops. The next RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep will be held on June 9th and 10th. The next RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep with AFERM will be held on June 16th and 17th. Links to registration are in this episode's notes.

[1:04] You can enroll now in the RIMS CRO Certificate Program in Advanced Enterprise Risk Management hosted by the famous James Lam. Beginning July 15th, workshops will be held bi-weekly from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The registration link is in the show notes.

[1:25] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. We want to hear from you. Submit a session proposal by June 19th that will reach engaged practitioners, innovators, and leaders looking for guidance they can utilize right away.

[1:43] Help define what's next for Enterprise Risk Management. Submit a session proposal by Friday, June 19th. A link is in this episode's show notes.

[1:51] Folks, RIMS is back on YouTube. Our handle is @RIMSOfficialChannel. We've got plenty of videos there, including RIMScast, RIMScast Canada video podcasts, and other informative and entertaining content from RIMS. Subscribe to the channel today!

[2:10] On with the Show! Our guest today is one of the liveliest RIMS members I know! She is Emily Buckley, the Insurance Manager for Specialized Bicycle Components, a global performance brand.

[2:23] Emily is the Vice President of the RIMS Rocky Mountain Chapter. At RISKWORLD 2026, Emily was named to the RIMS Honor Roll in 2026. Emily made her RIMScast debut in 2024 for National Bike Safety Month in Man, and we're recording in May again.

[2:47] We'll have a lot of fun talking about bicycle safety and how Emily embeds safety into all aspects of risk management and the risk culture over at Specialized Bicycle Components.

[2:59] Emily has had a remarkable career at Specialized. She is the company's first-ever dedicated risk manager. She has built a modern enterprise-ready risk and insurance function from the ground up, which we are going to talk about today.

[3:12] We'll talk about her risk philosophies, her approach to polycrisis and supply chain risk management, and why her involvement in the RIMS Rocky Mountain Chapter has been so critical for her career. Let's get to it!

[3:27] Interview! Emily Buckley, Welcome Back to RIMScast!

[3:50] Emily says receiving the RIMS Honor Roll award seemed surreal. It was very cool to be onstage, be recognized, and have the village she had built around herself there supporting her. Everyone was so excited for her. It was one of the coolest things she had ever experienced.

[4:27] Justin calls Emily the Risk Queen of Denver and the Greater Denver Area and says she has a lot of support behind her. She's "got heat!"

[4:48] Justin is recording this episode during National Bicycle Safety Month. This is Emily's month. At Specialized Bicycle Components, every day is National Bicycle Safety Month!

[5:19] Justin talks about safety being embedded into the manufacturing and shipping of bicycles.

[5:34] Emily says every day, even when she is sleeping, safety is on her mind.

[5:46] Specialized Bicycle Components has a Safety Team. Emily's broker has a Safety Specialist assigned to her account. Emily has connected those two teams. She is a liaison between them, and she works very closely with her Safety Team at Specialized Bicycle Components.

[6:02] Emily has monthly meetings with groups at Specialized Bicycle Components to discuss safety initiatives. She says the Safety Team at Specialized does a phenomenal job.

[6:26] Emily says Risk Management is a department of many hats. She tells people that if there is pushback on an initiative, I'll be the bad guy. Tell them, Sorry, Risk Management is making us do this. Sometimes that's a little bit easier to sell.

[7:11] Emily has been practicing risk management for almost 15 years. She started at Kroenke Sports and Entertainment in Customer Interaction, including tossing T-shirts into the crowd for the Denver Nuggets. People wanted those shirts.

[9:05] When Kroenke posted a job for a risk analyst, Emily applied, and Peggy Miller hired her. Emily talked about this in her past appearance on RIMScast. Peggy is the President of Rocky Mountain RIMS. Peggy taught Emily almost everything Emily knows about risk management.

[9:34] Peggy took Emily under her wing. She taught Emily how to review contracts for risk management wording and insurance requirements. Emily could go to Peggy with any question, and Peggy would explain it. Emily says that Peggy is a phenomenal boss.

[10:07] Emily found an opportunity at Specialized when it was time to spread her wings. She still calls Peggy from time to time for advice. Peggy is always willing to help.

[10:34] Emily joined Specialized Bicycle Components and became the risk management department. She came in two or three months before they did their insurance renewal, so it was initiation by firehose.

[10:53] It was a great opportunity to learn about the program. She was also educating them about what risk management does and how they should be running their program, and educating them about insurance requirements.

[11:16] Emily says Specialized has an amazing executive team and ownership. They were so receptive to all the ideas Emily brought them. They also had a lot of creative ideas. As a risk manager, it was fun to come into that environment.

[11:49] The risk department has not grown since Emily joined Specialized.

[12:21] Emily started an ERM Program at Specialized. It takes a team, and it takes the right partners. Emily thinks every company will benefit from an ERM Program. Stepping into a manufacturing company very dependent on the supply chain, Emily saw that ERM was a must.

[12:49] Emily worked with the right partners, did a couple of different tabletops, and hyper-focused on three or four ERM initiatives, for which she built the ERM foundation and the risk management foundation on top. Every project she works on goes back to those initiatives.

[13:24] Emily says she is very fortunate to have the ear of the executive leadership.

[13:32] One of the mantras at Specialized Bicycle Components is Innovate or Die. Emily has taken that to heart in Risk Management and ERM. Emily is constantly trying to find ways to make the ERM stronger and better, going back to those three or four initiatives.

[13:51] Emily thinks outside the box. She has seen some products that don't completely fit Specialized, but by working with the service providers and saying she likes this product, but she needs it to do this, she has found some amazing service providers and partners to work with.

[14:24] As a risk manager, Emily lives in worst-case scenarios. Professionally and personally, she can never get away from worst-case scenarios. A good risk manager is always preparing for the worst-case scenario, always thinking, what is the absolute worst thing that could happen.

[14:46] Emily says one of the hardest things is realizing that a lot of people don't live in that headspace. When she goes to teams and tells them the worst thing that can happen, they ask if she is OK. She insists that this worst-case scenario is something they need to think about.

[15:12] That's where education comes in. We need to think about it. If this worst-case scenario happens, all of these ripple effects hit every portion of the company.

[15:43] Emily says Specialized has been around so long, and with the leadership and experts they have in place, Emily is amazed every day at the team that Specialized has assembled. She says they are the best in their class. There are Olympic and professional athletes on the team.

[16:43] A service provider noticed that Specialized Bicycle Components recruits the best people in the world. They want that experience so they can build a better product with better processes.

[17:07] A Quick Break! There are so many other wonderful RIMS events coming up in 2026. The 2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference will be held from July 28th through August 1st at the lovely Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. A link to the event is in this episode's show notes.

[17:27] Register now for the Second Annual RIMS Texas Regional Conference, which will be held from August 10th through 12th at the Grand Hyatt on the San Antonio River Walk. Advance rates are available through June 5th.

[17:41] The 11th Annual Chicagoland Risk Forum will return to the Old Post Office on Thursday, September 24th, 2026, in Chicago. Visit ChicagolandRiskForum.org for more information.

[17:51] The RIMS Western Regional Conference will be held from October 4th through the 7th in Seattle, Washington. Registration is open, and you can also submit a session. Visit RIMSWesternRegional.com and the link in this episode's show notes for more information.

[18:08] Save the dates October 18th through the 21st. We will be in Quebec City to celebrate the 50th Live RIMS Canada Conference. Booth sales are already open. Early-bird registration will open in June.

[18:22] Visit RIMSCanadaConference.ca for more information. Also, remember to check out RIMS.org/Canada for our spinoff show, RIMScast Canada, hosted by National Conference Committee Chair, Aaron Lukoni.

[18:37] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 18th and 19th in Columbus, Ohio. The deadline for educational content submissions is Friday, June 19th. Get submissions in now. The link is in this episode's show notes. We'll let you know when registration opens.

[18:59] Let's Return to our Interview with RIMS 2026 Honor Roll Recipient Emily Buckley!

[19:13] Justin speaks about the profile of Emily Buckley in the RIMS Risk Management Magazine Awards Edition. It mentions that Emily consolidated fragmented global insurance structures into a unified strategy across more than 30 countries.

[19:38] Emily says, trying to get the insurance together at a global company was hard. A lot of people were autonomous, getting their own insurance and doing their own thing. In almost 15 years as a risk manager, Emily learned that insurance is very touchy for a lot of people.

[20:23] Insurance costs a lot of money for something that you can't see. You're not using it unless something bad has happened. So it's a very sensitive subject for a lot of people. Emily says it's a job that won't ever really be done because there are so many different moving parts.

[21:03] Emily says that in all the different countries we're in, every country has different insurance laws, different ways to buy and pay for insurance, and what kind of insurance you have to have.

[21:13] Emily says in some countries, I have to have a locally placed general liability policy, but the property policy that I place on a global level will sit over that. In a different country, I have to have a locally placed general liability/property and a locally placed stock throughput.

[21:31] For almost 40 different countries, you have to know which countries you have to have insurance in. That's when your broker becomes invaluable.

[21:48] It's helpful to have a foreign team on your broker who are subject matter experts in placing locally placed policies. Emily says she would not be able to do that without the team at her broker, Brown & Brown.

[22:03] Emily talks about educating the people at your company: This is what we currently have, and this is what we need. We need it in almost 40 countries. These 20 are our top priority. You tier them down so you're not throwing everything at the wall.

[22:27] You're formulating a plan, then educating and speaking with the people in your company. A lot of questions come up, not only about general liability, but also cyber, and directors & officers.

[22:37] It's a sensitive subject that you have to take your time with. Build a relationship with those offices so that when something does happen, or they have a question, they come to you.

[23:04] You will always be making connections with your offices, making sure they're happy with their insurance, they understand it, and they have a local contact. If something happens in Taiwan, they need a local contact who can answer questions and relay that to the global team.

[24:12] Emily says that every year, there are two or three problem countries, from an insurance perspective, where the carrier or broker has thrown a curveball. Sometimes she has had to pull people out of the program and put them on their own. It's a constantly moving target.

[25:13] Emily says at Kroenke, she and Peggy did a business continuity tabletop, where they sat down with all the different department heads at Ball Arena (Pepsi Center, then) and walked through scenarios. They presented a worst-case scenario tabletop with 30 people in the room.

[25:52] Emily and Peggy also did a couple of cyber tabletop exercises. Emily stresses how important it is to do a cyber tabletop with your executive and leadership team. They're always amazed at how many different small issues and questions come up that they never thought of.

[26:35] Emily says her leadership team at Specialized is fantastic. They've been very supportive. She can throw ideas at them, and they'll say, "Let's do it."

[26:49] Justin says people receive these awards from RIMS not just for their achievements in risk management, but also for what they give back to the broader risk management community or their local chapters.

[27:09] Justin says Emily is very involved in the RIMS Rocky Mountain Chapter and is a great Networker and is very plugged in. Justin says that if it weren't for Emily, he doesn't think he would have gotten Rich Lenkov from SERMA on the show this year. (Shout out to Rich!)

[27:40] Emily says she started going to the Rocky Mountain RIMS Chapter when she was an analyst, working under Peggy Miller. She remembers walking into a Lunch and Learn. Going to Chapter meetings was very inspiring. She wanted to be that knowledgeable one day.

[29:10] Emily says this industry is built on your connections to people and how you know people. She says we have the best people in our chapter. We're very involved with students and RRP.

[29:24] Emily tells students in RRP, "Come to our meetings. If you don't know anybody, you know me. I will introduce you to everybody. This is where your career is going to take off. This is where you're going to be able to make steps and strides and really make connections."

[30:11] Emily says she cannot say enough great things about Rocky Mountain RIMS. She thinks they have one of the best chapters in the U.S., because they have the best people.

[30:24] Justin recalls that Ondrea Matthews with CoorsTek was on the show last year. She is in Rocky Mountain RIMS. Emily says Ondrea is one of the best people she knows. Justin says she had fascinating stories. A link to her RIMScast episode is in the show notes.

[31:02] Emily says when she joined Specialized, she told them she's a Rocky Mountain RIMS board member, she speaks at conferences, and is a guest lecturer at CU Denver. They were super supportive.

[31:47] Emily says Specialized wants to put the best product on the market, and Emily takes that into risk management and insurance. She wants to create the best risk program that she can. She wants to work with the best service providers that she can.

[32:12] Another Quick Break! The Spencer Educational Foundation's Risk Manager on Campus application period is now open, and it will close on June 30th. Grant awardees, colleges, and universities are typically notified in September.

[32:32] The Course Development Grant application deadline for Interval Number 2 will be on June 15th, 2026. Award notifications will be sent out in late July.

[32:57] General Grant applications are open, and the application deadline is July 30th. Internship Grant applications open on August 15th and close on October 15th.

[32:59] Links to each of these grants are in this episode's show notes. Visit SpencerEd.org for more information.

[33:07] The Spencer 2026 Funding Their Future Gala will be held on Thursday, September 17th, from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. at a different venue this year. It will be at the fabulous Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

[33:23] Sponsorship opportunities and benefits are available now. A link to the Funding Their Future Gala is in this episode's show notes.

[33:32] Be on the lookout for some of the honorees and Spencer Board members to join RIMScast in June and July.

[33:41] Let's Conclude Our Interview with RIMS 2026 Honor Roll Recipient Emily Buckley!

[33:48] Justin mentions the RIMS Strategic and Enterprise Risk Management Council. The RIMS ERM Engage Group is a member-only offshoot of SERMC for people to have candid dialogues. All RIMS members have exclusive access to the ERM Engage Group. Emily is a member.

[34:38] Emily says the ERM Engage Group gets together monthly for an hour. Morgan O'Rourke, VP of Editorial at RIMS, leads it. Everyone brings issues, or Morgan will have a guest speaker. Emily says it's just such a great place to go and learn from industry peers with similar issues.

[35:55] Emily is not trying to reinvent the wheel. If she can bring the problems she is dealing with to a group of professionals, ask how they have done it in the past, and get 10 or 20 ideas, it's amazing.

[36:13] Emily recommends the movie, Project Hail Mary, which she calls amazing.

[36:27] Justin talks about the monthly guest speaker, often from SERMC, who presents a topic and then engages the group in discussion. The Engage group lets the leaders see who the next ERM leaders are going to be through their participation. It's very interactive.

[37:32] If you are a RIMS member, just check out the RIMS ERM Engage Group. Justin says Emily's involvement is above and beyond, not just for her job, but for RIMS, so he was not surprised she received the 2026 RIMS Honor Roll; it's well deserved.

[38:18] Emily loves her job. She loves this industry.

[38:40] Emily admits her blood caffeine content was through the roof, preparing for the awards ceremony. Emily looked it up. She is the 43rd recipient of the Risk Management Honor Roll in 75 years of RIMS. She has the award in her window in her office. It is cool to be celebrated.

[40:26] Emily says her award makes it into everything. After she got it, she carried it around with her. At lunch, it was sitting on the table. At dinner, it was sitting on the table. She carried it onto the plane with her.

[41:22] In the profile about Emily, it talked about perseverance in mountain biking. Juston asks Emily for her inspiration for the next generation of risk professionals.

[42:04] Emily's words: "Keep going. You're going to fail, and that's fine. It's part of the journey. Fail. Learn the lesson or lessons, but keep going. Always keep looking at the horizon, saying, OK, I'm going to get there. I'm going to get there, I'm going to get there.

[42:21] "The absolute most important thing is, have fun on the way." Emily says she did a little dance on the awards stage, and some students told her they loved seeing her having fun with it. It made Emily's day for them to stop and tell her. "If you're not having fun, what's the point?"

[43:21] Justin tells Emily, We look forward to more great things from you in the coming years. We thank you, and we congratulate you again.

[45:33] Special thanks again to Emily Buckley of Specialized Bicycle Components for joining us here on RIMScast! Congratulations again to her for being named to the RIMS 2026 Honor Roll. More coverage is available in the RIMS Risk Management Magazine's Awards Edition.

[43:27] Go to RMMAgazine.com and check out the digital issues section. We look forward to having Emily back again.

[43:55] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes.

[44:23] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact [email protected] for more information.

[44:41] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email [email protected] for more information.

[44:59] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more.

[45:15] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management.

[45:29] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. Please remember to subscribe to RIMScast on your favorite podcasting app. You can email us at [email protected].

[45:41] Practice good risk management, stay safe, and thank you again for your continued support!

Links:

RIMS ERM Conference 2026 | November 19‒20 in Columbus, Ohio | Session Submission Deadline: Friday, June 19

RIMS Canada Conference — Oct. 18‒21, 2026 | Quebec City | www.rimscanadaconference.ca | Registration Opens in June

RIMScast on YouTube!

Spencer Educational Foundation — Scholarships and Grants | Open Calls and Timelines.

RIMS-CRO Certificate Program In Advanced Enterprise Risk Management | July‒ Sept. 2026 Cohort | Led by James Lam | Register Now!

2026 Florida RIMS Educational Conference | July 28‒Aug. 1 | Register Now

RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2026 | Aug. 10‒12 in San Antonio | Register Now!

ChicagoLand Risk Forum | Sept. 24, 2026

RIMS Western Regional Conference — Oct. 4‒7, 2026 | Seattle, WA | Register Today and Submit an Educational Session!

RIMS Risk Management Magazine | Contribute | Look for the Awards Edition in "Digital Issues"!

RIMS Now

RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) | Insights Video Series Featuring Joe Milan!

The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center

RIMS Diversity Equity Inclusion Council

RIMS-CRMP Stories

RIMScast Canada — Episodes Now Live

RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy

RISKWORLD 2026 Presentations Available via Attendee Service Center — www.RIMS.org/Asc - and via the RIMS Events App

Press Release: "RIMS Risk Manager of the Year Award Goes to Prologis Head of Global Risk Jeff Bray, Honor Roll to Emily Buckley"

Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops:

RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep | June 9‒10

RIMS-CRMP-FED Exam Prep with AFERM | June 16‒17, 2026

Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule

See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops

Upcoming RIMS Webinars: RIMS.org/Webinars

Related RIMScast Episodes: "Live from RISKWORLD 2026!"

"RIMS Risk Manager of the Year Jeff Bray"

"RIMS Rising Risk Professional Award Winner Tyler Vaughan"

"Sports, Spotlight, and Risk Leadership with Rich Lenkov, Founder and CEO of SERMA"

"Supply and Bike Chains with Emily Buckley" (2024)

"Absence Management with Ondrea Matthews"

Sponsored RIMScast Episodes:

"AI-Scale, Risk Ready: Engineering Controls for the New Data Center Boom" (New!) | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company

"Facing Into Risk: Navigating the New Risk Landscape" (New!) | Sponsored by AXA XL

"Secondary Perils, Major Risks: The New Face of Weather-Related Challenges" | Sponsored by AXA XL

"The ART of Risk: Rethinking Risk Through Insight, Design, and Innovation" | Sponsored by Alliant

"Mastering ERM: Leveraging Internal and External Risk Factors" | Sponsored by Diligent

"Cyberrisk: Preparing Beyond 2025" | Sponsored by Alliant

"The New Reality of Risk Engineering: From Code Compliance to Resilience" | Sponsored by AXA XL

"Change Management: AI's Role in Loss Control and Property Insurance" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company

"Demystifying Multinational Fronting Insurance Programs" | Sponsored by Zurich

"Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding" | Sponsored by Zurich

"What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog

"Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping" | Sponsored by Medcor

"How Insurance Builds Resilience Against An Active Assailant Attack" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog

"Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips" | Sponsored by Alliant

RIMS Publications, Content, and Links:

RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community!

RIMS Virtual Workshops

On-Demand Webinars

RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP)

RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy

RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center

RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Manny Padilla!

RIMS Events, Education, and Services:

RIMS Risk Maturity Model®

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