Building Brave Futures

Becky Brown stands out in the Shared Assessments’ community – her aquamarine hair color is easy to spot in a crowd and her approachable demeanor invites further conversation.

Brown came to her first Shared Assessments’ Summit at the start of her TPRM career. Attending Summit while being new to risk was very helpful to Brown because she was able to solidify her understanding of the TPRM lifecycle. By engaging with other practitioners in risk management in different industries, Brown gained an understanding of a wider range of terminology.

“Across Shared Assessments events, you will run into a wide variety of practitioners working across industries. These industries handle a vast array of types of vendors – from shoe companies to concert production companies and financial services. But, at the core, we are all doing the same thing – trying to build excellent relationships,” shares Brown.

Brown serves as Program Manager for Third Party Risk Management for SEI. She leads a team of analysts who each have assessments they review by domain or area of expertise.

As a self-proclaimed “natural worrier,” Brown often wonders in and outside of work “what actually is the worst thing that could happen?” Brown sees her anxious spirit as contribution to the ideal temperament for approaching TPRM.

Deep Respect For TPRM

Before she worked in TPRM, Brown attended a lunch-and-learn session with SEI’s former Chief Risk Officer Rhonda Cook (now a cherished Shared Assessments SME). Brown left this formative session with a sense of possibility and an understanding that the work of TPRM was vital to SEI’s success and security. Since working in TPRM, Brown understands a nuanced and interconnected landscape.

“In risk management, I like that scenarios are rarely black or white. There is lots of gradation or gray – and it’s an active job to figure out how to build viable relationships in a dynamic environment,” describes Brown. Brown sees TPRM as the marriage of an executive or business function with customer service; TPRM is really meant to build stronger relationships.

Love of Learning

As an engaged and animated risk practitioner, Brown says “I love how much I am learning!” Shared Assessments is totally onboard with supporting Brown’s journey of discovery in risk management. Becky Brown completed her Certified Third-Party Risk Professional Certification (CTPRP) early in her career. The CTPRP designation from Shared Assessments is a professional credential designed to validate knowledge, experience and proficiency in the design, structure, and implementation of a comprehensive TPRM program. Brown reflects that she “would love to sit for the CTPRP again and come back to it again at this later point in my career to apply the lessons as a more mature practitioner.” She views the risk domain education provided in the CTPRP as being “a great reminder of a systematic approach to risk management.”

Instead of retaking the CTPRP, Brown advanced to take the Certified Third-Party Risk Assessor (CTPRA) certification recently. The CTPRA is a professional credential that validates expertise, decision making and proficiency in third-party risk and controls evaluation. The program includes the processes for identifying, quantifying, and mitigating third-party risk within an organization’s TPRM program.

Beyond participating in Shared Assessments’ education and event offerings, SEI’s enterprise risk team uses a standards document for vendor risk management which is mapped to the Shared Assessments Standardized Information Gathering Questionnaire (SIG).

Rewarding Relationships In Risk

As SEI’s membership with Shared Assessments “just keeps going and is very rewarding,” our relationship with Becky Brown and SEI grows. Brown (with the blue hair) is a breath of fresh air upholding the greater power of risk management we believe in here at Shared Assessments. Risk management is a relationship business and our members, like Becky Brown at SEI, contribute to creating a more secure and resilient world for all.