When Jennifer Santiago talks about risk mitigation, she conveysa genuine sense of responsibility to the lives affected in theprocess. For her, it's not about statistics — it's aboutpeople.

As the newly appointed director of risk management andinvestigations for Novartis Pharmaceutical Corp., Santiago istaking on an even more challenging role in the business ofcorporate risk mitigation.

“Caring and curing is the mission of the company,” she says.“We're in the business of saving and extending lives.” One of thecompany's core values, she explains, is acknowledging “how a'normal' life is extraordinary, and you don't realize just howextraordinary it is until you become ill. That changes your wholelife, and you just want that 'normal' back.”

The perspective she shares isn't surprising; Santiago has spentyears managing risk at several institutions devoted to health andwellness. Her mother, Andrea, managed a general medical practice inFair Haven, N.J., and her daughter was exposed to the business ofhealthcare at an early age. Experiencing the impact of aneffectively applied response in order to improve quality of lifeleft an indelible impression.

After graduating from Rutgers University, upon her mother'ssuggestion Santiago took a job with medical malpractice insurancecompany Medical Inter-Insurance Exchange in Lawrenceville, N.J., asa medical representative, counseling doctors on how to avoidmedical malpractice lawsuits. “If a patient stormed out, forexample, saying they weren't going to follow medical advice, wewould be drafting a letter dismissing them from care,” she says.“In addition, if a physician did get sued, I would go to theirdepositions, be present at their trials and the entire process. I'dbe involved in any investigation.”

The position proved to be her introduction to the world of riskmanagement. “It felt pretty natural, and from there I segued intoNYU.”

Wisdom gained

In 1996 Santiago started at New York University Medical Centerin Manhattan, where within three years she ascended the ranks tobecome director of insurance. “I really liked the academic medicalcenter environment,” she says, noting her involvement in severalpatient-safety committees and day-to-day interactions with medicalstaff. She also enjoyed leading people and being a part of theirprofessional development.

NYU retained a Bermuda-based captive insurance company for itsphysicians, which provided her first exposure to working withcaptives. “I thought this was a very cool way to finance risk,” shesays of her initial experience managing a captive. “In its truesense, you are using your own money, not a third-party insurancecompany's—and that puts a different perspective on managing risk toavoid the payment of losses. I always considered it my 'own' moneyto protect, and this dovetailed nicely with my passion for managingrisk.”

Working at NYU, Santiago says, afforded her the lesson thatinsurance-buying decisions vary greatly by company, “and accordingto the philosophy of the ultimate buyer who is either the CFO orwhomever the risk insurance function reports into,” she relates.“It's really a question of how much risk you want to take and howmuch you want to transfer, and I have found that many companiesprefer to transfer as much as possible to protect the balance sheeteven when they can afford to take more risk and manage that riskeffectively.”

Additionally, at NYU Santiago learned the value of putting one'sreporting in the appropriate context. “I'd done an analysis relatedto workers' compensation and the number of injuries among variousemployees,” she recalls. “Clearly, one group had the majority ofthese injuries: the nursing staff, because they lift patients anddeal with a lot of heavy objects.” Despite the number of protocolsin place to deal with those exposures, she adds, “that's where wewould see a lot of back and lifting-related injuries.”

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After releasing her findings that nurses were the employee groupthat saw the highest number of injuries, she recalls, “The head ofnursing came back and said, 'Well obviously, yes. We're the largestemployee population.' She wasn't too thrilled that I hadn't shownit in the perspective of how many people were employed at thecenter, which was a very fair statement. Lesson learned.”

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Time for a change

In June 2001 Santiago had her first child, and she went back towork on Monday, Sept. 10. She witnessed the destruction on 9/11while her baby slept at home in New Jersey, and from then onworking in Manhattan felt different; the energy level was not thesame. She continued to work in the city for another year, and thendecided it was time for a change.

“There was a brokerage in Montclair, N.J., called William H.Connolly & Co.,” Santiago recalls. “They have a very goodreputation for hospitals and pharma in the New Jersey area, andthey specialized in risk management insurance. I drove by and Ithought, 'Hmm, this seems like a nice place to work.' So I went inand I gave them my resume. I think within a day or so, theycontacted me.

“I explained to them, 'I don't have a broker's license,'” shesays. “They said, 'Don't worry, we're going to send you toschool.'”

After a month of instruction, Santiago took her exams and becamelicensed for property & casualty as well as life &health.

“That was quite a different environment,” she says. For example,when the brokerage was trying to gain the business of a newhospital, Santiago would go along on those sales visits. It wastime spent generating new business and servicing accounts, thelatter of which “is really where I was probably more comfortableand excelled more,” she adds.

“I believe one of my strengths as a broker was selling accountsto insurance companies,” Santiago notes. “It had something to dowith the fact that I could forecast and predict the potential risksof the business activities, and then present the information insuch a way as to address those risks and allay any concerns. I, ofcourse, had to believe that those risks were being managed andwould provide guidance to the business on the 'how' and the 'why.'It would be difficult for me to sell an account in which I haddoubts regarding their business practices.

“I like to try to solve people's problems and find solutions,”she adds. “The flip side of that is, if they didn't really need tobuy insurance, I would be the one to tell them — and that's when Irealized brokerage was really not for me, because we were supposedto be selling insurance. I'd say, 'Listen, we can mitigate thatrisk. I know you can manage it.' I guess I'm a better risk managerthan a salesperson.”

Still, Santiago's brokerage experience — understanding terms,conditions and endorsements, underwriting considerations,appropriate pricing and myriad other policy details — gave her aserious leg up in the business of risk management, where many riskpros often depend on their brokers for such perspective.

“A lot of people in risk management who haven't done brokeragedon't know the meat and potatoes of insurance,” she says. “Ilearned a lot, and from an employer standpoint, they appreciatethat I could bring that technical aspect.”

During her brokerage tenure, William H. Connolly & Co. wasacquired by Arthur J. Gallagher, which brought several changes tothe organization. “It was interesting, and a great experience,” sheconcludes, “but I wanted to go back to the risk managementside.”

Santiago did so in June 2007 when she joined industrial companyIngersoll Rand, where she broadened her scope to include moreglobal experience.

“Ingersoll Rand was a large corporation, a global corporation,”she says. While initially focused on managing domestic risks,Santiago requested more assignments pertaining to foreignterritories.

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“They were willing to give me enough rope to see how I could do,and to me, it was just the next challenge,” she says. Santiagofound herself placing coverage around the world through thecompany's network of brokers.

She recalls that there was much discussion at that time by riskmanagers around the need for purchasing Directors' & Officers'liability in various territories abroad. “We were always buying itin the U.S., but what were we supposed to be doing around theworld?” says Santiago. “We thought it was a good idea to understandwhat the local laws required from the standpoint of indemnifyingthe directors and officers in the country. Once we understood thatlanguage, we would determine whether a policy was a good idea ornot.

“So I set up a matrix with each country, and had the languagenoted, and then [went through] a decision tree as to whether weshould buy or not,” she adds. Brazil, Russia and India were amongthe nations in which D&O was purchased.

There is a certain degree of serendipity to Santiago's careermoves; many of them seem to have placed her in the right place atexactly the right time, her choices made intuitively. “I thinkpeople need to trust their intuition more,” she says, conceding thepoint. “Maybe for some, that intuition is more developed than inothers. I've always lived under the premise of trusting your gutand [analyzing] how your body responds and acts to things.

“It's not always perfect, it's not always right,” she adds, “butprobably 9 times out of 10 it is. If it's not, you make themistake, learn from it, and you probably don't make the mistakeagain the second time.”

Other than the time she spent at Ingersoll Rand, she says, “Ithink for me, the healthcare theme clearly runs through my career.I kept coming back to it, and to be honest, I'm not sure that I didthat consciously or not.”

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By comparison, she adds, “I think my decision to join Novartiswas more conscious, because when you work for an organization andreally believe in what they do, for me it does make a difference,so that was important.” Feeling that her work does in a real waycontribute to the well-being of those the company serves, “thattells me, OK, what I'm doing every day is worthwhile.”

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A new journey

In her time at Novartis, Santiago has been credited with several“wins,” not the least of which was closing down a large U.S.captive gained through an acquisition that was done under a verytight timeline shortly after joining the company in 2011.

“Management was clear that this was a difficult project, andthey were concerned about my success and meeting the timeline,” shesays. “From developing the project plan, the stakeholder map, theobjectives, deliverables and timeline, we moved through the projectwithout catching our breath until it was completed satisfactorilyand on schedule.

“It was very rewarding to see the finish line, and really niceto receive the recognition for the team,” she adds. “This was agood example of how to lead and empower people who are not yourdirect reports and still get them to do their part of the work forthe common good.”

Product liability, compliance, FDA approvals and cyber liability— a particularly serious risk for those who would store any type ofmedical data — are all part of risk mitigation for pharmaceuticalcompanies. Santiago's newest role as director of risk managementand investigations, she says, “is more about identifying,assessing, mitigating and managing healthcare risk. These are risksin the way we do business, and I am really excited to delve deeperinto this area.”

Santiago keeps one key theme in mind in her work at Novartis,and endeavors to instill it in all who work there: Every employeeis a risk manager. “I think people are aware of theirresponsibility, people are accountable to their role. And certainlyfrom my perspective, that's a message that I'll drive and continueto drive as I go forward, as long as they'll have me,” she adds.“I'm excited to kick off this next phase in my journey.”

Of membership and service

It was in 1999 when Jennifer Santiago first became aware ofRIMS. “I saw the advertisements for this great conference andthought, 'I've got to check this out.' I got the approval to go andthe keynote speaker was Colin Powell, and it was in Dallas.

“It was such an amazing experience,” she recalls of the 37thannual conference and exhibition. “I remember standing outsidewaiting for them to open the doors so we could go in for thekeynote, and there were just thousands of people. I think the powerof that spoke to me, and I said, 'This is really an industry that Iwant to be a part of.' The education and networking that wereoffered at the conferences were tremendous.”

Santiago became a RIMS member. “I stayed in it from then on andI met folks along the way who said, 'We have these committees andcouncils and we'd like you to get involved.'” She joined theQuality Advisory Council, “and before I knew it I was thevice-chair and the chair.”

She joined RIMS' board in 2014 and in 2015 she was asked tobecome an officer. “I was a director for the first year and movedinto the officer role last year as a secretary, and this year I'mthe treasurer,” she notes. “I consider it a privilege to be on it,I'll serve in whatever capacity they like.”

First impressions

In November, Jennifer Santiago was given the opportunity toparticipate in the Spencer Educational Foundation's Risk Manager inResidence Program, which awards a grant of up to $4,000 to collegesand universities to cover transportation, housing and incidentalcosts for a lecturing risk manager who takes the time to sharetheir experience with students.

At Temple University in Philadelphia, she spent nearly threedays speaking before more than 10 classes, and met with nearly 10professors in between. “It was an amazing experience,” she says.“You're in front of students who might not necessarily be decidedon risk management as a career. Maybe they're on the fence orundecided, and then you're explaining to them, 'Here's what I do.This is my life, this is what I do every day.'”

The students were far more polished than she could haveexpected. “They were very impressive,” says Santiago, noting theirverbal skills when asking intelligent career questions and theirimpeccable table manners.

“They prep the students so well,” she says. “I think about whenI was that age, you'd hear, 'Get a job, clean yourself up, go buy ajacket.' These students know what they're interested in, and inlarge part they know what path they want to go down.”

Santiago came home to some 30 LinkedIn connection requests fromstudents. “Some were reaching out for advice, some were reachingout for introductions to people; I thought that's the least I coulddo.

“These students don't have the hands-on knowledge yet, but theycertainly have the technical information, and you just see theinterest and the hunger and the drive that they possess,” she adds.“We need to better understand what the next generation's needsare.”

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