Now three months into his role as UW’s first ever Chief Risk Officer (CRO), Jon Mason will play a key role in kicking off UW’s 2024 approach to risk management through his ongoing work and long-term goals for institutional protection.
“I am extremely grateful and honoured,” Mason said, on how he feels to be the first person to take on the position. “It is a privilege to work for such a prestigious university, and I will not take it lightly.”
He was officially appointed on Dec. 11, 2023. In his first few months as CRO, Mason invested time understanding UW’s current governance framework and associated policies, while exploring the campus and meeting key leaders at the university.
Mason noted that among the first priorities of his position will be to establish the Risk & Compliance team at UW under the VP of Finance & Administration and manage the corporate insurance program, compliance framework, and business continuity at UW.
When asked how the new role was formed, Mason said that the president and leadership team recognized the need for a risk leadership position to enable a stronger risk culture and risk practices. “In addition, many colleges and universities around the world are implement[ing] risk management frameworks and positions, and UW is looking to align with best practices,” Mason said.
Just before coming to UW, Mason worked at Conestoga College as the Executive Director of Governance & Risk. Before that, he worked as the Manager of Enterprise Risk & Insurance for Sheridan College from 2018 to 2021. He has more than 15 years of experience in the risk management field, and is a Certified Risk Management Professional (CRMP) and Certified Internal Auditor (CIA). Mason also holds a bachelor of business administration (BBA) from Roanoke College (based in Virginia, U.S.) and a master of business administration (MBA) from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Mason’s background and education position him strongly to lead UW’s ongoing efforts to mitigate emergencies and protect students and staff from complex security and financial challenges faced by leading universities. This way, UW can “continue to deliver top-quality education and provide a rewarding campus experience for students,” Mason remarked.
In 2015, UW’s Secretariat Office initiated the University Risk Management (URM) Program through the adoption of Policy 11 – University Risk Management, which set out to implement a series of best practices for risk management, adhering to the regulations, controls and reporting guidelines established at institutions of similar size and complexity. With continued turbulent times ahead, “the leadership team and board at UWaterloo believe that a dynamic risk management framework will enable key risk discussions and practices to enhance controls, manage costs, and enable the prioritization of strategic objectives,” Mason said.
Mason hopes to supplement the existing strategies of the URM program with the introduction of new risk assessment tools and a new emerging risk process for anticipating future threats to UW across areas of cyber security, financial sustainability, data governance, IT infrastructure and systems, enrollment, and compliance. “The addition of the CRO role and a new Risk & Compliance Team, should enable further resources, focus and awareness of risk management across the institution and up to the board level,” Mason said.
In addition, a new Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework will be developed, building on principles from the URM and incorporating a mix of leading frameworks (COSO 2017 and ISO 31000). “My hope is that the ERM framework will enable a risk aware culture which breaks down silos to enable productive risk and strategic discussions. This will lead to more efficient, consistent operations and the critical planning of potential risks and unexpected events,” Mason said.
While Mason believes it is important for UW to take on certain risks to remain a competitive leader in the higher education sector, his role will ensure UW is “able to identify and manage risks to seek an adequate risk versus reward balance for our students and community,” Mason said.
While he could not share current examples as part of his work now while he is settling into the role, he did share that this could hypothetically mean a partnership agreement with a third party international university, or leasing part of the university lands to a third party to generate revenue. “In both cases we would be taking on risk by opening ourselves up to particular third parties,” Mason said, listing contractual risk, reputational risk, and financial risk as examples. Despite the risks, he added that UW “could be rewarded by obtaining new students in a particular international region, research/academic enhancements, revenue generation, etc.”
Mason would also like students to know that “risk management is a growing field with career opportunities on the rise” and students should consider it in their future professional endeavors.
With files from Veronica Reiner.
