Colorado University Gets Support for ERM and Insurance Program

The College of Business at Colorado State University is a step closer to launching a program to train students in the insurance and risk management fields thanks to a $150,000 gift from the IMA Foundation.

The Enterprise Risk Management and Insurance program will encompass new coursework within the finance concentration taught by CSU’s faculty, while serving as a center to provide a conduit for industry collaboration on outreach, education and research.

The gift from IMA will be used in part to support creation of the program and in part to help endow scholarships for undergraduate students specializing in ERMI, according to an announcement from CSU.

The target date for the launch of the ERMI curriculum is fall semester 2014, according to Vickie Bajtelsmit, finance professor and director of the master’s program in financial risk management, who will be charged with leading the new program.

“The identification and assessment of collective risk to firms has evolved into an important mainstream business discipline, yet there is a definite shortage of academic programs addressing ERMI in the U.S. and especially in our region,” she said. “For several years, our department has seen risk management as an overarching theme throughout the finance curriculum. The ERMI component is an important one that we look forward to implementing with the support of partners like IMA.”

The IMA Foundation was created shortly after the creation of the company, and historically has been funded with the employee-owned company’s profits. The IMA Financial Group Inc. is a diversified financial services company specializing in risk management, insurance and employee benefits, and has nearly 500 employees and offices in seven markets across the nation.

Topics Education Universities Colorado Risk Management