Risk Management: Brick by Brick
Is ERM Just "Stapled to the Back of the Strategy Report"? with Chrystina Howard
November 4, 2026
In this episode of Risk Management: Brick by Brick, host Jason Reichl sits down with Chrystina Howard, ERM Leader in the Complex Risks Practice at HUB International. Chrystina shares her expertise on managing layered, complex corporate exposures and breaks down why enterprise risk management (ERM) should be a dynamic decision-support engine rather than an afterthought "stapled to the back of the strategy report." Discover why buying fancy risk tech platforms before establishing organizational practice causes "the tail to wag the dog," and how keeping ERM simple, structured, and cross-collaborative builds true internal accountability. Chrystina highlights real-world wins—from diffusing community fallout during an electric bus battery manufacturer's expansion to aligning logistics, engineering, and marketing teams against global tariff pressures. She also dives into why human capital remains an organization’s greatest asset and largest blind spot, how M&A introduces rapid integration risk, and the exact analytical framework risk leaders must use to prove ROI and premium value directly to the CFO. To find out how TrustLayer manages risk so that people can build the physical world around us, head to TrustLayer.io. Podcast Host: Jason Reichl Executive Producer: Don Halliwell
In this episode of Risk Management: Brick by Brick, host Jason Reichl sits down with Chrystina Howard, ERM Leader in the Complex Risks Practice at HUB International. Chrystina shares her expertise on managing layered, complex corporate exposures and breaks down why enterprise risk management (ERM) should be a dynamic decision-support engine rather than an afterthought "stapled to the back of the strategy report."

Discover why buying fancy risk tech platforms before establishing organizational practice causes "the tail to wag the dog," and how keeping ERM simple, structured, and cross-collaborative builds true internal accountability. Chrystina highlights real-world wins—from diffusing community fallout during an electric bus battery manufacturer's expansion to aligning logistics, engineering, and marketing teams against global tariff pressures. She also dives into why human capital remains an organization’s greatest asset and largest blind spot, how M&A introduces rapid integration risk, and the exact analytical framework risk leaders must use to prove ROI and premium value directly to the CFO.

To find out how TrustLayer manages risk so that people can build the physical world around us, head to TrustLayer.io.

Podcast Host: Jason Reichl
Executive Producer: Don Halliwell


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Previous guests include: Seth Hausman of Kraus-Anderson Insurance, Matthew Meyer of The Horton Group, Diana Rich of Foundation Building Materials, Christy McHenry of Suffolk Construction, Mark Rieder of NFP, and Cory Mangum of Primoris Services Corporation. 

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