Presenting the Risk Awards 2002

The third annual Risk Awards dinner on February 28 at the Regent Hotel on Wall Street in New York was a great success. More than 300 senior derivatives and risk management specialists honoured those individuals and firms whose work in 2001 merited recognition.

Risk Waters Group chose the Wall Street location to commemorate those lost nearby on September 11. The evening raised more than $160,000 for the Risk Waters Group World Trade Center Foundation.

Don Wilson, co-head of credit and interest rates at JP Morgan Chase, who accepted Risk’s award for derivatives house, interest rates derivatives house and credit derivatives house of the year, said, “As an institution we are proud to be here to help honour the people who died on September 11. JP Morgan is also honoured to gather this evening in the company of other leaders of the industry.”

Oldrich Vasicek, Risk’s lifetime achiever for his work developing interest rates and credit models, said, “I’ve been lucky to have been in a field with so many problems, and so much talent.”

Dominic Chianese, aka Uncle Junior in ‘The Sopranos’, was compere for the raffle and offered a few impromptu songs. Guy Bennett, vice-president for impressionist and modern art at Christie’s, brought down his gavel on auctions of artwork, holidays and sports tickets.