Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

 

In this episode, Justin interviews Kellee Ann Richards-St. Clair, the Vice President, Commercial, Phoenix Park Energy Marketing Limited. Justin and Kellee Ann discuss her target risk career starting in her undergraduate days studying chemistry, to her role as VP of Commercial for a gas supply organization. She describes the range of responsibilities she carries. Kellee Ann also speaks of her presence at the upcoming RIMS ERM Conference 2025 on November 17th and 18th in Seattle, Washington.

 

Listen for understanding about the complexity and interconnectivity of risks in ERM.

 

Key Takeaways:

[:01] About RIMS and RIMScast.

[:17] About this episode of RIMScast. Our guest is Kellee Ann Richards-St. Clair. She is the Vice President of Commercial at Phoenix Park Energy Marketing Limited, and a member of the RIMS Strategic and Enterprise Risk Management Council. There is much to discuss with her! But first…

[:47] The next RIMS-CRMP-FED Virtual Workshop will be held on November 11th and 12th and led by Joseph Mayo. Links to these courses can be found through the Certifications page of RIMS.org and through this episode's show notes.

[1:07 ] RIMS Virtual Workshops! RIMS has launched a new course, "Intro to ERM for Senior Leaders." It will be held again on November 4th and 5th and will be led by Elise Farnham.

[1:21 ] On November 11th and 12th, Chris Hansen will lead "Fundamentals of Insurance". It features everything you've always wanted to know about insurance but were afraid to ask. Fear not; ask Chris Hansen! RIMS members always enjoy deep discounts on the virtual workshops!

[1:40 ] The full schedule of virtual workshops can be found on the RIMS.org/education and RIMS.org/education/online-learning pages. A link is also in this episode's notes.

[1:51 ] RIMS Webinars! On November 6th, HUB will present "Geopolitical Whiplash — Building Resilient Global Risk Programs in an Unstable World". That session will be moderated by Christina Howard, our guest from last week. Register at RIMS.org/Webinars.

[2:08 ] The RIMS ERM Conference 2025 will be on November 17th and 18th in Seattle, Washington. The agenda is live, and the link is available in this episode's show notes.

[2:20 ] That brings us to today's guest, Kellee Ann Richards-St. Clair. She is the Vice President of Commercial at Phoenix Park Energy Marketing Limited, a U.S. subsidiary of Phoenix Park Gas Processors, LLC.

[2:35 ] We're going to learn all about oil, gas, and the energy sector and how it intertwines with ERM. In addition, Kellee Ann will be making her RIMS ERM Conference debut!

[2:48 ] Kellee Ann will be highly visible, especially on November 18th, when she leads the ERM Networking Breakfast, the Conference Finale Panel, and the recently added session at 1:30 p.m. on the 18th, "Exploiting Uncertainty: Making the Business Case for Strategic Risk Treatments."

[3:09 ] That session was added after we recorded this interview, which is why we do not discuss it. Kellee Ann has a fascinating career and background. Between that and her presence at the ERM Conference, she's a wonderful guest, and I'm so glad we had this interview!

[3:23 ] On with the show! Let's get to it!

[3:25 ] Interview! Kellee Ann Richards-St. Clair, welcome to RIMScast!

[3:34 ] Kellee Ann Richards-St. Clair, it's a pleasure to finally have you on our show! 

[3:43 ] Kellee Ann is a relatively new member of the RIMS Strategic and Enterprise Risk Management Council. She will be at the RIMS ERM Conference on November 17th and 18th. She will lead the ERM Networking Breakfast Tabletop Discussions.

[4:12 ] Kellee Ann has a fascinating career, and she works in a unique sector. She's an energy sector professional and works in the oil and gas industry. The key to her embarking on the risk journey was when she did her Master's in Project Management.

[4:36 ] One of the areas was Project Risk Management, to which Kellee Ann had a great affinity. She liked the analytical thinking that goes behind assessing what could likely impact your project.

[4:53 ] Also, the accountability and ownership that goes into the planning phase, making sure that you're thinking of everything that could go wrong, as a means of making sure that you're achieving your objectives.

[5:05 ]  In 2004, Kellee Ann wrote her thesis on implementing enterprise risk management practices into private sector organizations.

[5:15 ] It honed the tools she would use in project risk management with the greater goal of having a large impact on the organization, by impacting strategy and strategy delivery.

[5:33 ] From there, Kellee Ann participated in risk committees in her organization and other organizations, helping them push the risk agenda and making sure they have the right mindset that allows them to make sure that they are achieving their business mandates.

[5:59 ] Kellee Ann always intended to work in the energy sector in oil and gas. Her undergraduate degree is in chemistry. She always liked understanding how things are made and how they function. In the energy space, many of the operations are rooted in chemistry.

[6:22 ] Kellee Ann speaks of the business component of getting the molecules out to market. ERM meshes with her affinity for chemistry, risk management, business, analytical thinking, and understanding how your business model functions and what could likely impact it. 

[7:13 ] Kellee Ann has managed project risk registers for her department, on the commercial side. She is always risk-focused, identifying any threats to the business and incorporating that into contract negotiations, and how she liaises with her stakeholders and customers.

[7:41 ] For Kellee Ann, it was a perfect match, meshing her passion and her job responsibility. In the risk management profession, you get to have a direct impact on the success or failure of your business.

[8:03 ] Kellee Ann is based in Houston with Phoenix Park Energy Marketing Limited, the U.S. subsidiary of Phoenix Park Gas Processors LLC, which is located in Trinidad and Tobago. It's a natural gas processing facility.

[8:23 ] Kellee Ann leads the commercial function of Phoenix Park Energy Marketing Limited. The energy sector is dynamic, impacted by geopolitics, the volatility of market prices, and even other industries, and the investments they make.

[8:37 ] For example, AI requires lots of power to run. For AI development to be successful means heavily investing in power. That's likely to have an impact on commodity prices. Everything is interconnected.

[8:52 ] Interconnected risk is a current process in terms of managing the complexity of the current business environment. The energy sector becomes a good proxy for how you manage complex operations and still run a profitable business, fulfilling its purpose and mission.

[9:16 ] Kellee Ann's mental model of risk management is prudent decision-making. You have to be able to justify to the shareholders that you are leading the organization in the right direction and prove the thinking behind what you are recommending.

[9:42 ] You have to demonstrate the value proposition: This is what will prevent me from implementing my mission, and this is what I'm going to put in place.

[9:51 ] Even though this is preventing a threat, these are the opportunities I'm seeing out of it. This is how I can move the needle a little further, because I'm looking at it from a holistic perspective. I'm no longer looking at it as a separate function. It becomes good business.

[10:16 ] Kellee Ann is not functionally in charge of commercial. She is in charge of the strategic aspects of it. The Risk Management Department focuses on the operational aspects of the business and also feeds in strategic elements.

[10:29 ] Kellee Ann has incorporated ERM into her lifestyle because of her subject matter expertise. She has gotten the opportunity to lecture on enterprise risk management and offer consultancy for private sector organizations that are early adopters in terms of risk maturity.

[10:49 ] Kellee Ann considers that she has a broad experience in risk management, leveraging the tools in each of her job responsibilities.

[11:05 ] Kellee Ann is over enterprise risk management from a strategic perspective. She has a high-level view of all risks likely to impact operations. She ensures that all risk mitigations are in place and makes sure she is exploiting all opportunities the organization would like to embrace.

[11:31 ] There is enterprise risk management expertise within the organization, focused on the functional perspective, while Kellee Ann focuses on the strategic perspective, looking at emerging risks and how they impact the business and the marketability of the product.

[11:49 ]