Learn more about our CEO Val Jonas!

Join us as our CEO answered our questions to get to know her better!

My background is…

Interesting! When I finished school, I took 5 consecutive gap years to travel around the world. This was in the days when gap years and round-the-world tickets didn’t exist. When I came back, I was the first female Computer Science graduate at Oxford University, on their first computer science course. Out of five women, two of us completed the course. I only just got my degree certificate last week!

My role means…

I get to steer the company through calm and stormy waters. I live and breathe our company values, and I’m aware how the decisions I make affect everyone else.  As CEO, my role is to listen and ask questions and make sure everyone has what they need to do their job effectively. My door is always open.

I got into risk management because…

It sounded more interesting than the other software engineering jobs I was offered – I was intrigued. It’s a topic that continues to fascinate me as I see how it can transform a business.

I’m excited to be leading the team because…

I have a whole team of intelligent people to be creative with and at the same time, I get to shape and prioritise a lot of what we do. I include our customers in this as working collaboratively to navigate their risk journey is very much an ethos for Risk Decisions.

I believe Risk Decisions makes a difference by…

We focus on and listen to our customers.  We aim to really understand the root cause of their problems and find good, simple solutions. For us, it’s about learning and sharing, all the time.

I invest in myself by…

Keeping fit, planning and going on adventures – my husband and I travel quite a lot.

If I wasn’t in this role I’d…

Like to be a photographer, capturing real-life situations and writing a blog about it.

Next for me at Risk Decisions is…

Taking risk to a higher level. I want to work more with senior managers in the business to harness risk to shape the future.

When I’m not at work…

I’m in the garden, being a very amateur gardener … I use TLC to make up for incompetence. I try things out and see what happens. Gardens produce amazing surprises and I do everything from weeding to chain-sawing.