View Christian Hunt's ProfileWhen things go wrong, there’s always a human component — causing the problem or making it worse. We think of people as assets, but they’re also the single largest driver of risks. So how can we get the best out of our employees while minimising the risks they pose?
I call this ‘human risk’, and I help my clients manage it by deploying behavioural science to understand the real drivers of human decision-making.
My background is in financial services (FS), though I work across various sectors. I was COO of one of the UK’s FS regulators and Global Head of Compliance & Operational Risk for UBS Asset Management, which gave me a unique perspective from both sides of the regulatory fence.
In my Compliance role at UBS, I realised that we were in the business of influencing human decision-making – you can’t just tell an organisation to be compliant. It’s the employees you need to influence. To be effective, we needed to think about how people were likely to behave rather than how we would like them to behave. By thinking behaviourally, we could build ethics and compliance programs that were more effective by design! That innovation led to the creation of the role of Head of Behavioural Science for me.
Today, I use that experience to support my clients in delivering effective and innovative solutions to human risk. I’m passionate about helping the Compliance & Ethics community learn more about Behavioural Science & vice versa, and I love sharing ideas through videos and blogs. I also host and produce the Human Risk podcast – a series of over 100 episodes (& counting!) where I speak to academics, behavioural science practitioners and those with personal experience of human risk.
When I’m not mitigating human risk, you’ll find me riding motorbikes, watching movies, indulging my passion for good food and travelling to unusual places like Chernobyl. If Bayern Munich plays, I’ll be watching — ideally in the stadium.
