My IRMI Story | Risk Manager Charles Gillenwater

As the Risk Manager for the City of Mesquite, Charles "Buddy" Gillenwater has a lot of risks to manage, and there's a lot at stake. As a public entity risk manager, he works collaboratively with every city department and division, and often with community stakeholders that include other local governments, state officials, the federal government, residents, and business interests. On a day-to-day basis, Buddy must assess risk and figure out how to mitigate it. He does that by buying insurance, transferring the risk, or avoiding it all together—and IRMI provides his road map. He's got more vendors than you can count on both hands, and his projects range from painting a room to building bridges. Listen to how Buddy uses IRMI to stay on top of his game.

A Recognized Industry Standard

"If I didn’t have the IRMI publications, I would have to go out and do a lot of face-to-face contacts or calls and rely on people that may not be able to provide the input that I need to make a well-rounded, reasoned decision."

"As far as industry standards, I always tell the executives I work with that IRMI is a recognized industry standard when it comes to evaluating exposure, coverage, contractual risk transfer … they are one of those that is recognized as being an expert resource, and that helps tremendously."

Biography

Protecting the people, property, and reputation that makes the city of Mesquite, Texas, a better place to live, work, and do business is mission critical for Risk Manager Charles "Buddy" Gillenwater. With 155,000 residents and 1,100 employees, Mesquite occupies over 60 square miles in Dallas and Kaufman Counties. 

Prior to working at the city of Mesquite, Mr. Gillenwater provided risk services to large self-insured organizations, including publicly traded global corporations. Additionally, he worked with a variety of private and public organizations throughout North America as a risk services consultant. 

Mr. Gillenwater is a past president of the Dallas/Fort Worth Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS), and director emeritus of the Texas Public Risk Management Association. In 2016, D Magazine recognized Mr. Gillenwater as a “Top Risk Manager” as well as among the “500” most influential business people in the North Texas region.