NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Treasury Department is proud to announce that Rodney Escobar, Director of the Division of Claims and Risk Management, was awarded the Public Risk Management Association (PRIMA)’s 2017 Public Risk Manager of the Year Award.
Treasury’s Division of Claims and Risk Management is responsible for identifying the State’s exposure to property and casualty risks and determining the appropriate risk control methods to protect against monetary loss due to unforeseen events. The division administers the State’s workers compensation, tort liability, risk management and loss prevention, and property and insurance programs for 41 state government agencies, 49 institutions of higher learning and more.
Escobar received this award on June 5th at the PRIMA Annual Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, for his division’s work in a variety of loss prevention measures, including a risk assessment that re-allocated resources to reduce the State workers’ compensation programs’ total incurred costs from $17.8 million in FY12 to $11 million in FY17.This reflects a 38 percent saving to the state.
“Treasury strives to be a leader both in our state and nationally,” said State Treasurer David H. Lillard, Jr., “This accomplishment shows leadership and dedication to constantly improving our State. Rodney Escobar and his team have worked diligently to better understand areas where we are vulnerable to losses and have put measures in place that have saved us millions of dollars.”
Since he was hired in 2013, Director Escobar has made customer service to the State and its citizens a priority. He has worked with agencies and intuitions across the state to asses risk and protect resources. He has worked to implement and improve programs within the division, including the state insurance program, which covers 7,000 state buildings, various works of art, machinery, cyber liabilities and more.
Escobar’s work also includes the development of a statewide return-to-work program. This began with a successful pilot program with the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) in September 2014. This success has led to the program’s expansion across the state, helping position Tennessee as a leader in saving taxpayer dollars.
Additionally, Tennessee received PRIMA’s Outstanding Achievement Award for the development of a statewide Cyber Incident Response Plan (CIRP).
PRIMA represents all public sector risk managers and is the largest public association in the country, with more than 2,000 members in over 1,800 jurisdictions.
Escobar is also Secretary of the Tennessee Board of Claims, serves on the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency Committee and the State Cyber Committee and was named Risk Manager of the Year as a member of the Tennessee PRIMA Chapter.
Watch this video to learn more about Escobar and the Public Risk Manager of the Year Award.