What makes a good risk manager?

A recent debate in the G31000 risk forum [LINK] on the old subject of what caused the Global Financial Crisis needs a fresh rethink in my opinion.

A fresh look

From the perspective of the Global Financial Crisis; its causes, the mistakes, the flaws in our economic system, the behavior of actors in that very system and its inevitable meltdown has been studied deeply and debated avidly from governments, academics and risk practitioners across the planet. Deliberating on who or what was to blame isn't arcane but that exercise has also been done.

The question that could risk management have done it differently spawns me to post this simple slide and I put forward the argument that the risk manager uniquely had a role to play in the global financial crisis that could have potentially altered the institutional outcome for the banks they worked for.

Figure 1 - What makes a good risk manager | Martin Davies

It's a simple slide but I put it to the risk community; today how many risk managers in banks can honestly say that they tick the eight criteria listed above?