Paul J. Sobel was approaching a crossroads in his longcareer when Georgia-PacificCorp came calling to ask him to serve as its chief auditexecutive. Sobel previously performed the same role at three otherpublic companies—two in the energy business and one inpublishing—and before that was a partner at the late accountingfirm Arthur Andersen, leaving just prior to its collapse. “I reallyknew very little about the paper, pulp and building productsindustry, but G-P put a great opportunity in front of me,” heexplains.

The opportunity was to develop a methodology for enterprise riskmanagement at the Atlanta-based manufacturer. Sobel is something ofan ERM pioneer. He first learned about this holistic process foridentifying, assessing and mitigating potential risk exposures inthe 1990s at Andersen, and in 2003, wrote one of the first books onthe subject from an auditor's perspective—“Auditor's Risk Management Guide: IntegratingAuditing and ERM.” Sobel also implemented ERM at Mirant Corp.and Aquila, his two previous employers.

“I've always tried to approach ERM in a more practical thantheoretical way, and writing the book helped me to demystify it andmake it a bit more contextual and understandable,” he says. “I nowthink I can apply it to most types of organizations, not just banksand energy companies.”