Joanne Bronish
Joanne Bronish is the founder and CEO of Proactive Risk Solutions, LLC, a firm dedicated to transforming how organizations approach quality, performance, and operational risk. With more than two decades of experience in risk management, she specializes in aligning key performance indicators with operational friction to create proactive, real-time risk monitoring systems. Her work focuses on helping organizations move away from reactive risk management programs toward anticipatory strategies that improve quality, reduce internal costs, and enhance profitability.
Joanne’s career began at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, where she worked in accounting, operational supervision, and project management, implementing frameworks like COSO for financial and operational risk assessment. She later joined Key Bank NA as Vice President of Risk Management, where she developed operational risk frameworks based on Basel Accord requirements, designed risk assessment processes, and led GRC system implementation. These experiences laid the foundation for her expertise in linking operational risk, quality management, and business strategy.
A graduate of Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management with an MBA, Joanne also holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from Cleveland State University. She is the author of Risk Management and Key Performance Indicators and frequently shares her insights through publications, speaking engagements, and free educational Zoom presentations, helping organizations understand that sustainable profitability relies on proactive risk management, quality culture, and strategic KPI alignment.
• Cleveland State University- B.A.
• Case Western Reserve University - Weatherhead School of Management- M.B.A.
• Marquis Who's Who
What do you attribute your success to?
I would say I am a good researcher and an analytical person, and I think utilizing those skills has gotten me far because I'm always looking for something better, looking for another way to do it, looking for an answer, looking for more information. I don't let something go, which drives a lot of people crazy. I'm always looking to improve the process, and not only that, but always looking to learn something new. I'm a lifelong learner. Just like this whole thing with AI, I've been trying to really get a handle on it, not from the standpoint that I'm going to be working on the tech side of it, but understanding just what it is, and what some of the potential risks are for it, and how companies might be using it, getting a general understanding of how it works so you can decide just where it might be useful and not only that, but where it might have a problem for you.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I really think if you want to do risk management, you have to be able to ask the right questions. Learning to listen and learning to analyze what you're hearing are probably the two biggest things that people have to learn. It's not something that you can be taught in school. I always say you either have it or you don't. Anybody can pick up my book and say, okay, now I know what risk management is, I know all the components, I know the rating scale, I know this. But remember I made the comment early on that those are all based on what I call traditional risk management, and in today's world, traditional risk management just doesn't fly. It's not quick enough, it's not flexible enough, and it's become nothing more than a rubber stamp program. Those have to be replaced with something that's more dynamic and more reasonable, and that people can really wrap their head around so that it becomes part of the way you think, not just something on a piece of paper that somebody's asking you. I think being flexible, being analytical, those are the key skills.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
People try to assume that risk management is a methodology that you can learn. You can learn, yes, what is the risk, what is the control, how do you test, all of these things. But the real challenge is that traditional risk management in today's world just doesn't fly. It's not quick enough, it's not flexible enough, and it's become nothing more than a rubber stamp program. These traditional programs are outdated and old. They're reactive. You could have an error in place for six, seven, eight months until audit comes and finds it, or your customers start screaming at you about something. The biggest opportunity is replacing these with something that's more dynamic and more reasonable, something that people can really wrap their head around so that it becomes part of the way you think, not just something on a piece of paper. That's why I created a program that's more proactive, aligning operational frictions or risks with the proper key performance indicators so everybody gets dashboards and can see when key performance indicators reach target levels and start looking at what could be going wrong. Along with the idea of risk and quality and all these things, there has got to be a strategic goal for open communication, and there has to be a champion at the top who's willing to put themselves on the line to make this work. Without those two things to start, no matter what your project be, at risk or anything else, you're dead in the water.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty, respect, and being fair would be the values that come to mind first. Even when I was a supervisor, those were the things I knew were most important. If you treat people fairly, if you tell them the truth, if you respect them, and you can listen to them and their point of view, those are the important things.