Penny Cagan

Penny Cagan was elected to the WCC Board in September 2023. She is an experienced risk professional with a career that has spanned Operational Risk, Compliance, Consulting, Research and Risk Technology leadership roles. She is considered a pioneer in the field of Operational Risk Management and has received industry recognition, including achievement awards for “Outstanding Contribution to Operational Risk” and “Ten Years of Excellence” from Operational Risk & Regulation Magazine. She knows from her extensive experience working with a variety of financial institutions what works in the real world from a risk, governance, and regulatory perspective.

Penny most recently served as Managing Director and Head of Operational Risk for UBS Americas, where she was responsible for managing the operational risk and control environment in the region and across the bank’s businesses and functions, including Wealth Management, Asset Management, and Investment Banking. She managed through a series of examinations, with no resulting regulatory or audit findings, and has a deep understanding of how to balance regulatory and policy requirements with strategic endeavors and business considerations.

Penny previously served as Head of Operational Risk and Governance at MUFG Americas, where she was responsible for overseeing the bank’s operational risks in the region. She has also worked as a Senior Advisor at Ernst and Young where she led a variety of projects in the risk and compliance disciplines, including managing the firm’s support for the regulatory horizontal exam of sales practices and conduct risks, operational risk and compliance and money laundering assessments. In prior roles, she served in a global Operational Risk senior oversight role at JPMorgan Chase and built a Compliance Analytics team at Citigroup.

Penny founded an Operational Risk database during the early days of the discipline that became a standard for assessing risks and controls across a variety of financial institutions. She has published widely on the topic of operational risk, and speaks frequently at conferences. She is currently working with a publisher on a book that addresses current and emerging risk topics.

Penny is an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University and teaches in its Enterprise Risk Management Master’s program, where she is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of risk leaders. She is a member of the executive board of Workforce Professional Training Institute (WPTI) where she leads the Risk Committee. She is also a member of the board of Women Creating Change.

Penny has earned a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Rutgers University, a Master’s of Fine Arts from New York University in Creative Writing, and Bachelor’s degree from University of Rochester.