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The Third Party Risk Institute Podcast
Go beyond the headlines with The Third Party Risk Institute Podcast, the official podcast of Third Party Risk Institute.
Each episode brings you into the room with top experts in third-party risk, cybersecurity, procurement, governance, and compliance. Hear how risk leaders tackle real-world challenges, share lessons learned, and stay ahead of evolving threats.
We explore the strategies that work, the mistakes that teach, and the insights you won’t hear anywhere else.
Perfect for risk professionals, procurement leaders, auditors, and decision-makers who want to lead with confidence.
🎧 Subscribe now, new episodes drop monthly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music.
The Third Party Risk Institute Podcast
Financial Health as a Risk Signal: James Gellert on Scalable Intelligence for Third Party Risk
In this episode of The Third Party Risk Institute Podcast, we’re joined by James Gellert, CEO of RapidRatings, to explore how financial health analysis can act as a predictive signal for third-party risk and why it’s more critical than ever in today’s complex vendor ecosystems.
James brings decades of experience in finance, technology, and analytics, and under his leadership, RapidRatings has become a global benchmark in evaluating financial health using objective, statement-based ratings. This conversation dives into how financial data, when analyzed rigorously and presented clearly, empowers risk, procurement, and compliance teams to make proactive, informed decisions, not just reactive ones.
With third parties spanning thousands of vendors, fintechs, and non-vendor entities like utilities and payment platforms, organizations need scalable ways to flag degradation early, understand downstream impact, and prioritize engagement. James shares how their analytics are used across industries to identify resilience, assess M&A impacts, and evaluate young or private vendors, especially when traditional due diligence doesn’t offer enough visibility.
What we cover in this episode:
• How financial health ratings provide predictive, not just historical, insights
• The value of segmenting vendors by criticalit,y not just spend
• Portfolio-level risk views to avoid aggregation blind spots
• Using financial data to surface early warnings of operational or cybersecurity risks
• The interplay between financial health, innovation, and third-party performance
• How companies can obtain financial disclosure from small or private vendors
• Mitigating concentration risk across critical and non-vendor third parties
You’ll walk away with practical guidance on:
• When and how to assess financial health across the third-party lifecycle
• How to build collaboration between business units and risk functions
• Why integrating financial ratings with cybersecurity and ESG assessments matters
• How financial health underpins resilience, agility, and innovation
• The hidden costs of overlooking financially weak partners and what to do about it
This episode is perfect for:
• Third-party risk professionals and vendor managers
• Procurement and sourcing leaders
• Enterprise risk, compliance, and audit professionals
• Cybersecurity and operational resilience teams
• Anyone responsible for managing extended enterprise risk at scale
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