The Resilient
Renewable Society
(R2S)

Rt Hon. Lord James Arbuthnot of Edrom

The Rt. Hon. Lord James Arbuthnot, MP, Baron Arbuthnot of Edrom, became a Life Peer and a Conservative Party member of the House of Lords in 2015. Previously, he served as Chair of the UK House of Commons Defence Committee, a position he held from 2005 to 2015. From 2001 to 2005 James Arbuthnot was Shadow Secretary of State for Trade, and also a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee.

Previous to this, he served as Minister of State for Defence Procurement (1995-1997) and Opposition Chief Whip (1997 -2001), after serving as a Government Whip and Parliamentary Undersecretary of State at the Department of Social Security. James Arbuthnot first entered the UK Parliament in 1987 as MP for Wanstead & Woodford and, beginning in1997, represented North East Hampshire.

Dr Chris Beck

Chris Beck is the Chief Scientist and Vice President for Policy at EIS Council, where he has worked since May 2011. He is responsible for the analysis, design, and promotion of critical infrastructure resilience for widespread, long-duration power outages initiated by Black Sky threats.

Dr. Beck is a technical and policy expert in several homeland security and national defense related areas including critical infrastructure protection, cybersecurity, science and technology development, WMD prevention and protection, and emerging threat identification and mitigation. Dr. Beck served as the Subcommittee Staff Director for Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Science and Technology and was the Senior Advisor for Science and Technology for the House Committee on Homeland Security (CHS), US House of Representatives, where he worked from May 2005 to May 2011. Prior to CHS, he worked in the office of Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez for three years, beginning as a Congressional Science Fellow and then as a legislative assistant.

Before government service, Dr. Beck was a postdoctoral fellow and adjunct professor at Northeastern University. He holds a PhD in physics from Tufts University (2001) and a B.S. in physics from Montana State University (1994). He served in the Marine Corps Reserve for five years (1987 – 1992).

U.S. Congresswoman
Yvette Clarke

A Brooklyn native whose roots are firmly planted in her Jamaican heritage and in the neighborhood where she grew up and currently resides, the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, U.S.A., Representative Yvette D. Clarke was first elected to Congress in November 2006 and represents the 9th Congressional District of New York. Rep. Clarke is the Vice Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and is a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

Through her leadership, Congress has enacted legislation and conducted oversight on a variety of critical issues, including cybersecurity, biodefense, pandemic influenza preparedness, nuclear detection, mitigating radiological attacks, agro-terrorism, homeland security research and development, and critical infrastructure protection, including most especially protection of the U.S. electric grid.

Importantly for EIS Council, she is the Democratic U.S. Congressional Co-Chair of the EIS Summit Series, beginning with the very first Summit in 2010.

Prof. Yael Parag

Prof. Yael Parag the Head of the Energy Program, and the former Vice Dean of the School of Sustainability, at Reichman University, Israel. She holds a BSc degree in biology, and MA and PhD degrees in social sciences. Between 2005-2011 she was a senior researcher in the Energy Group of the Environmental Change Institute (ECI), at the University of Oxford.
Her research is at the forefront of addressing critical energy challenges, with a primary focus on future and decarbonized electricity systems, energy security, and innovation at the grid's edge. She studies prosumer markets, peer-to-peer energy trading, community energy, microgrids and electricity islands, demand flexibility and EV charging management, consumer behavior and consumer engagement with smart energy technologies.
Prof. Parag won prestigious and competitive research grants, and her work has been published in leading academic journals. She serves as an editorial board member of the journals “Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews”, and “Energy Research and Social Science”.

Dr. Ehud (Udi) Ganani

Dr. Ehud (Udi) Ganani, as Vice President for Strategic Programs, is responsible for the development, coordination, and management of several key programs: GINOM AI, BSX, Digital Transformation, EIS Academy, and EMP Consulting. All these programs are International.

Udi Ganani is a co-founder of Contguard Ltd., a global maritime container tracking startup. He is also a member of the SPECTRUM Group in Alexandria, VA and a Research Associate in ICT International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at IDC Herzliya.

Previously, Dr. Ganani served in senior management roles in a number of corporations providing high technology solutions for security applications. He was Chief Executive Officer and President of Rabintex Industries Ltd., served as CEO and chairman of TraceGuard Technologies Inc. and chairman of Bird Aerosystems Ltd. He also chaired the public advisory committee for Aerospace, Defense and Homeland Security for the Israeli Export Institute.
Prior to that, Dr. Ganani served as a senior manager in some of Israel’s largest and most important aerospace companies: He served as Chief Executive Officer of Israel Military Industries, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Rafael, and headed Rafael’s rocket motors development group.
Dr. Ganani holds a Doctorate of Science in Chemical Engineering from Washington University, St. Louis, MO and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.

Dr. Mireille Elhajj

Dr. Mireille Elhajj is currently an honorary lecturer at Imperial College London. She is also a member of the International Advisory Board (IAB) of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and a program Lead on The Space Integrated Outreach program. Previously, she was a Lecturer and an “Infrastrcuture and Space Science Fellow” at the Institute of Security Science and Resilience. She has published various papers in Positioning , Navigation and Timing (PNT), Interference mitigation and novel integrity monitoring methods for various applications. her private boutique consultancy, Astra-terra Limited, is sub contractor to various projects with IC consultants in the domain of aviation, smart cities , resilience of infrastructure, transport and space.
She hold a PhD from Imperial College London where she researched the use of new GPS signal to improve accuracy for surface transport. She has an MSc in Financial Analysis and Fund Management (FAFM) from Exeter University and an MSc in Transport engineering from Imperial College London.

Ben Kuchta

Ben is an experienced leader in the energy industry with nearly two decades of operational expertise at various levels. Currently serving as the Group Director for Resilience and Crisis Management at National Grid plc, Ben plays a crucial role in ensuring strategic resilience across the company's UK and US businesses. His responsibilities include topics such as climate resilience to stakeholder and government engagement. Ben is accountable for the Group-wide framework for resilience and has an influential role in shaping the evolving regulatory space. He also oversees the training and exercise programs for crisis management

U.S. Congressman
Doug Lamborn

Congressman Doug Lamborn is the current Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces which oversees our nation's nuclear weapons, ballistic missile defense, national security space programs, and Department of Energy national security programs, ensuring that our nation is properly prepared for any missile or nuclear attacks. He is also a member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee for Tactical Air and Land Subcommittee. In addition to his service in the House Armed Services, Congressman Lamborn is the Vice Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee where he serves as a member of the Energy and Mineral Resources, and Federal Lands subcommittees.

He has a strong record of advocating for our military and our veterans, defending the Second Amendment, and calling for immigration reform and tax reform. During his tenure in Congress, he has been a strong voice on behalf of small businesses and a consistent leader on pro-family issues. Congressman Doug Lamborn is honored to have served Colorado's Fifth Congressional District since 2006.

Lihi Rotem Ganani

Lihi joined EIS Council’s leadership team in 2020, serving as the Director of Digital Transformation. She is responsible for managing all the Council’s digital initiatives with the aim of building and growing the international online community, supporting new programs and initiatives. Lihi leads EIS projects related to marketing and branding, is in charge of social content, CRM implementation and the EIS academy.
Prior to joining the Council, Lihi conducted industry analysis and data strategy projects for FANS-LEAGUE, an Israeli mobile gaming start-up.
While living in Madrid, Spain, Lihi worked at the IE Business School, one
of the world’s top business schools. With a skill for creating partnerships and focusing on innovation, she was involved in organizing yearly programs, designing the startup Lab – a startup acceleration program and the Business Impact Lab – an open innovation program. She ran “Challenge weeks”, one week Design Thinking programs with leading corporates and built a marketplace involving SMEs, corporates, and students for innovation-related consulting projects focused on growth.
In Israel, Lihi served as a judicial advisor in the Israeli circuit court and worked for boutique law firms. Lihi holds a BA in Business, an LLB in Law, a Master of Laws (LLM), and an MA in Digital Transformation and Innovation Leadership

Laurence Marzell

Laurence Marzell leads Whole System Approach, an operationally focused research and innovation practice he founded in 2022.

Drawing upon his practical experience of leading research and innovation projects for Serco’s UK & Europe division over the last decade, he has deep experience of the practical translation and exploitation of research and innovation outputs into day to day operational needs on the ground.

At Serco, Laurence led the participation in a number of EU Horizon 2020 projects in: Community policing; virtual and augmented reality training of crisis and first responders; the governance, integration and application of Earth Observation data with the wider information and intelligence mix; and resource and energy efficient renovation under the EU’s Green Deal.

Laurence speaks regularly at conferences and events and is a contributor into specialist and subject matter journals and books. He sits on the Centric External Advisory Board and is an Associate Partner of Intensive Engagement, a not-for-profit organisation building stronger and more resilient communities from the grass roots up, with communities, for public safety. Laurence was a contributor and advisory board member of an EU funded consortium of an International Security Management degree course now offered by Erasmus University, Rotterdam to in excess of 15,000 students worldwide.

Dr. Sally Leivesley

Dr Sally Leivesley is an advisor to companies and governments on catastrophic risk. She has spoken on ‘Black Hole events’ in previous EIS conferences and to the Baker Institute and is a specialist in the survival of populations, governments and infrastructure under extreme threats including nuclear war, CBRNE, cyber and natural disasters. In recent years she has chaired international scientific meetings on risks of emerging nuclear weapons, Covid-19, infrastructure resilience and hazardous near-earth objects. In the Cold War she trained as a scientific advisor with the British Home Office and exercised in the civil defence bunkers under London on maintaining life and infrastructure across the UK. In Australia she was the first civilian director of a disaster recovery unit and held government appointments for reforms of emergency services and health and safety. She has been contracted on nuclear power plant incidents – TMI, Chernobyl and Fukushima. As an international media commentator for BBC World Service and other news outlets she has commentated on the Chinese spy balloon over USA nuclear missile site, uranium package at London Heathrow airport, cyber;
terrorism; aviation losses; nuclear reactor disasters; Kabul 2021 evacuation; South China Sea; Polonium-210 and Novichok poisonings, Beslan siege; Iran; DPRK; USA Presidential security abroad; Covid-19, unexplained incidents such as MH370 and chemical incidents. Dr Leivesley holds memberships with the Register of Security Engineers and Specialists, IABTI, and RUSI and has authored three international patents in materials to counter explosives and chemicals.

Prof. Washington Yotto Ochieng

Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng, PhD, FREng, is the Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Chair Professor in Positioning and Navigation Systems at Imperial College London. He is also the Senior Security Science Fellow at the Institute for Security Science and Technology (ISST) at Imperial. Formerly, he was the Head of the Centre for Transport Studies and Co-Director of the ISST at Imperial. He is the current Vice President of the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN).

A Chartered Professional Engineer, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), and with a background in industry and academia, Ochieng has undertaken award-winning research and development in critical infrastructure resilience, user-centric mobility and positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) systems. Examples of his works include the design of positioning and navigation systems (including Europe’s EGNOS and GALILEO systems) for land, sea, air and space applications; and Air Traffic Management and Intelligent Transport Systems. In 2013, Ochieng was elected Fellow of the RAEng in recognition of his exceptional contribution. In 2019, he received the Harold Spencer-Jones Gold Medal (the highest award from the RIN) in recognition of his ‘extensive valued advice to policy makers and for pioneering research in safety-critical navigation and positioning systems’. He is a Member of the United States’ Institute of Navigation (ION) and Fellow of the United Kingdom’s Institutions of Civil Engineers, Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation, RIN and Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors.

Avi Schnurr

Avi Schnurr is CEO and President of the Electric Infrastructure Security (EIS) Council.
Mr. Schnurr has reviewed severe “Black Sky” hazards to lifeline utilities for a number of state and federal government departments and agencies, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the National Security Council, Congress, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Homeland Security, among others. He has been a leader in development and coordination of protection strategies for critical national infrastructures, working with senior executives of the nation’s largest power, water, and fuel companies, with other corporate sectors, and with key government and NGO stakeholders.

Mr. Schnurr has provided invited briefings for NATO, the European Union, Parliamentary Committees, government science advisors and energy ministries. He has reviewed U.S. defense policies for the Department of Defense, the White House Homeland Security Council, the National Academy of Sciences, Congress, NATO and a variety of other venues. Until the end of 2004, Avi Schnurr worked for Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology Sector in California, where he had system responsibilities for space payloads and other advanced systems and instruments, and also managed U.S. and international defense programs. He holds a number of patents in laser and optical systems and twice received the corporate Chairman’s Award for Innovation. Avi Schnurr received his M.Sc. Degree in Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California, San Diego.

Hailey Siple

Hailey is the Director of National Security Policy at the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), where she has spent the last decade tackling all-hazard threats to the grid.
Hailey serves on the Secretariat of the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC), which is the principal liaison between the electric sector and the federal government. Through her leadership on the ESCC, Hailey helps strengthen the electric industry’s strategic and operational collaboration with federal government partners to advance national security and resilience initiatives, including preparing for and responding to natural disasters, malicious cyber and physical attacks, supply chain challenges, and other existential threats to the energy sector.
Hailey received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy from the University of Houston. She lives in downtown Washington, D.C. with her husband and too many cats.

James B. Robb

James B. Robb assumed the role of NERC’s president and chief executive officer
in April 2018. Robb oversees NERC’s mission of assuring the reliability and
security of the North American bulk power system. As president and CEO, Robb
leads the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) responsible for key programs affecting approximately 1,400 bulk power system users, owners, and operators, including those programs focused on development of mandatory
NERC Reliability Standards, the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Program, situational awareness, event and risk analysis, reliability assessments and forecasting, and cyber and physical security. He is also responsible for the performance of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) and key government partnerships. As CEO, he is the chair of the ERO Enterprise Executive Committee, which oversees the operations of the six Regional Entities that support the reliability mission across North America. Robb joined the ERO Enterprise in 2013 when he was appointed the president and CEO of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), the Regional Entity serving the Western Interconnection. Robb has more than 35 years of experience in the energy sector as an engineer, a consultant, and a senior executive. Prior to becoming WECC’s CEO, he held three major leadership roles in the industry as Senior Vice President at Northeast Utilities (now Eversource Energy); Senior Vice President at Reliant Energy (now part of NRG Energy); and as a Partner at McKinsey & Company. During his 15-year career at McKinsey, he worked closely with prominent electric power companies in California, western Canada, the Pacific Northwest, and the Rocky Mountain states and served clients in Western Europe, South America, and New Zealand. He has been a frequent speaker at industry events on the evolution of the electric power system, cyber security, integration of variable generation, and the increasing interdependency of electric and natural gas reliability. Robb is a member of the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC) and serves on the United States Energy Association Board as well as a NERC trustee. In 2020 he was appointed Chair of the Group of Experts on Cleaner Energy Systems for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. He has served on the boards of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, the Houston Symphony, the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, and as a policy advisor to the Bay Area Economic Forum in San Francisco.
Robb earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University in Indiana and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Yosi Shneck

Yosi Shneck, YSICONS founder, senior consultant, leading the Cyber entrepreneurship and business development at the Israel Electric Corp.

In charge of Cyber entrepreneurship and business development, including R&D, cyber products and services development, support of the IEC’s cyber unit, marketing, and deployment worldwide. Leading the R&D projects and activities in the European research programs for more than ten years, including the FP7 and Horizon 2020 programs.

More than 46 years of experience in computer systems & technologies in utilities, including information systems, scientific applications, supper computing & communication, control systems, infrastructures & architectures, and cyber. In addition to his duties as ITC leader, he was responsible for readying the company against cyber-attack threats, including IT/OT environments. Being accountable for the cyber activity of supercritical infrastructure, Mr. Shneck is involved in many nationwide and international initiatives in this field.

His previous functions in the IEC include SVP Information and Communications and Chief Cyber Officer; Head of Information Systems and Communication Division, CIO; Member of the selection committee for an investor in the new communication infrastructure company; Head of the National Communications and Electronics unit and Deputy of the Information Systems and Teleprocessing Division; Head of R&D computer department.

Mr. Shneck has an M.A. in Business Administration and a B.A. in Computer Sciences.

Prof. Liz Varga

Professor Liz Varga has a chair in Complex Systems in the Civil, Environmental, and Geomatics Engineering Department, University College London (UCL). She leads the Infrastructure Systems Institute and teaches, writes, and advises globally on energy, transport, digital communications, water and waste. Her key research themes are infrastructure resilience, sustainable innovation and circularity, and decarbonisation, and uses methods such as digital twins, hybrid models, and artificial intelligence. She is a commissioner with the National Preparedness Commission and a fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Building Engineers (FCABE) and the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS). She is a director of UKCRIC Limited and coordinated the UK Collaboratorium for Research in Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC) (https://www.ukcric.com/). She is a co-investigator for the Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure (https://dafni.ac.uk/) and project manager for a new international standard ISO 22372 on infrastructure resilience.

Paul Williams

Paul Williams is President of the Electric Infrastructure Security (EIS) Council. Mr Williams is a Globally recognised leader in technology and operations resilience, with exceptional experience, insight, and expertise in developing operationally robust and regulatorily compliant resilience strategies, operations, and organisations. He has leadership experience in technology and technology risk, within international banking. As well as regulatory experience including leadership of UK domestic regulation development, specialist supervision of non-financial risks, and coordination of several international initiatives. Mr Williams has participated in NATO, RUSI and various other domestic and international conferences, and is a Commissioner on the UK’s National Preparedness Commission.

Mr Williams led development of operational resilience regulations in UK Financial Services, which substantively informed International Financial Services Regulations, and British Standard 65000 on organisational resilience. He has led development of public/private partnership initiatives from inception, through to delivery of robust operational frameworks, based on public/private cooperation. These include sector-wide exercising and crisis response capabilities. Mr Williams was founding chair of several cyber collaboration groups, focused on public/private collaboration on cyber threat intelligence, as well as leading a group of European Regulators to collectively author a key paper exploring the potential for systemic cyber risk and the appropriate responses. Mr Williams was founding member of the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governor’s Cyber Experts Group, latterly taking on the role of co-Chair with the US Treasury Department.

During Mr Williams extensive career in Technology Infrastructure leadership, he led global technology infrastructure teams in London, USA and Asia, to deliver efficient and resilient infrastructure strategies, to satisfy divergent business demands. His career included leadership of a wide-scale infrastructure resilience delivery project with a value running to £000m’s.

Prof. Yoav Yair

Prof. Yoav Yair is a lecturer in the School of Sustainability at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC). His main research fields include atmospheric electricity, lightning (on Earth and other planets), space weather, solar-terrestrial relations and transient luminous events (sprites).
He conducted space-based experiments from the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station and was project manager for the Israeli astronaut mission in 2003 (the MEIDEX). He is the author of several text books in the atmospheric sciences and authored (and co-) over 95 refereed papers.
Prof. Yair is also an expert on ICT and Learning Technologies, and served as head of the Center for Technology in Distance Education at the Open University of Israel (2004-2009), and Dean of Development and Learning Technologies there (2009-2012), where he supervised the testing, dissemination and research of various new technologies in higher education, with focus on video, digital books and mobile reading devices. Between 2012-2014 he headed the Israeli national Inter-University Center for Learning Technologies.
Prof. Yair is an experienced speaker, session chair and organizer of numerous professional meetings (EGU, AGU). He gives public lectures and popular radio talks on various topics in educational technology, astronomy teaching, atmospheric science and space physics.

Gill Savage

Gill is a thought leader and strategic thinker with extensive experience focusing on strategy, governance and risk who has held senior executive service roles within the Australian Government developing and implementing programs including transformation and change initiatives. Her public sector experience spans national security, defence, environment, transport and regional development.
Gill is Vice President – Global with the Australian Risk Policy Institute and the Director of the Centre for Advanced Resilience and Risk Policy Studies. She is also Chair of the Risk, Compliance and Audit Committee for The Navy's Anchorage, and member of the Industry Advisory Board in the Faculty of Arts and Social Science at the University of Technology Sydney.
Gill is a former Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and in 2023 was the Deputy Lead of the Independent Review of National Natural Disaster Governance Arrangements. In the past she led the Australian Government’s biometrics for border control program which included design and implementation of SmartGate in Australia and New Zealand, and redesign of air passenger analysis. Gill has also led the redesign of government services across customs, aviation and regional development. Early in her career, Gill developed deep expertise in environment policy and programs including climate change, environment protection, water quality and hazardous waste.
Gill is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, an Executive Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand School of Government and holds an MBA in International Business.

Elisabeth Braw

Volnets Ruslan

Volynets has top management experience in various international financial institutions and countries in the field of retail banking, client service, and marketing, and has total work experience in the banking sector for more than 15 years. In year 2020 Ruslan joined DTEK Grids as Director for customer relations to lead «end to end» client operations in the electricity distribution sector of the DTEK Group, namely managing online and offline service channels, integrating innovation and new technologies to the client-related operations.
Representative of DTEK Grids in the Board of Directors in E.DSO, Chair of Customer Empowerment Working Group in E.DSO, Member of the Energy Community ECDSO-E Coordination Group.

Rick Cudworth

Rick is the Board and Executive Director at Resilience First, a not-for-profit organisation founded in 2018, with more than 600 member and subscriber organisations. It is the premier business network focused on improving organizational resilience, through a ‘whole of system’ and ‘whole of society’ approach, with the purpose of creating a safer, more secure and sustainable future for all.

Rick is also a former Partner for over 20 years at a ‘Big 4’ consultancy and the Founder and a Partner in ResilienC, a specialist advisory firm in resilience, readiness and crisis management.

He has a track record in advising Boards and executive leadership teams on resilience and is a recognised and respected thought-leader in the subject. He was Chair of the British Standards Institution Technical Committee for Continuity and Resilience for 8 years and co-chaired the revision of BS 65000 Code of Practice for Organisational Resilience. He is currently Project Lead and Author for the revision of ISO 22316 Guidance for Organisational Resilience.

Rick is a member of the Cabinet Office Behavioural Science Expert Group as part of the National Security Risk Assessment process for the UK. He is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London and a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management. He edited and contributed to the National Preparedness Commission’s Report: “Resilience Reimagined: A Practical Guide for Organisations”, published in March 2021 in collaboration with Cranfield University.

Janet Martha Blatny

Mike Butler

Mike Butler is executive vice president and chief resiliency officer at State Street, as well as United Kingdom and Ireland chief information technology officer. He is responsible for the ongoing evolution of our
global resiliency framework, and all IT mechanisms and networks that support the business operations of our London branch and other UK and Ireland entities, including in relation to business continuity, cybersecurity systems and technology.
Mike is member of the Global Technology Services leadership team, as well as the UK management team, playing a pivotal role in ensuring the firm’s overall approach, current position, response, and plans associated
with complex operational resilience.
He is a 25-year veteran of the financial services industry, with experience
leading multiple transformation programs, supporting location strategy and changes to working practices, and building and operating global Service Management functions.
Mike joins us from Santander UK, where he was the Chief Resilience and Control Officer, responsible for all controls governance and assurance while delivering the implementation of the Operational Resilience and Information Classification: General Page 1 regulatory policy programs. Prior to that, Mike was the Head of Transformation and the COO for the Chief Security Office at Barclays Bank and the Group Head of Operational Resilience working with all lines of business and legal entities as well as their external stakeholders including global regulators.
He is passionate about his people, and a champion of talent management, including diversity and inclusion, neurodiversity, and military veterans’ development.
Mike has a degree in geology with geophysics from Imperial College London and in his spare time enjoys building custom motorcycles, listening and playing music and spending time with his young family.

Russell Jackson

Dr. Bryan WELLS

The North Atlantic Council (NAC) appointed Dr. Bryan Wells (UK) as
NATO Chief Scientist from 1 July 2019. In this role, he has three major responsibilities. First, he serves as Chair of the NATO Science and Technology Board (STB). Second, he serves as the senior scientific advisor to NATO leadership, ensuring that appropriate and timely S&T
based advice is provided to NATO senior decision makers. Finally, he leads the Office of the Chief Scientist at NATO Headquarters. Before his appointment as Chief Scientist, Dr. Wells was the UK Ministry of Defence’s Head, of S&T Policy, Strategic Research and International
Engagement. His responsibilities included the provision of strategic policy advice on the international and research aspects of the Ministry’s science and technology programme.
Additionally, he has been Chair of the European Defence Agency’s Research & Technology Steering Board (2016-2018).
Dr Wells joined the UK Ministry of Defence in 1988. He served as Assistant Private
Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence 1989-1992, and has held a range of other posts, including Deputy Director of NATO Policy 1997-1999, and Director of Counter- Proliferation and Arms Control 2002-2008. During 1999-2002 he was on secondment to the Lord Chancellor’s Department (now the Department of Justice) as Head of Administrative
Justice.
Dr Wells was educated at St Catherine’s College, Oxford (1978-85) and Merton College Oxford (1985-1988). He graduated BA(Hons) in Chemistry in 1982 and was awarded a DPhil in 1985. He conducted three years post-Doctorate research at Oxford University as a
Junior Research Fellow at Merton College.

Caroline (Collier) Field

Caroline Field leads National Resilience at PA Consulting. She is an expert in resilience, spearheading an integrated, systems-based approach to understanding threats, vulnerabilities and opportunities – helping clients determine the best strategy for investing in resilience measures to enable their strategic objectives.

Caroline has a background in asset and infrastructure resilience with nearly 30 years of professional experience including 14 years in counter terrorism, blast mitigation and physical security and 7 years in earthquake engineering and dynamics. She has spent the past 15 years combining this expertise with the social and people aspects of resilience, focusing on resilient leaders and societies.

Caroline is active in developing standards in resilience. She was Chair for the British Standard on City Resilience, is on the Executive Committee of the ASCE Infrastructure Resilience and is currently the Chair of the ISO Urban Resilience Standard Working Group.

Caroline is a Royal Academy of Engineers Visiting Professor of Structural and Infrastructural Resilience at Loughborough University linking research and practice and helping to shape the future of the profession and Co-Founder of the Centre for Whole of Society Resilience

Massimo Ravenna

Dr. Andrew Nelson

Dr. Andrew (Andy) Nelson is director of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) in Champaign, Illinois. As the CERL director, he is responsible for the activities of a highly interdisciplinary team of approximately 300 federal and contracted staff conducting research in materials and structures, energy, training lands and heritage, emergency and operational support, warfighter engineering and installation readiness.

Dr. Nelson has served in numerous roles throughout ERDC including as the CERL technical director for Infrastructure Science and Engineering, director of the ERDC International Research Office, which is based in London, and chief of the CERL Energy Branch. He began his career as a research physicist at CERL, with a diverse research portfolio including energy efficient mitigation of biological particulate contamination in indoor air, quantification and atmospheric impacts of the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle and water purification/treatment for contingency operations. In addition to these permanent assignments, he completed a one-year assignment as a visiting researcher at the U.K. Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down through the U.S. Army Engineer and Scientist Exchange Program and was detailed to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment in 2016 as the ERDC liaison officer.

Dr. Nelson holds a B.A. in Physics from Illinois Wesleyan University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has received multiple Army Civilian Service Awards including the Meritorious Civilian Service Award and has been recognized with the ERDC R&D Achievement Award and the ERDC Outstanding Team Award, among others. He was received the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors outstanding master’s thesis award and was a DoD Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation Scholarship recipient in 2009.

Dr. Igor Linkov

Dr. Igor Linkov is Senior Science and Technology Manager with the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), and Adjunct Professor with University of Florida and Carnegie Mellon University. He is responsible for ERDC’s project portfolio in the areas of crises mitigation and resilience. He develops methods and tools for measuring resilience in interconnected network and applies these tools to the environment, critical infrastructure, transportation, energy and cyber systems, supply chains as well as command and control systems. He is Army representative at the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) and Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program as well as several White House committees developing the National Resilience Strategy and other resilience-focused guidance documents. He has published widely on environmental and technology policy, climate change, and risk and resilience analytics, including twenty eight books and over 500 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in top journals, like Nature, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Climate Change, among others. Dr. Linkov is Elected Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Society for Risk Analysis. Dr. Linkov has received multiple USACE, Army and DOD Awards and Civilian Service medals, including the highest Civilian Award in the US Army and 2023 Army’s Humanitarian Assistance Medal, as well 2020 DOD Top Scientist Award. He received multiple awards from the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA), 2022 Edgeworth-Pareto Award from the International Society for Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), 2022 IDRiM Distinguished Research Award, and 2021 Arthur Flemming Award for outstanding public service.

Bethany Netzel

Bethany Netzel serves as CME Group’s Managing Director responsible for Global Security, Operational Resilience, Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, Crisis Management, Vendor Risk Management, Operational Risk and Compliance Management. She specializes in developing comprehensive global programs, implementing leading practices and change and ensuring compliance within the shifting regulatory landscape.
Netzel has worked in the financial sector since 1998 and has been focused in the trading arena since 2002. Prior to joining CME Group, she served as Chief of Staff to the COO in BP’s Natural Gas and Power (NAGP) Trading organization.
Netzel represents CME Group on the Executive Committee, Policy Committee, Joint Exercise Committee and the International Committee for the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council (FSSCC), the Risk Committee for the Analysis and Resilience Center for Systemic Risk (ARC), she led the TriSector playbook creation for the Financial Services – Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) and serves on the Board of Directors for the FS-ISAC and is a long-term Board Member of ChicagoFirst and is serving as the Vice Chair. She also participates on SIFMA’s Business Continuity and the Market Response Committee and has participated in a CPM-IOSCO initiative around International Information Sharing.
She earned a bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and an MBA from Loyola University Chicago and was the recipient of the World Federation of Exchanges Women Leader Award in 2021.

Eddy THÉSÉE

Eddy Thésée, Vice President Digital & Cyber Platform at Alstom, appointed in April 2024.

Prior to joining Alstom, Eddy was working in consulting companies implementing mathematical algorithms for the prediction of stock market prices or the conduct of oil drilling. Eddy Joined Alstom in 1999 to support the activities related to “year 2000” mitigation. After several positions in IT for Alstom global operations and end users support, Signalling, Turnkey & Infrastructure and Asia Pacific, he has been in charge for Processes, Methods, and tools for Signalling and Digital Mobility.

Before being appointed VP Digital & Cyber Platform at Alstom Eddy was responsible for the definition of the cybersecurity strategy for products and solutions across Alstom portfolio, the execution of cybersecurity activities in projects and new products, and the development of the cybersecurity standalone business allowing Alstom to provide services and solutions answering to the growing demand in the railway market.

Eddy has a strong background in IT build from his leading positions in information system management. He has been responsible for change management and transformation projects in the area of ERP deployment, System engineering (requirement and configuration management), software development, operating systems development and he is passionate with hacking and new technologies.

April D. Wood

April D. Wood is the president and CEO of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (National VOAD), a non-profit association of the nation’s leading disaster relief and recovery organizations representing millions of volunteers across the VOAD Movement. She has more than two decades of experience leading change, championing diversity, equity, and inclusion while coordinating response and recovery efforts for some of the largest and most complex U.S. disasters.

Prior, Ms. Wood served as senior director for external program services and national partnerships for American Red Cross national headquarters. In these roles, she led innovative approaches to multi-agency data sharing using geographic information systems (GIS) and was responsible for the diverse national partnerships portfolio to strengthen coordination during disasters, build trust with undeserved communities and ensure equitable access to services and programs.

In collaboration with government partners, Ms. Wood currently serves on the DHS Faith Based Security Advisory Council (FBSAC) and as Chair of FBSAC subcommittees on Grants and Resources and Combatting Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. In addition, she serves on a FEMA National Advisory Council (NAC) subcommittee and is a FEMA Vanguard Executive Crisis Leadership Fellow. She was previously recognized as a Washington Business Journal “40 Under 40” awardee.

Ms. Wood is a registered nurse and a former firefighter and emergency medical technician (EMT). In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her children and volunteering with the local fire department and American Red Cross.

Prof. Duncan Shaw

Helen Goulden OBE

Oleksandr Kharchenko

Oleksandr Kharchenko is an energy expert with over 20 years of professional experience. His expertise encompasses all energy sectors, Government Relations, International Relations, and project management.
Oleksandr has successfully led numerous significant international projects, including:
Nord Stream 2 Sanctions: Oleksandr played a crucial role in the international advocacy and strategy development to implement sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, emphasizing the project's geopolitical and energy security implications.

ENTSO-E Synchronization: He was instrumental in the project for the synchronization of Ukraine's energy system with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), ensuring the stability and integration of Ukraine's power grid with the European energy network.

Oleksandr has collaborated with the UNDP and World Bank on energy projects, developed strategies for centralized heating and power projects in Ukraine, coordinated gas supply diversification plans, and contributed to energy independence initiatives as well as led numerous researches in the energy industry in both Ukraine and internationally. He is also a recognized author at the Atlantic Council.

Dr. Shlomo Wald

Dr. Shlomo Wald is a physicist with vast research experience in theoretical and experimental nuclear, plasma and high-energy physics.
Dr. Wald served for seven years as the chief-scientist of the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources. He was responsible for long-term national policy based on knowhow and technology and on technology development in energy, water, earth and marine sciences.
Dr. Wald promoted and conducted broad basic and applied research programs, performed by Israeli and world-wide academia, research-institutions and industries, in the range of about M€20/year.
Following two years of Sabbatical leave at the EU-JRC Institute of Energy, Transportation and Climate Dr. Wald returned to Israel. And since 2017 Dr. Wald has promoted, participated and coordinated R&D projects as a self-employed consultant. His current main focus is on climate-change adaptation efforts, considering the nexus between the main existential resources (e.g., water, food, energy and ecosystem).
In the past, for almost two decades, Dr. Shlomo Wald has served as a leading researcher at Soreq Nuclear Research Center and managed quite a few international projects in the field of propulsion physics and applied thermal-plasma technologies. He was the first coordinator from Israel in the EU RDT programs, during the 4th framework program, based on his patent.
Dr. Wald holds B.Sc. in physics and mathematics from Tel-Aviv University, M.Sc. and Ph.D studies in Physics at Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Minerva Fellowship at the Max-Planck-Institüt für Kernphisik, Heidelberg, Germany. Postdoctoral position and assistant professor at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California.
Has over 100 publications and holds five patents.
Served as a board member and a chair of several institutions. Former board member of Governors and a chair of the US-Israel Bi-national Science Foundation (BSF). Israeli representative to the EU-JRC board of governors - The European Union Joint Research Center, etc.

Dr. Beatriz Buarque

Stephen Khan

Dr. Stephen Flynn

Stephen Flynn is the Founding Director of the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University where he leads a major university-wide research initiative to inform and advance societal resilience in the face of growing human-made and naturally-occurring turbulence. At Northeastern, he is also Professor of Political Science with faculty affiliations in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs.

Dr. Flynn is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on critical infrastructure and supply chain security and resilience. He is co-author of the textbook, Critical Infrastructures Resilience: Policy and Engineering Principles (Routledge, 2018) and has led teams in conducting post-disaster infrastructure resilience assessments, initially with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and then from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In 2014, Flynn was appointed by the Secretary of Homeland Security to serve as a member of the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Council (HSSTAC). He also serves as chair of the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) Security Advisory Committee. Additionally, he holds research affiliations with the Wharton School’s Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He previously served as Founding Co-Director of the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security at Northeastern University. Dr. Flynn is also the principal for Stephen E. Flynn Associates LLC, where he provides independent advisory services on improving critical infrastructure security and resilience.

Before joining the faculty at Northeastern University in 2011, Dr. Flynn served as President of the Center for National Policy. Prior to that he spent a decade as a senior fellow for National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Prior to September 11, 2001, Dr. Flynn served as an expert advisor to U.S. Commission on National Security (Hart-Rudman Commission), and following the 9/11 attacks he was the executive director of a blue-ribbon Council on Foreign Relations homeland security task force, again co-led by former Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman. He served as the principal advisor to the bipartisan Congressional Port Security Caucus, advised the Bush Administration on maritime and homeland security issues, and after the November 2008 election of President Barack Obama, served as the lead policy advisor on homeland security as a part of the presidential transition team. From 2003-2010 he served as a member of the National Research Council’s Marine Board.
Dr. Flynn has presented expert congressional testimony before the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives on 31 occasions. He has delivered keynote addresses at more than one hundred international and national conferences. Dr. Flynn is a frequent media commentator and has appeared on Meet the Press, 60 Minutes, The News Hour, The Today Show, the Charlie Rose Show, CNN and on National Public Radio. He has written two of the most widely-cited books on homeland security: The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation (Random House, 2007) and America the Vulnerable (HarperCollins 2004). Five of his articles have been published in the prestigious journal, Foreign Affairs. Excerpts of his books have been featured in Time, as the cover story for U.S. News & World Report, and as the subject of two CNN documentaries.

A 1982 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Dr. Flynn served in the Coast Guard on active duty for 20 years, including two tours as commanding officer at sea. As a Coast Guard officer, he served in the White House Military Office during the George H.W. Bush administration and as a director for Global Issues on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration. He was a Guest Scholar in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution from 1991-92, and in 1993-94 he was an Annenberg Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania. He received the M.A.L.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in 1990 and 1991 and in 2009, he received an honorary doctorate of laws from Monmouth University.

Prof. Ernesto Damiani

Ernesto Damiani is acting Dean of Computing and Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Center for Secure Cyber Physical Systems (C2PS) at the Khalifa University in the UAE, full professor at the Department of Computer Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, where he leads the SESAR research lab, and President of Italian Consortium of the Computer Science Universities (CINI). Ernesto’s research interests include secure service-oriented architectures (SOA), certifiable robust Artificial intelligence and Data Analytics models, and cyber-physical systems security. Prof. Damiani has served as the EIC of the IEEE Transactions on Service-oriented Computing and as an AE of the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems. He is a senior member of the IEEE and served as Vice-Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Industrial Informatics. In 2008, Ernesto was nominated as ACM Distinguished Scientist and received the Chester Sall Award from the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. Later, he received a doctorate honoris causa from Institute National de Sciences Appliques (INSA) of Lyon, France, for his contributions to Big Data analysis platforms and architectures. In 2022, Ernesto was awarded the rank of Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy for his contributions to international scientific collaboration in AI.

Bob Kolasly

Bob Kolasky is Senior Vice President for Critical Infrastructure at Exiger where he focuses on developing cutting-edge risk management solutions for critical infrastructure companies and supporting government agencies. In this role, Mr. Kolasky leads market strategy for addressing third party and supply chain risk in critical infrastructure and delivering analysis.
Mr. Kolasky also serves as a Nonresident Scholar in Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as a Senior Associate for the Center on Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and a Senior Fellow at Auburn University’s McCrary Institute. He is the former Chair of the High-Level Risk Forum for the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Mr. Kolasky joined Exiger after 15 years as a senior leader in the Federal government, where he was responsible for foundational work in national security risk management and election security. He was the founding Director for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) National Risk Management Center at the Department of Homeland Security. As one of CISA’s Assistant Directors, he oversaw efforts to facilitate a strategic, cross-sector government and industry risk management approach to cyber and supply chain threats to critical infrastructure.
Mr. Kolasky has served in a number of other senior leadership roles for DHS, including Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection.
Earlier in his career, Bob was a management consultant, a journalist and an entrepreneur. He graduated from Dartmouth College and from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Radek Hartman

Graduated from Czech Technical University in Prague, faculty of nuclear science and physical engineering, received MBA from Sheffield Business School. He held different managerial positions in many local as well as international companies with focus on strategic and change management. He experienced working for variety of businesses, including manufacturing, retail, management consulting, and primarily information and communication technologies (ICT). Since 2019 he is responsible for ICT, information and cyber security, procurement and facility management in the Czech transmission system operator (TSO) ČEPS as Member of the Board, and chairs the ICT Committee in European TSOs association ENTSO-E

Amos Lasker

Ivanna Kobernik

Senior communication Adviser to National Power Company “Ukrenergo” (since 2022)

Adviser on strategic communication to the Ministers of Education and
Science (MoES) Liliia Grynevych (2016-2019) and Anna Novosad (2019-2020)
Member of Education Reform Office of MoES (2016-2020), co-author of Reform “New Ukrainian School”
Co-founder of NGO “Smart Osvita” (Smart Education)
15 years of experience in media (journalist, editor, TV anchor), 10 years of experience in communication (creating and managing press services, strategic communication consulting, creating and implementing of communication strategy, anti-crisis consulting, media relations)
8 years of experience in civic activity in the school education area.

Ivan Savov

Ivan Savov is the Chairman of the European Risk Policy Institute (ERPI) and the Future Risk Institute (FRI). He is also a Fellow of the Australian Risk Policy Institute (ARPI) and Deputy Director of the Centre for Advanced Resilience and Risk Policy Studies in Australia. Additionally, he is an active member of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and ISO/CASCO.

With a robust background and extensive experience in ecology and evolution, climate change, strategic risk policy, accreditation, certification, and standardization, Ivan has dedicated over a decade to promoting and advancing risk policy globally. His academic specializations and research were honed at the University of Minnesota, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Oxford.

Ivan’s leadership roles in ERPI and FRI involve collaborating with global networks to enhance understanding of global threats to humanity and driving a paradigm shift in understanding and managing risks and improving corporate and state governance. His multifaceted expertise positions him as a leading voice in fostering innovation, sustainability, and resilience in risk management.

Itai Sassoon

Dr. Paul Stockton

Paul Stockton is the managing director of Sonecon LLC, an economic and security advisory firm in Washington, DC. Before joining Sonecon, he served as the assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs from May 2009 until January 2013. In that position, he was the secretary of defense’s principal civilian advisor on providing defense support to FEMA and DHS during Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene, and other disasters. Dr. Stockton also served as DOD’s domestic crisis manager and was responsible for Defense Critical Infrastructure Protection policies and programs. In addition, Dr. Stockton served as the executive director of the Council of Governors.

Prior to being confirmed as assistant secretary, Dr. Stockton served as a senior research scholar at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and associate provost of the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). Dr. Stockton was twice awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, DOD’s highest civilian award. DHS awarded Dr. Stockton its Distinguished Public Service Medal. Dr. Stockton holds a PhD from Harvard University and a BA from Dartmouth College. He is the lead co-author of “Curbing the Market for Cyberweapons” (Yale Law & Policy Review, 2013) and numerous other studies on cybersecurity issues. Dr. Stockton is senior fellow of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and serves on the boards of Analytic Services, Inc, Idaho National Laboratory, and the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security Studies at the George Washington University.

Dr. Carmit Rapaport

Dr. Carmit Rapaport is an expert in disaster management and emergency response. She serves as an Assistant Professor and the Head of the MA Program in Disaster Management at the School of Environmental Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel. Dr. Rapaport is the Director of the Institute for Regulation of Emergency and Disaster at the College of Law and Business in Israel, where she leads innovative research and policy development. Dr. Rapaport is also at the forefront of technological advancements in crisis management as the Head of Research and Development at cinten (cinten.com), a pioneering startup developing virtual tabletop exercise platform that enables organizations to prepare for crises by automatically optimizing processes and providing data-driven insights on how to perform better. Her extensive expertise spans a range of critical areas including behavior during emergencies and disasters, crisis leadership, adaptive behavior, and business continuity. Dr. Rapaport's research has garnered substantial funding from prominent bodies such as the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Ministry of Defense. She has also been a key contributor to EU-funded projects, including FP7 and HORIZON2020.

Craig Haggard

Indiana State representative Craig Haggard was elected to the House of Representatives in 2022. Representative Haggard served in the United States Marine Corps as an AV8B Harrier Aviator for 11 years and was honorably discharged in 2000. He transitioned to the Indiana Air National Guard serving in an active duty role for 11 years. He flew the F-16 Viper and was Commander of Headquarters Detachment 1 at Camp Atterbury. Craig retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2013.He currently serves on the Veterans, Public Safety, Roads and Transportation and Environmental committees at the Indiana State House.

Prof. Stefano Panzieri

Stefano Panzieri is a full professor at Roma Tre University, teaching in various areas, including automatic controls, networks and systems for industrial automation, critical infrastructure protection, and cybersecurity for industrial control systems.
As the coordinator of the MCIPlab laboratory, he has dedicated himself to the development of a model and simulation software called CISIApro, designed to evaluate cascading effects within a network of critical infrastructures. Together with the laboratory, he has been involved in several European research projects under Horizon 2020, for which he assumed the role of scientific coordinator.
He was the director of the second-level Master's program titled "Cybersecurity for the Protection of Control Systems in Industry 4.0 and Critical Infrastructures."
With over 160 publications in international journals and conferences, he has made significant contributions to the field of automatic controls in physical and cyber security, more recently focusing on networked systems, attack identification, and consensus algorithms.

Rosehanna Chowdhury

Rosehanna is a Senior Director in the UK Civil Service, leading the resilience function as part of the UK’s national response mechanism. As well as overseeing local resilience strategy, capability, and insights, Rosehanna leads multidisciplinary regional teams support local areas anticipate, prepare for, respond to and recover from crises and disruption.

During her career, Rosehanna has advised Prime Ministers, Secretaries of State and boards on risk and resilience. She has led large scale national and international projects delivering through multiple agencies and organisations. Rosehanna has successfully led teams in national emergencies through to department wide change transformation programmes and has held senior roles in the Cabinet Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office advising Ministers on policy development. Her portfolios have covered national level crises and risk management, public service reform, and global communication campaigns.

Rosehanna is an Emeritus Governor at the London School of Economics (LSE). She co-founded and chaired the Global LSE Government and Public Policy Alumni Group. She is a Fellow of the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) and the Institute of Strategic Risk Management (ISRM). Rosehanna is a Policy Fellow for the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge where she also sits on the Fellowship assessment panel. Rosehanna is a member of the advisory board for the international publication, The Crisis Response Journal.

Srija Chakraborty

Srija Chakraborty is a Scientist at the Earth from Space Institute (EfSI), USRA and specializes in applied machine learning for remotely sensed Earth and Space Science observations. At EfSI, she focuses on tailoring these computational advances for Earth Observation data, especially for NASA’s Black Marble Product Suite with applications in assisting near-real time disaster mitigation efforts and long-term monitoring of global environmental change. She currently leads the NASA Black Marble study on satellite-based global electricity access, reliability analysis and power outage monitoring, which also received the Kuno Award for Applied Sciences in 2022. Prior to joining EfSI, USRA, she was a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center with the Black Marble Science Team and developed machine learning approaches for nighttime remote sensing and received a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Arizona State University in 2019. Her research interests are centered around machine learning for scientific applications, with an emphasis on unsupervised learning, time-series analysis, foundation models, and analysis ready dataset generation for various downstream applications.

Julie M. Johnson

Julie Johnson is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency’s (CISA) first Attaché, serving in the United Kingdom. She serves as a focal point for international collaboration between CISA, government officials, and the private sector. Julie works across all critical infrastructure sectors to advance CISA’s missions in cybersecurity, physical security, and emergency communications. Previously, Julie served as a Regional Protective Security Advisor in New York City where she focused on transatlantic comms and microgrids, and as a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of State.