The Resilient
Renewable Society
(R2S)

Ji-Eun Byun

Ji-Eun Byun is Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Imperial College London (ICL).
Ji-Eun's research group works on probabilistic and computational methods for reliability, resilience, and risk assessment of complex infrastructure systems under uncertainty. Key research themes include: Bayesian network methodology for high-dimensional systems; system reliability analysis of networked infrastructure; reliability-based optimisation and decision-support; and AI/ML methods for surrogate modelling and inference. Application domains span rail networks, power and energy grids, transport systems, and earthquake disaster risk.
Ji-Eun leads the development of open-source toolkits for scalable system reliability and Bayesian network inference, including MBNpy.
Ji-Eun previously held a Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Technical University of Munich and completed a PhD at Seoul National University.

The Rt. Hon. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen

Lord George Robertson is a Labour Party politician who served as the 10th Secretary General of NATO from 1999 to 2004. He was Secretary of State for Defence from 1997 to 1999, before becoming a life peer as Baron Robertson of Port Ellen, of Islay in Argyll and Bute. Robertson first entered the House of Commons as the Labour MP for Hamilton in 1978 and won five subsequent general elections. He served as Chairman of the Labour Party in Scotland and was appointed to the Privy Council. Robertson has received numerous honours, including a total of 12 Honorary doctorates from various universities and is a Senior Counsellor at The Cohen Group, a consulting firm in Washington DC. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Scotland.

Professor Chris Hankin

Chris Hankin is a Fellow of the Institute for Security Science and Technology and a Professor of Computing Science.

He was Deputy Principal of the Faculty of Engineering from September 2006 until October 2008. He was Pro Rector (Research) from June 2004 until September 2006. He was Dean of City and Guilds College from 2000-2003.

His research is in cyber security, data analytics and semantics-based program analysis. He leads multidisciplinary projects focused on developing advanced visual analytics and providing better decision support to defend against cyber attacks. He directs the NCSC/EPSRC Research Institute in Trustworthy Inter-connected Cyber-Physical Systems (RITICS - ritics.org).

He was chair of the Lead Expert Group for the Government Office of Science’s Policy Futures Foresight report on Future Identities.
He is chair of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Europe Technology Policy Committee and past chair of the ACM Europe Council.

Lieutenant General (Retd) Richard Nugee CB CVO CBE

Lieutenant General Richard Edward Nugee, CB, CVO, CBE, is a retired senior British Army officer. He served in several senior roles including Defence Services Secretary (2015–2016) and Chief of Defence People (2016–2020), before ending his career leading a review into climate change policy in the Ministry of Defence between March 2020 and May 2021.

Professor Joseph Awetori Yaro

Professor Joseph Awetori Yaro joined the Department of Geography and Resource Development, at the University of Ghana in 2005, after completing his Ph.D. in Human Geography at the University of Oslo in 2004. He is the African Visiting Scholar at Carleton University’s Institute of African Studies for the 2011-2012 academic year. He is the corresponding editor of the Ghana Journal of Geography and the immediate past Director of the Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana (2018 – 2021). Currently, he’s the Principal, of the University of Ghana Accra City Campus.
Prof. Yaro has carried out consultancies and research projects sponsored by the Ministry of Lands, Forestry, and Mines; The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research; The University of Ghana Research and Conferences Grants; The World Bank; and The Centre for Environment and Development, the University of Oslo (funded by the Norwegian Research Council). His teaching and research interests reflect a combination of development studies and rural geography. He has done extensive research in rural northern Ghana since 1999. He has undertaken development-related research on environmental issues, poverty, food insecurity, sustainable rural livelihoods, land tenure, and climate change adaptation. Joseph is actively researching transnational land deals in Ghana in Collaboration with the Futures Agricultural Consortium (Institute of Development Studies, Sussex) and also starting new research on Building local adaptive capacity to climate change and climate variability in rural northern Ghana. He mentors students in carrying out annual evaluations of NGOs and conducting baseline studies of beneficiary communities in Ghana.

Qiong Wang

Qiong joined the Centre for Active Resilience and Security (CARS) in November 2024, delivering the Centre’s mission and programme of activities across research, internal and external engagement, innovation and education. Previously, she led the international research and innovation pre-award operations team at Queen Mary University of London and the research and innovation development team at SOAS University of London, with a focus on increasing and diversifying funding for international collaborative projects.

Professor Emma Howard Boyd

Emma Howard Boyd CBE has had a distinguished career focused on environmental issues and sustainable finance.
Emma is Chair of the independent National Heat Risk Commission, based at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she is also a Professor in Practice.
She served as Chair of the Environment Agency for England from 2016 to 2022 and was an ex officio board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs during the same period. Appointed by the Mayor of London, Emma chaired the London Climate Resilience Review, publishing a full set of recommendations in July 2024 to help the city prepare for the increasing impacts of climate change such as extreme heat, flooding, droughts, wildfires, sea level rise and storms.
Currently, Emma chairs ClientEarth’s Group Board and ClimateArc, and is a co-Chair of HERA (formerly Climate Resilience for All). She is also a member of the Supervisory Board of the European Climate Foundation.
Emma was the UK Commissioner to the Global Commission on Adaptation from 2018 until its sunset in January 2021.

Roger Hargreaves

Roger Hargreaves was appointed to his current role in July 2022. Prior to this, he was the Director of the Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat from October 2020. In a career spanning over 25 years, and a senior civil servant for 17 years, he has worked in seven different departments and agencies, in a mixture of policy, operational and delivery roles.

Professor Daniela Fecht

Daniela Fecht is an Associate Professor in Geospatial Health at the UK Small Area Health Statistics Unit (SAHSU), part of the MRC Centre for Environment and Health. Her research sits at the intersection of geography, environment, and public health.
Her work focuses on two main themes: (1) geographical variations in population health, with a particular emphasis on urban systems, and (2) environmental and health inequalities. Across both areas, she addresses the challenges of environmental change and explores how adaptation and mitigation strategies can help create healthier, more equitable communities.

Daniela's research is underpinned by the development of advanced geospatial methods to harness emerging data sources, improve spatial analyses, and better understand patterns of environmental exposure and disease.

As Head of the Geospatial Health Group within the School of Public Health, Daniela leads initiatives linking social and environmental data with longitudinal and administrative health datasets. A key focus of this work is the development and application of innovative geospatial approaches for exposure assessment and environmental health analysis using advanced Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Much of Daniela's research has significant public health and policy relevance. She is committed to communicating scientific findings to diverse audiences, both within academia and beyond, engaging with policymakers, journalists, NGOs, and the wider public to help translate research into real-world impact.

Amb. Dr. Ronen Hoffman

Dr. Ronen Hoffman is an Accomplished academic, public figure, manager, diplomat, and entrepreneur with extensive expertise in organizational leadership, think-tanks management, community relations, leadership and resilience development, education, international relations, and public policy. Notable positions include serving as Ambassador of Israel to Canada, Member of Knesset and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Co-Founder and Founding General Director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Director of the Herzliya Conference, Personal Aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Advisor to the Minister of Defense, and Coordinator of the Israeli delegation to peace negotiations with Syria. Founder of Kimama Educational Programs (Kimama Camps) and developer of the ELI (Exploration, Leadership & Innovation) program at Tel Aviv University.

Professor Małgorzata Zachara-Szymanska

Małgorzata Zachara-Szymańska is Professor of International Relations at Jagiellonian University in Kraków and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London. In 2024–2025, she was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute. She has published extensively on leadership, resilience and international relations. Her recent publications include Gangster Diplomacy and the Disordering of International Society (International Politics, 2026, co-authored with Richard Higgott) and Global Political Leadership: In Search of Synergy (Routledge, 2023). She is also a public academic, contributing to current debates in print and online media, as well as on radio and television.

Yosi Shneck

Consulting Boards and C-Level management in cyber, IT & OT systems, Critical Infrastructures, and electric utilities. Active in the Cyber entrepreneurship and business development unit at IEC, 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. Energy and Security Coordinator at EIS Council.
More than 50 years of experience in computer systems & technologies in utilities, including information systems, scientific applications, supercomputing & 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. Head of Cybergym steering committee.
Mr. Shneck has an M.A. in Business Administration and a B.A. in Computer Science.

Hannah Gurga

Hannah Gurga is Director General of the ABI, where she leads the insurance and long-term savings sector’s engagement with government, regulators, parliamentarians, and stakeholders. She is responsible for overseeing the ABI’s strategic direction and driving its member priorities, focusing on customer outcomes, investing in people and the planet and supporting an effective market.
Hannah also serves on the Boards of TheCityUK and the Fire Protection Association. She is a member of the Executive Committee of Insurance Europe, as well as the UK government’s Financial Inclusion Committee and Joint Fraud Taskforce.
With nearly 20 years of experience in financial services across public and private sectors, Hannah has previously held senior roles at the London Stock Exchange Group, LCH, and ICAP. She began her career in the civil service, serving in a number of government departments including HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office.

Tony Charge

Tony Charge is Founder and President of the Australian Risk Policy Institute and Chairman of the Global Risk Policy Network. His focus is to promote leadership paradigm change to enable effective, informed and pre-emptive decision-making across society in the age of digital transformation and disruption, and subject to rapid deterioration. This includes developing IA Intelligence Augmentation modules for digitalisation, with priority given to decision-science areas outside the scope of AI Artificial Intelligence, but essential for context, wholeness and awareness.

Tony initiated a partnership with the Electric Infrastructure Security (EIS) Council to introduce new thinking and approaches to enhance resilience of critical global infrastructure, at the earlier juncture of vulnerability – www.arpi.org.au.

Tony has a broad educational background and applies formal qualifications in legal practice, Strategic Risk Policy® and compliance management in his current roles: he is presently studying Quantum Meta-Physics. Tony is a member of the Australian Association of University Professors.

Professor Ian Spero

Professor Ian Spero is founder of the Agile Ageing Alliance (AAA), a social enterprise working to shape a brighter future for our older selves through innovation in technology, business models, services and housing.
For more than a decade, Ian has convened international policymakers, researchers, practitioners, innovators and industry leaders. He is lead author of ISO 25553: Smart Multigenerational Neighbourhoods - a new standard of living for the AI age - aligning housing, health, care, technology, mobility, digital infrastructure, public space and community life around people of all ages and abilities.
An Honorary Professor at UCL Bartlett School for Sustainable Construction, Ian previously led Spero Communications, advising governments, NGOs and industry on public-private partnerships and social impact. His current work focuses on turning bold, future-facing ideas into practical, scalable and sustainable change.

Professor Jerry John Kponyo

Prof. Jerry John Kponyo is a Professor in the Department of Telecommunication Engineering at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana, where he serves as Director of the Office of Grants and Research. He is the Principal Investigator and Scientific Director of the Responsible AI Lab (RAIL), an initiative supported by GIZ and the French Embassy in Ghana. He co-founded the Responsible AI Network (RAIN) Africa and chairs the AI working group of the ITU Academic Advisory on emerging technologies. With over 80 published articles and extensive research in AI, IoT, and intelligent systems, his work is focused on building AI solutions that are responsible, inclusive, and fit for the real world.

Professor Brian Collins

Professor Collins is currently the Vice Chairman of the National Preparedness Commission, whose mission is to help the UK be better prepared for an uncertain future.
Previously Professor Brian Collins took up the role of Professor of Engineering Policy at UCL on 1st August 2011 retiring as emeritus in 2020. He led the creation of a £278M capital investment programme in 14 Universities in the UK, UKCRIC, that invests in national critical infrastructure research, and founded the UCL Department Science Technology Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP)
Prior to joining UCL he was the UK Government Department for Transport’s (DfT) Chief Scientific Adviser (DCSA) and DCSA for the Department for Business Innovation and Skills BIS and prior to that BERR. He helped lead the creation of the network of CSAs and was involved in the studies that created the DCSA for national security.
He was Professor of Information Systems in Cranfield University at the Defence Academy from August 2003 to 2011.
Prior to these activities he was Global CIO for Clifford Chance, IT Director for the Wellcome Trust, Chief Scientist for all UK Intelligence Services and Director of Technology at GCHQ at the end of the 1980s. He was Deputy Director at RSRE just prior to privatisation into now what is Qinetiq and DSTL.
He was bestowed by Her Majesty the Queen the Honour of Companion of the Bath (CB) in the 2011 New Years Honours list. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2009
He holds a visiting Professorships at Southampton University and Honorary Doctorates at Kingston and City of London Universities.
He has an MA in Physics and a D.Phil in Astrophysics both from Oxford University.

Dr Deborah Petterson

Debs is the Director of Resilience and Emergency Management at the National Energy System Operator (NESO). NESO is responsible for delivering secure, affordable, and sustainable power, whilst delivering the government's Net Zero ambitions; Debs is responsible for ensuring the security and resilience of the UK's energy system at this time of heightened global insecurity.

Debs recently left Whitehall, with over two decades of experience with roles in national security, cybersecurity, defence, and critical national infrastructure resilience. Her career has spanned roles in energy, climate, and cyber security, where her focus has been making the UK a safer and more resilient nation.

Andrew O’Neil

Andrew O’Neil is the Founder and Senior Risk and Resilience Advisor at Operational Outcomes Advisory, where he helps organizations strengthen operational resilience, stress-test risk assumptions, and turn preparedness frameworks into practical action. With over a decade of experience spanning federal emergency management, critical infrastructure, and enterprise resilience, he brings a systems-focused perspective on how institutions, infrastructure, and communities perform under stress. Andrew spent nine years at the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, working across disaster preparedness and recovery, and later developed enterprise resilience programs at the New York Power Authority. His work focuses on closing the gap between planning and real-world readiness, with particular emphasis on whole-of-organization approaches to resilience. He holds certifications in business continuity, risk management, and cyber risk, and is based in Spain, where he advises clients across sectors.

Matt Killick

As Chief Operating Officer at St John Ambulance, Matt leads the Operations and Income Network that powers everything from first aid training and top quality event medical services including ambulance operations, to designing and sourcing the equipment and consumables that help save lives, this also includes how they fundraise for their mission to put the power of first aid into everyone’s hands.
Matt joined St John Ambulance from The Scouts, where he had been Executive Director of Operations. In this role, he was responsible for the safety and safeguarding of operations and growth.
Before this, Matt spent six years at the British Red Cross, first joining as UK Director Event First Aid & Ambulance Services before taking on the role of UK Director Crisis Response and Community Resilience. During his time at the Red Cross he led some of the largest operational responses in recent times responding to issues such as Covid, the Afghanistan evacuation and the conflict in Ukraine.
Matt was awarded a British Empire Medal in the 2021 Honours list for his work during Covid. He has over 30 years’ experience working for some of the largest charities across the UK, including Barnardo’s and Catch 22, combining senior operational and commercial roles.

Toby Wicks

Toby is a geographer and a humanitarian. His career has focused on introducing and applying innovations in data and technology to some of the world’s biggest challenges. Prior to joining REACT, Toby led a transformational change programme as the Chief of Data and Analytics at UNICEF, where he also managed responses in the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Libya, and Yemen. Toby’s early career was focused on geospatial data, including roles with the World Health Organisation, Ordnance Survey, and as a volunteer and board member with the NGO MapAction. He holds a PhD in remote sensing and an MBA from INSEAD.

Lord Toby Harris

Lord Toby Harris is Chair of the National Preparedness Commission. Since it was established in 2020, the Commission has been influential in the development of the UK Government Resilience Framework and Resilience Action Plan. It has established a reputation as the leading body promoting better preparedness for a major crisis or incident. Alongside this, he is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and Cranfield University, and Chair of the Fundraising Regulator. A Life Peer since 1998, he has built an exceptional career across public service, with senior roles in national security, policing, regulation and governance. He was a longstanding member of Parliament’s Joint Committee on National Security and has also served on several House of Lords select committees, including those on Life Beyond COVID, Democracy and Digital Technologies, Personal Internet Security, and the Olympic and Paralympic Legacy, which he chaired. Lord Harris has led major independent reviews for the Mayor of London on the capital’s preparedness to respond to terrorist attacks, and his review into the deaths of young people in prison custody, Changing Prisons, Saving Lives, was published by the Ministry of Justice in 2015.

* 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).

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.

Lihi Rotem Ganani

Lihi leads marketing, communications, community engagement, and international events for EIS Council and GINOM, driving brand growth, strategic partnerships, and global engagement initiatives across the resilience and crisis management sectors.

Previously, she worked at IE Business School in Madrid, where she designed innovation and entrepreneurship programs and built partnerships between startups, corporations, and academia. Earlier in her career, Lihi practiced law and served as a judicial advisor in Israel.

She holds a BA in Business, an LLB, an 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.

Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng, CBE, EBS, FREng

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 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.

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.

Ian Fox

Ian Fox is the Founder of Safer Spaces For All CIC, where he works at the intersection of education, public safety and national resilience policy. Following a multi-sector career spanning leadership, risk management and operational delivery, he now focuses on designing the social and cultural architecture of resilience, promoting preparedness, civic responsibility and compassion as shared societal values rather than emergency responses.

Ian is the author of several resilience frameworks, including Project Resilience UK, The Empty Minute Campaign, and The Zero-Responder Doctrine, which have established him as an emerging voice in advancing the UK's whole-of-society approach to resilience.

Prior to founding Safer Spaces For All, Ian established the Guest Safety Officer Lobby Group CIC, producing more than 50 podcasts exploring public venue safety, hospitality culture and leadership within the nighttime economy. This work highlighted the need to move beyond sector-specific advocacy towards a broader civic movement connecting government, business and communities.

Since 2025, Ian has spoken at the Security Journal UK Thought Leaders Conference in Manchester, ASC ConSec25, and co-hosted the Safer Spaces/ISRM webinar introducing Finland's Comprehensive Security Model to UK audiences. His work is increasingly recognised for reframing resilience as both a cultural and civic endeavour.

Through storytelling, creativity and collaboration, Ian aims to inspire greater public participation in resilience, using accessible and engaging approaches that empower younger generations to see preparedness as a positive, modern and shared responsibility.

Professor Raffaele M Della Croce Di Dojola

As a Visiting Professor at Imperial College's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, my work is dedicated to advancing innovation and financing for resilient infrastructure. Collaborating with the Centre for Active Resilience Security, I contribute to multidisciplinary research aimed at enabling society to adopt a systems approach to addressing risks and threats. My expertise in policy analysis, project finance, and economics informs my commitment to shaping sustainable cities and fostering low-carbon development.
With over three years of experience at Imperial College, including roles as Co-Director of the Singapore Green Finance Centre and Advanced Research Fellow at the Centre for Climate Finance and Investment, I have been actively involved in research, education, and policy engagement. My work has centered on unlocking solutions for institutional investors and driving impactful green finance initiatives in Southeast Asia. Currently, as a Lead Author for the IPCC AR7 cycle, I focus on adaptation finance, reflecting my dedication to addressing global climate challenges.

Rick Cudworth

Rick is a leading authority in organisational resilience and strategic risk mitigation and is a founding partner of resilience and crisis specialists ResilienC. With over 20 years’ experience as a Partner at Deloitte and KPMG, he was also Chair of the British Standards Institution Technical Committee for Continuity and Resilience, where he has been influential in the development of British and International Standards in the field. He is a visiting professor at King’s College London and visiting fellow at Cranfield University School of Management. He was a contributor and co-editor of the National Preparedness Commission’s report: Resilience Reimagined: A Practical Guide for Organisations.

Dr Bryan Wells

Prof Bryan Wells is a visiting Professor at Imperial College London, UK, and Chair of the Board of Directors of the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Belgium.
In June 2025, Prof Wells completed six years as NATO Chief Scientist. Before this, he was the UK Ministry of Defence’s Head Strategic Research and International Engagement. Additionally, he has been Chair of the European Defence Agency’s Research & Technology Steering Board (2016-2018).

Prof 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 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.

Prof 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.

Professor Caroline Field

Caroline Field is the Co-Founder & Executive Director of Centre for Whole of Society Resilience.
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

Helen Goulden OBE

As Innovation & Partnerships Lead at Lloyds Banking Group, Helen is responsible for leading the development of innovative partnerships to meet the Group’s purpose of Helping Britain Prosper. Prior to joining Lloyds Banking Group, Helen spent eight years as Chief Executive Officer of The Young Foundation, supporting stronger communities and creating the national infrastructure for scaling community research and social innovation across the UK.

Prior to joining The Young Foundation, she spent nine years at Nesta as Executive Director, supporting, funding and scaling innovation in civil society, social tech, government, arts and education. Previous roles have included work within the private sector developing digital strategies and solutions for global corporate clients. She spent five years consulting in the Cabinet Office, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), developing national innovation programmes for local government and leading R&D for interactive TV public services.

Helen is a Commissioner for the National Preparedness Commission, which exists to promote better preparedness in households, communities and businesses to respond to major crises or incidents and author of The Young Foundation’s ‘Community Not Catastrophe’ report. She is also a trustee of Figurative, an investment fund supporting social impact in arts and culture. Helen was awarded an OBE for services to development of sustainable communities in the 2023 New Year Honours List.

Professor Rosehanna Chowdhury

Rosehanna is a senior executive leader, with a distinguished career at the heart of the UK Government, where she shaped national policy and directed large-scale operations in national security, resilience and public policy.
Most recently, as Director for Resilience and Recovery at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, she served as Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for some of the UK’s most high-profile national operations and coordinated the mobilisation of reception centres at all major ports of entry for Ukrainian refugees fleeing war. Rosehanna has advised Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, and senior boards on risk, resilience, and security. She has held leadership roles across the Cabinet Office and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, managing portfolios spanning national resilience, change and transformation, and global communication campaigns. Beyond government, Rosehanna is a strong advocate for bridging the gap between policy and academia to ensure research has real-world impact. She is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London, an Emeritus Governor of the LSE, and a Cambridge University Science and Policy Fellow, where she also serves on the Fellowship assessment panel. She sits on the Advisory Board of the Crisis Response Journal, and is a Fellow of both the Business Continuity Institute and the Institute of Strategic Risk Management.

Professor Deeph Chana

Prof Chana has joined DIANA as its first Managing Director, bringing with him extensive experience of leading innovative science and technology research and development in academia, industry and government, focusing on global risks and next generation infrastructure security. He is joining DIANA from Imperial College London where he was Director of the Institute for Security Science and Technology and Co-Director of the Centre for Financial Technology within Imperial College Business School.
Prof Chana is interested in low probability high impact events and their ramifications on sustainable security and resilience and has published on the use of machine learning methods for defensive and offensive cyber-physical security, developed advanced technologies for
mitigating physical security risks and set national and international policy related to the security of space borne systems as part of the UK government.
Prof Chana has consulted and lectured worldwide with businesses and governments on the nature and implications of disruptive and emerging technologies, and he has several decades
of experience in technology entrepreneurship, covering a wide range of applications spanning quantum cascade laser detectors to materials science.
Established by the current Secretary General, Prof Chana was the founding Chair of NATO's Advisory Group on Emerging and Disruptive Technologies and is currently a high-level science
advisor to the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
Prof Chana holds MSci and PhD degrees in Physics from King’s College London.

Avner Hilu

A product and delivery professional specializing in complex software platforms across technology-driven industries. As CPO, Avner drives Ginom’s product strategy and execution, ensuring powerful capabilities are delivered through intuitive, user-focused design.

Paul Olivett

Paul Olivett is a Producer at the Moving Picture Institute (MPI), where he plays a pivotal role in securing funding to produce films that celebrate freedom and individual liberty.

As Co-Executive Producer of MPI’s original narrative feature One Second After an adaptation of William
R. Forstchen’s acclaimed novel he has helped bring this powerful story of resilience and societal collapse to the screen. His strategic fundraising and partnership development support MPI’s mission to nurture filmmakers committed to principled storytelling and cultural impact.