Media contacts
Resilience First is a not-for-profit membership organisation with the stated mission to ‘improve urban resilience for business communities in the UK and beyond’. Resilience First is a member of the Resilience Rising consortium and is backed by leading businesses including Arup, Barclays, Facebook, HSBC UK, Intel, Marsh, Mastercard, Resilience Shift, Santander, Thames Water, and UK Power Networks.
Any media wishing to inquire about the work of Resilience First or obtain insight, interviews or quotes from any of our panel of experts, please contact Beena Chester on 07538 518936 or e-mail bchester@resiliencefirst.co.uk.
Simon Collins is the Chairman of Resilience First. Until 2017 he was the UK Chairman and Senior Partner of KPMG and a member of the KPMG Global Board and Executive Committee. Simon qualified as a chartered accountant before moving into banking at SG Warburg & Co, then NatWest Markets where he became a Managing Director and Head of the Global Debt Structuring and Private Placement Group. He is a Trustee of Pancreatic Cancer UK and chairs the RAF100 Appeal. Simon can comment on issues of corporate resilience at the C-suite level.
Lord Toby Harris is a member of the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy. He is the UK Co-ordinator of the Electrical Infrastructure Security Council and chairs the Independent Reference Group for the National Crime Agency. In 2016, he conducted an Independent Review for the Mayor of London on London’s Preparedness to Respond to a Major Terrorist Incident. At the request of the Minister for Prisons, he led an Independent Review on the Deaths of Young People in Prison Custody. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Resilience First. Lord Toby can comment on issues of security resilience and politics.
Former Brigadier John Deverell CBE held the post of Director Defence Diplomacy in Whitehall and acted as senior military adviser to Chief Constables across southern England. On leaving government service, John first joined the Executive Leadership Team of Invensys plc, with responsibility for crisis management, then moved to M:Communications, working on reputation and crisis management solutions. Since then he has led his own company in promoting and providing the Prepared Mind approach to dealing with potential crises for governments and commercial organisations - at www.thepreparedmind.net
At the same time John continues to work for the MOD, FCO, DFID and the Home Office on a project basis. He has appeared many times on BBC TV and radio, commenting on strategy, risk and security. A graduate of Sandhurst, he has an MPhil from the University of Cambridge in International Relations and a diploma in Negotiation and Mediation from the University of Kent. John is a member of the Resilience First Advisory Board.
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