Our team

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.

Visit Rick’s LinkedIn profile here.

Seth Schultz, former Chief Executive of Resilience Rising, has a long track record of building consensus and initiating change in the field of sustainable development, and of raising international awareness on the role of cities in tackling climate change.

With over 20 years of experience, Seth’s background is as a geologist and environmental scientist. Driven by the need to create change in urban sustainability he has worked with leading and innovative organizations in this space including the Louis Berger Group, the US Green Building Council, the Clinton Foundation, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the Global Covenant of Mayors, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), where he was Co-Chair of the Scientific Steering Committee for Cities IPCC and served as a lead author on the ground breaking IPCC Special Report on 1.5 Degrees.

His recent work has focused on turning theory to practice, whether developing a global standard for Greenhouse Gas Emissions in cities, founding new organizations such as The Coalition for Urban Transitions, or a hard-hitting report on Mayoral powers and the ability and need for city leaders to become global change makers.

Seth sits on various boards and advisory councils, is a sought-after speaker and guest lecturer, and has authored numerous articles, reports, blogs and thought leadership pieces around the world. He has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Binghamton University.

Visit Seth’s LinkedIn profile here.

Theo previously worked as a Campaign Manager at Resilience Rising. Prior to this he worked for the Resilience Shift.

He has a background in campaigns and coalition building where he has worked at the national and sub-national level across Europe, North America and Africa within the private and public sector.

In 2021 he was seconded from the Resilience Shift to the UN Climate Champions team to coordinate the Race to Resilience campaign and establish the Resilience Hub at COP26, the first-time resilience has had a permanent home at a COP.

His professional and personal interests include mobilising non-state actors to understand and build resilience to the impacts of climate change and expanding opportunities for young people to participate in policy making and advocacy.

He holds a first-class degree in International Relations and is slowly improving at Spanish.

Born and raised in Venice, Italy, Laura obtained two master’s degrees in Languages, Economic & Legal Institutions of East Asia from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and Advertising: Art Direction & Copywriting from the European Institute of Design. She worked in several countries before settling in the UK in 2014.

As a marketing strategist, she plays a crucial role in planning and delivering a programme of activities to engage and grow Resilience First’s membership base.

Laura has gained a wealth of knowledge while creating and delivering engaging, effective, and often award-winning communications campaigns across digital and traditional channels. She is multilingual and that along with her global work experience has allowed Laura the opportunity to explore and adapt to a variety of professional cultures.

Visit Laura’s LinkedIn profile here.

Swaraj is a recent graduate from King’s College London, with a Master’s degree in International Relations. He is also a freelance journalist, who has written several articles for geopolitical publications. He has a keen interest in current affairs, especially in topics that merge the business and political worlds.