Our team

Martyn is an experienced strategic leader, passionate about enabling organisations prepare for, and adapt to, the biggest challenges of our time. He leads the world’s largest business resilience network, Resilience First, the business-focused arm of Resilience Rising, a global consortium working together to accelerate a safe, resilient and sustainable future for all. Prior to this Martyn spent 11 years at the global engineering giant Wood Plc, where he was responsible for corporate strategy, organisational design and leading the pivot towards the energy transition. Martyn is a scientist by training and has two degrees from Edinburgh University. He started his career at Wood Mackenzie where he focused on corporate strategy and competitive intelligence. Martyn subsequently helped shape the investment portfolio of an innovation fund before joining Wood.

Visit Martyn's LinkedIn profile here.

Mike Rooney was previously the Chief Operating Officer of London First (2004-2018) and was responsible for member management, commercial development and company support services. Before joining London First in 2002 as Commercial Director, he was Chairman and Chief Executive of Langdon’s Foods Plc.

He has had a wide experience of the dairy industry having worked during the 1980s and 1990s in senior management positions for Dairy Crest Foods Plc and as Household Director responsible for the doorstep delivery business. His early career was spent in marketing and advertising, working with leading advertising agencies including CDP and Inter Public as an account manager.

Visit Michael's LinkedIn profile here.

Beena is responsible for the strategic partnership and engagement direction of Resilience First’s corporate membership base and networks.

With over 20 years’ experience in the membership sector, Beena was previously the Events Director at London First, where she grew their programme of membership engagement through an expanded calendar of events with senior executives and politicians, whilst at the same time leading on large-scale commercial summits (including East West Institute’s second Worldwide Cyber Security Summit) and awards ceremonies. Beena also spearheaded Skills London, the UK’s largest careers fair for 15 to 24 years old, and the London Planning Awards, organised in partnership with the Mayor of London. 

Prior to that, Beena was the Head of Membership at the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain (FCCGB), where she grew their membership base and introduced new member services to increase the network’s engagement. At the FCCGB, Beena also had the opportunity to work with the French government as well as HRH The Prince of Wales.

Beena currently sits on the Board of the Global Tech Advocates Future of Work Committee and is excited to also recently be appointed to the International Security Expo Advisory Council.

Outside of work, Beena enjoys life with her family, yoga and travelling.

Visit Beena's LinkedIn profile here.

Alastair was appointed Europe’s first city Chief Resilience Officer in 2014 through the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities network. As CRO for the UK city of Glasgow, he reported to offices in New York and London and played an active and leading role in a network of cities from across the world. He set up and led a sub-set of post-industrial cities with participants from Europe, USA, China and Australia. In 2016 he delivered Glasgow’s first Resilience Strategy, with its focus on civic participation, economy, place, and local communities before, in the following years, acting as a consultant with Greater Manchester on its Resilience Strategy.

Most recently, Alastair was working on the Grenfell Recovery programme in London, focusing particularly on the health impacts and public health management for those affected by the tragedy. During the pandemic, Alastair was with local government in central and west London acting on governance of the COVID response.

A former local government Director, Alastair has an accomplished history in cross-sectoral partnering bringing together public, private, academia and local communities.

With Resilience First, Alastair is a consultant working on climate resilience and supports a range of other activities encouraging business resilience engagement.

Visit Alastair's profile here.

Born and raised in Venice, Italy, Laura obtained two master’s degrees in Languages, Economic & Legal Institutions of East Asia, and Advertising: Art Direction & Copywriting and has worked in several countries.

As a marketing strategist, 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 gain insights and adapt to a variety of professional cultures.

She is a member of the Tate Museum and enjoys fine-dining, basketball, yoga and meditation.

Visit Laura’s LinkedIn profile here.

Guilherme is an MBA graduate from London School of Commerce and holds a BA in Business & Management from Henley Business School, University of Reading.

He has previously completed an internship in the convergence of digital technologies and financial services. He has a keen interest in business resilience and risk management.

Guilherme likes to keep abreast of current developments and is actively engaged in broadening both his perspective and his experience.

Personally, he was a competitive swimmer and enjoys exercising and playing tennis.

Visit Guilherme's LinkedIn profile here.