Bios of the other speakers at the Business Resilience Forum in London

Dr Sandra Bell, Senior Research Fellow, Royal United Services Institute

Sandra received a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Physics from the University of London before studying for a doctorate at the Royal Military College of Science, Cranfield University where she received a PhD in Military Science with a thesis in "Personnel Blast Protection". In 1991 Sandra took up an appointment as a scientist at the Defence Research Agency, which subsequently became QinetiQ, Europe's largest Defence and Security science and technology organization.

Sandra initially specialized in personnel protection and acoustic stealth for ships and submarines and subsequently became Technical Director (Innovation & Strategy) where she was responsible for technology management and strategy within QinetiQ. Immediately prior to joining RUSI, Sandra headed QinetiQ's Technology & Business Strategy Consultancy Business with a suite technology strategy consulting services to help organizations, both corporate and government, harness technology for business benefit.

Kevin Blythe, Head of UK Security and Asset Protection, Eli Lilly & Company Ltd.

From 1981 to 2004 Kevin Blythe served as a Cambridgeshire Police Officer. Sixteen of his twenty three years police service were spent on secondment with No 5 Regional Crime Squad, The South East Regional Crime Squad and The National Crime Squad. In the last five years of his service he spent time working under the management of the Anti Terrorist Squad at New Scotland Yard, the National Crime Squad Professional Standards Unit and two years engaged in the pro-active targeting of animal rights extremists.In March 2004 he left the police service to take up his current position with Eli Lilly where he now has responsibility for all aspects of site, personnel, product and supply chain security across a number of facilities in the UK ranging from R&D, manufacturing and bulk chemical plants to the UK affiliate Headquarters.In January 2006 he accepted the position as Chair of the Pharmaceutical Industry Security Forum, an organisation responsible for controlled exchanges of information regarding security amongst the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and related industries.

Ian Cameron, Head of Operations, Met Office

Ian joined the Met Office in 1983 and originally trained as a weather forecaster. His early years were spent forecasting for the RAF and Army, including a spell in the RAF Reserve to provide weather support to the Balkans conflict and the first Gulf War. In recent years he has led the Met Office's operations to all its customers both Government, Public, Defence and commercial business customers.Ian has a wide range of experience in delivering services to minimise business and personal risks during events such as planning for the cold winter of 05/06.

Recently Ian represented the Met Office in COBR meetings during the floods of July 2007 and the recent storm surge in Eastern England. Ian is a lead in providing Met Office expertise into strategic infrastructure and personnel plans for severe weather and the influences of climate change in the UK and around the world.

Frederick Chedham, Head of Business Resilience, Detica

Frederick trained as an army officer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Before retirement as a colonel, he served in command and staff appointments around the world. He undertook 11 tours of duty in Northern Ireland and served in the Balkans, Africa, Far East and Middle East. Frederick served in both Gulf wars with United States forces and commanded an infantry battalion on operations in Afghanistan. He served as an instructor at the military staff colleges of the UK and the USA.Prior to joining Detica Frederick ran a niche security consultancy conducting threat and risk assessments on organisations within the UKs Critical National Infrastructure. He gained extensive experience in advising clients on resilience planning and risk mitigation.

Steve Cummings, Director, Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure

Steve Cummings is the Director of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (http://www.cpni.gov.uk/) which began operating in February 2007. He was previously the Director of the National Infrastructure Security Coordination Centre (NISCC). He is also the senior responsible owner of the Critical National Infrastructure Protection Plan under the Government counter terrorist strategy, CONTEST.Steve has been a security professional for over 20 years fulfilling a range of operational and corporate positions. He was awarded the OBE in 1996.

Dan Hooton, Group Head of Security, Prudential PLC.Dan joined Prudential in September 2005, after 10 years in the Royal Navy, and 3 years in the security industry. During his time in the Armed Forces, Dan served in a number of countries including Norway, USA, The Caribbean and the Mediterranean. He also served on exchange with the British Army in Northern Ireland. As a consultant, he has worked extensively in the maritime security sector, primarily carrying out risk assessment and mitigation.Dan graduated from the School of Management, Southampton University in 2005 where he undertook an MSc in Corporate Risk and Security Management, covering amongst other subjects, risk management, crisis management, operational risk and strategic planning.Dan currently manages operational security for Prudential PLC, which is defined as political, personal and physical risk. A number of resources, both external and internal as well as commercial and public information sources are used for this purpose. Each risk is then managed by developing a flexible framework to which applies a level of security relevant to the threat faced by the subject in question.

Richard Lovell-Knight, Managing Director - Corporate Security & Business Continuity, Deutsche Bank

Richard Lovell-Knight joined the Corporate Security and Business Continuity (CSBC) department at Deutsche Bank in September this year. He holds the posts of global head of business continuity, and head of the CSBC region covering UK, Eire, Russia, East Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Before September, he worked for three years in the Group Security Department of ABN AMRO Bank in Amsterdam, responsible for the global protective security function. Richard served in the UK Royal Military Police and as a military intelligence officer until 1992; he then joined UK Central Government in a security advisor's role, since subsumed into the new Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI).

Mark McCombe, CEO, HSBC Group Investments

Mark McCombe succeeded Alain Dromer as CEO of Group Investment Businesses with effect from 31st March 2007, leaving his previous role as Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Private Bank UK, Channel Islands & Luxembourg which he has occupied since 2005. Mark has had a 20 year career internationally at HSBC, with the exception of the period between 1990 and 1992, when he worked for Wells Fargo Bank in California. Prior to his current role, Mark was Deputy Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Turkey since March 2003. Having opened its first office as recently as 1990, HSBC Turkey grew to become the largest wholly owned foreign bank in the country with close to 2 million clients serviced across a network of 160 branches. As well as the retail business, HSBC Turkey offers a full range of banking services from corporate and commercial banking, to corporate finance advisory and treasury and capital markets. From 1998 to 2005, Mark worked in Paris, where he was Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Private Bank (France) SA. This business grew through the merger of HSBC's private banking operations with those of Republic National Bank of New York, which was acquired by HSBC in 1999. It offered a full range of tailored investment management solutions and discretionary portfolio management. Mark was also appointed a Director of HSBC Asset Management (Europe) during 2001.Prior to working in France, Mark spent six years in Hong Kong. The first part of this was spent in a Strategic Planning role, with responsibility for assessing new business initiatives and acquisition opportunities across Asia Pacific. Latterly Mark took up a responsibility for Property and Construction financing for some of Hong Kong's largest companies. During this time, he was able to be involved in a number of flagship construction projects, including financing related to Hong Kong's new airport.Mark is married with 3 children. He received his MA degree from Aberdeen University and also attended Wharton Business School. He was awarded an OBE in the Queen's New Year Honours list in 2006.

Simon Riggs, Global Head of IT Security, Reuters

Simon is accountable for ensuring security and service resilience across the Reuters operational domains. In doing so, he makes sure that it is innovative, transparent and driven by the core business goals of trust, immediacy and integrity.

Working with his global teams, as well as key trusted external partners, Riggs directs the strategic network security, threat and vulnerability, incident management and security governance agendas.

Riggs represents Reuters at the UK Security Service’s Critical National Infrastructure Protection forum. He sits on the Skybox Customer Advisory Board and Microsoft UK Security Council, as well as regularly speaking at industry events.

Having joined Reuters in 1997 Riggs has been based in both in London and New York undertaking a series of internal consultative reviews, before forming the IT Governance function and more recently, heading up the IT Security organisation. Riggs adopts a no-nonsense approach to security and focuses on execution and business need.

He previously spent 5 years working for Pepsi as a Business Analyst and Programme Manager, and is a passionate advocate of aligning security and IT service management.

David Roberts, Head of Sustainable Development & Business Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

David is a senior UK diplomat with over 30 years’ experience of delivering government policy and services in London and overseas. With a career providing wide exposure to international business, financial and economic affairs he is a specialist on Western Europe and Latin America. His various postings have included First Secretary (EU and Financial Affairs), British Embassy, Paris, Deputy Head of Hong Kong Department, FCO, and Deputy Ambassador, and Director of Trade & Investment and Consul General to Switzerland/LiechtensteinAs Deputy Ambassador and Consul General in Santiago, Chile, David was in charge of political and consular relations. In 1999 when Pinochet was suddenly arrested in London David succeeded in keeping staff, UK nationals and their families safe during the 16 months of his detention, amid huge demonstrations, bomb threats (up to 16 in one day) and the probability of reprisals from pro-Pinochet extremists had he died in custody. With business-as-usual suspended, he worked on contingency and evacuation planning, while preparing for an eventual return to normality using bilateral social projects and discreet political contacts with all factions (including the military and far Right). In 2005 David was appointed Head of Sustainable Development & Business Group, at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. In this role he planned and executed the merger and downsizing of two former policy groups, setting new strategic direction and boosting the FCO’s engagement with the private sector by introducing new services for firms. He wrote the UK Government’s first-ever strategy on international corporate responsibility and put it into effect.

Mark Stollery, Director, Security Information Service for Business Overseas (SISBO)

Mark Stollery joined the Security Information Service for Business Overseas (SISBO) in March 2007, with the task of enhancing the Service over a three-year transition period. He was previously Director of Research and Intelligence at a prominent London-based business risk consultancy, joining when it had 6 employees and leaving it four years later when it had 2500.

Before that, he had a career in the Foreign Office (FCO), specialising in counter-terrorism from 1988-2003, based in London and Islamabad; during that period he was at the heart of the UK's response to 9/11 and other incidents, was a founder member of the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC), and received a commendation from FBI Director Louis Freeh for operational work. He previously dealt with Latin America, southern Africa, the EU and multilateral economics. In his early career he was an officer in the Royal Navy, and is (just) old enough to have fought in the Falklands, where he was a Spanish interpreter and wrote the surrender document. As Head of SISBO, Mark is based at the FCO but is a consultant funded by the private sector. This, together with his experience of both commercial consulting and central Government, puts him in an ideal position to straddle the divide between Government and business, educating each side about the other and breaking down traditional barriers of unfamiliarity and misunderstanding.

Mark is a member of the Risk and Security Management Forum (RSMF) and one of the UK's three Government representatives in the International Security Management Association (ISMA). He holds degrees in languages and politics from Cambridge University, and an MBA from the London Business School. He is fluent in French, passably rusty in Spanish, and dreadful in Urdu. In his spare time he sings choral music in the Chapel Royal and elsewhere, researches family history, and sits as a JP in south-west London.

Harold W. Taylor, Manager, Security Data Research and Analysis, FedEx

Harold W. Taylor has managed and led a group of Agents, Analysts and Security Data System Specialists at the FedEx family of companies since 1994, providing strategic and tactical intelligence to hundreds of security investigators and management, and assistance to law enforcement agencies around the world.

Prior to FedEx, Harold was Director of Loss Prevention, Safety and Security for Fred P. Gattas Stores, Inc., worked in various management roles at Burlington Coat Factory Stores, managed a Research Lab at the University of Memphis, and completed the Law Enforcement Ranger Program at the University of Memphis. He has been a practitioner of analytical security and loss prevention since 1986.Harold recently completed an eighteen-month mobilization as the Personal Security Detail (PSD) Team Leader for General Augustus Leon Collins, United States Army, in support of the 2nd Marine Division, USMC, in Iraq. During the same OIF 3 deployment, he also managed the day to day operations of the Force Protection Platoon for Forward Operating Base Kalsu in North Babil Province, Iraq (Babylon). Harold led hundreds of combat missions, trained hundreds of Iraqi Police and Military Personnel, and won many decorations, including the Army Bronze Star. Previous military leadership included military intelligence and reconnaissance. He is now proudly retired from military service.

Harold has merged computer programming, statistical analysis, econometrics, business intelligence, military, law enforcement, security and loss prevention backgrounds to form a unique blend of business and organizational resilience. The time has now come for the convergence of protective and risk management organizations, mass collaboration and analytical decision-making sciences. He is currently a leader in that convergence at FedEx Corporate Services.

Steve Willis, Head of Insurance Risk and Business Continuity, RWE npower

Steve Willis has worked in utility insurance for most of his working life, having seen the change in the electricity industry from Government ownership to PLC to acquisition by an oversees parent, including a period looking after Thames Water Insurance interests. He is Head of Insurance Risk and Business Continuity for RWE npower and his role encompasses heading up crisis planning and security, including crisis management and scenario exercises at executive level. He is project manager for the pandemic preparedness programme. A counsel member of AIRMIC (Association Of Insurance and Risk Managers) he chairs the Electricity Special Interest Group. He is a member of Lloyds Fly Fishing Society and his other interests include looking after six newly acquired chickens and a part ownership of a small herd of Dexter steers.