Crisis Management Speakers

Baroness Manningham-Buller

As Head of the Security Service, Eliza dealt with the wake of 9/11 and a growing threat from Al-Qaeda. As Chair of the Wellcome Trust, one of the world’s largest charitable funders of medical research, she oversaw an organisation that both predicted and led work tackling the Covid-19 pandemic and its long-term effects. With insights and lessons on leadership from throughout her career, Eliza explains that leaders' priorities must change in order to keep pace with the constant emergence of new, often unimagined challenges, from existential threats such as climate change and pandemics, to urgent demands to address diversity and fairness.

Professor Kevin Fong

Kevin is both astrophysicist, medical specialist and a natural storyteller. After working with NASA he specialised in lessons from the effects of extremes on human physiology. He is also part of hospital Emergency Response and Major Incident Planning, an air ambulance Emergency Doctor, and worked as a National Clinical Advisor to NHS England during the Covid-19 pandemic. All of this provides a unique insight into how we all cope with risk, planning and making decisions under pressure, as well as teamwork. He’s the author of Extremes – probing the limits of the human body, and hosted 13 Minutes to the Moon, the acclaimed, international hit podcast about the 19...

Rt Hon Rory Stewart

Before serving as a cabinet minister and making a widely-praised contribution to the Conservative Party leadership contest, Rory governed two Iraqi provinces, set up a charity, trekked across Afghanistan, and lectured at Harvard. Together with Alastair Campbell, he hosts the podcasts The Rest is Politics and Leading.

Adam Banks

Maersk, the world's largest shipping company, runs on technology - systems that track the whereabouts of millions of tonnes of cargo every minute of every day, everywhere in the world. When the company was hit by one of the most severe malicious cyberattacks ever, offices were disconnected, networks failed and computers went blank. Adam recounts a dramatic story of emergency procedures, sleepless nights, improvised systems and frenzied phone calls. A huge team effort kept the company operating, removed the malware, and rebuilt the crucial global network in what has become a lesson for others in dealing with this new type of threat.

Suzanne Williams

Having served as the most senior ranking officer in the negotiation unit at Scotland Yard, Suzanne has advised foreign and domestic governments, worked with the FBI, and lectured at Harvard and the Said Business School on themes including risk, crisis response, negotiation, security, and trust. Suzanne also applies negotiation strategies to business and politics, looks at the intersection between leadership, communication and performing in stressful environments, and recounts stories from her career, offering a glimpse into the extraordinary and high-pressured life of a hostage negotiator.

Brett Bruen

Having served as a diplomat and foreign service officer for the US State Department, Brett was appointed to the White House as Director of Global Engagement under the Obama administration. With a wide-ranging view on political and diplomatic relations around the world, as well as America's role internationally, he now considers the key issues any organisation needs to prepare for. Additionally he looks at how to plan for the unexpected, the effects of policy shifts, what effective leadership looks like, and how to assess risk whether it's cybersecurity, ethics, or market fluctuations.

Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton

One of the most senior women in the fire service, Sabrina combines experience in making tough decisions in pressurised, stressful situations with studying the behavioural neuroscience of decision making. As well as insights into leadership and risk, her own personal story - homeless at 15, a firefighter at 18, combining frontline service with studying for a PhD in Psychology - is a lesson in resilience, determination and achievement.

Mark Carney

Mark was the first non-British Governor since the BoE’s foundation in 1694. He increased the policy tools and designed stress tests to measure banks’ vulnerability to climate risk. As UN Special Envoy for Climate Action & Finance, Mark now analyses the path to net zero, believing it should be taken into account in every financial decision. He also offers a broad macro outlook.

Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam was Deputy Chief Medical Officer. He led on health protection and played a significant part in the UK's response to the covid pandemic.