A resilient future

A resilient future: Building organisational and societal resilience

Businesses and society are recovering from a series of disruptive events that we were ill-prepared for.  We are also comprehending the enormity and long-term ramifications of trends such as climate change, biodiversity loss, political uncertainty, social change, economic turbulence, and rapid digitalisation.  Resilience is not only about preparing for and bouncing back from shocks and disruptions but also adapting to challenges to prosper and be future-ready. 

The 2023 Cranfield alumni conference will examine two interrelated questions. First, what does it take to build a more resilient organisation? And second, what role does business play in societal resilience? 

All Cranfield alumni are invited to join faculty, alumni and guest speakers who will help you to consider connected resilience by considering all five capitals (natural capital, financial capital, social capital, human capital and built capital) and how they impact each other.

Core topics include:

• Connected resilience and the five capitals
• Natural capital and built capital
• Financial capital and the global economy
• Human and social capital
• Cross sector lessons from finance, aviation and tourism, and cyber experts

In addition, Lord Toby Harris, Chair of the National Preparedness Commission, President of the Institute of Strategic Risk Management, and Visiting Professor of Resilience at Cranfield University will be exploring whether the UK is prepared for the unthinkable and uncertain.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to attend an informal drinks reception to reconnect and network with staff, alumni and friends of Cranfield.

If you are having any issues accessing your alumni account or booking onto the event please email alumni@cranfield.ac.uk and we will be happy to help

Programme & speakers

Conference chair:

Professor David Denyer, Professor of Leadership and Organisational Change and Strategic Business Director. 

David is Professor of Leadership and Organisational Change and Strategic Business Director at Cranfield School of Management. He has published a large number of important and highly cited articles and book chapters. He is strongly committed to, and has a significant track record of, developing the next generation of researchers. 

Conference programme and speakers: 

Richard Archdeacon (MBA 1982) Advisory CISO, CISCO International

Dr Chibuzo Ejiogu, Reader in Human Resource Management

Professor Jim Harris, Professor of Environmental Technology

Lord Toby Harris, Chair, National Preparedness Commission

Lord Toby Harris was made a Life Peer in June 1998 and has been Chair of the Labour Peers since 2012. He stood down from Parliament’s Joint Committee on National Security at the beginning of 2021, having been a member for most of the last decade.  He has also been at various times a member of the House of Lords’ Select Committees on Life Beyond COVID, on Democracy and Digital Technologies, on Personal Internet Security, and on the Olympic and Paralympic Legacy (which he chaired). 

Outside Parliament, he chairs the National Preparedness Commission (whose objective is to promote better preparedness for a major crisis or incident).  He is also President of the Institute of Strategic Risk Management.  In 2016 and in 2021, he conducted Independent Reviews for the Mayor of London on London’s Preparedness to Respond to a Terrorist Attack.  In addition, he chairs the Independent Advisory Group on Ethics for the National Crime Agency and two regulatory bodies (the General Dental Council, which regulates dental professionals; and the Fundraising Regulator, which oversees charitable fundraising).

He is a former Council Leader, led the Labour Group on the London Assembly for four years, and was the founding Chair of the Association of London Government. He was also Chair of National Trading Standards (responsible for delivering national and cross-boundary consumer protection enforcement activity) from 2013 to 2021

Dr Lyn Lanka, Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour, Organisational Behaviour and Applied Psychology

Anita Mendiratta, Special Advisor to the Secretary General UNWTO

A globally recognised and respected Tourism, Aviation and Development practitioner, author, diplomat, and on-air personality, Anita leads ANITA MENDIRATTA & Associates - WWW.ANITAMENDIRATTA.COM - an international consulting firm working closely with senior leaders in governments, businesses, and international organisations. With 20+ years of professional and living experience across almost all continents, Anita is admired for having an innate ability to feel the ‘heartbeat’ behind the economic, social, political and environmental dynamics of nations.

Professor Joe Nellis, (PhD in the School of Management 1990) Professor of Global Economy and Deputy Dean of Cranfield School of Management

Dr Fabian Steinmann (Visiting research student in Transport Systems 2017), Lecturer in Organisational Resilience and Change

Dr Fabian Steinmann is a Lecturer in Organisational Resilience and Change at Cranfield School of Management. His research area focuses on resilience, and in his PhD Fabian analyzed the UK air transportation system. His work provided empirical evidence of where and how features of resilience are already being used in the operation and highlighted opportunities for organizations to implement the concept of resilience.

Mike Sutliff, Senior Lecturer in Innovation and Change

Dr Rosina Watson (PhD in the School of Management 2018), Head of Sustainable Business Group and Associate Professor of Sustainability

Paul Williams, Managing Director, Phoenix Resilience

Paul has over 30 years of experience in banking technology infrastructure, operational resilience & cyber.  Gained mainly in international investment banks, he joined the Bank of England in 2014 to support the development of the Bank’s approach to Operational Resilience, including cyber.  As Head of the Operational Risk & Resilience Specialist Supervision Division, Paul drove & supported various initiatives, most notably developing and implementing the ground-breaking operational resilience policy; oversight of the cyber assessment programme (CBEST) and associated regulatory assessment approaches.

His work involved close collaboration with finance sector firms and domestic and international public authorities.  Paul was the founding chair of the Bank of England’s Cross Market Operational Resilience Cyber Collaboration Group.  At the Bank, Paul was also a founding member and latterly co-Chair of the G7 Finance Ministers & Central Bank Governor’s Cyber Expert Group. He was also the founding Chair of the European Central Bank’s Systemic Cyber Group, where he oversaw the development of a key paper on systemic cyber risk within financial services.  Paul now provides private client advisory services on operational resilience & cyber.  He is a Commissioner of the UK’s National Preparedness Commission (chaired by Lord Harris), whose mission is to promote better preparedness for a major crisis or incident in the UK, and he is a Special Advisor to PwC.

Location & travel details

Vincent Building, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL. 

Download a visitor guide including map, directions and health and safety information.

Accommodation 

Please contact Cranfield Management Development Centre directly (T) +44 1234 751122 for accommodation bookings. 

When booking, please quote “alumni” to receive a special rate of £92.15 incl VAT for Thursday night stay and £75.00 incl VAT for Friday night stay, this rate is on a single occupancy basis. If guests would like to book a Double occupancy bedroom, a supplement charge of £27.00 per room per night will apply.

Who should attend

All alumni, students and friends of Cranfield.

Cost & concessions

The cost to attend is £75 per delegate.