Charlotte Brown
BE, PhD in Disaster Management
Joint Managing Director
Charlotte enjoys working with organisations managing risk and uncertainty, specialising in risk management, decision-making, and organisational resilience. Having started her career as a civil engineer Charlotte now works at the interface of physical and social science. She has a particular strength in translating technical information into practical advice and frameworks for organisations.
Charlotte regularly works with critical infrastructure/lifeline utilities and is an active member of the Canterbury Lifelines Group. Charlotte gained considerable experience participating in and researching the aftermath of the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes and has extensive networks in the natural hazards research and practice community, including a leadership role in QuakeCORE.
Tracy Hatton
BA, MBA (Dist,), PhD in Disaster Recovery
Joint Managing Director
Tracy carries out a broad range of risk and resilience projects including crisis preparedness plans and exercises, business continuity programme design, emergency management training and development, capability assessments, and crisis event reviews along with research into a broad range of risk and resilience issues. She has published a range of articles on resilience topics both in academic publications and as short user guides, as well as co-creating the content for Atlas: Ready for Business; a free disaster resilience app for small and medium enterprises internationally. Tracy has also taught Organisational Resilience at the University of Canterbury Executive Development Programme and is a member of the Response and Recovery Leadership Development Programme (RRANZ).
Piers Locke
BA, MA, PhDÂ
Senior Consultant
Piers brings extensive experience in understanding how people behave and adapt to different environments. He applies this to projects addressing risk, resilience, and adaptation, both to our current natural hazard challenges and those arising from sustainability and climate change.
With a background in anthropology, Piers brings a deep understanding of systems thinking, community engagement, and collaborative processes. He enjoys translating theory and evidence into practical solutions and taking collaborators, clients, and communities along on the journey.
Joanne Stevenson
BSc (Hons), MSc (Hons), PhD in Organisational Resilience
Principal Consultant
Over the past decade, Joanne has accumulated post-disaster research and consulting experience in several countries, examining recovery and resilience of communities, economies, and organisations. She enjoys grappling with complex systems and developing practical solutions to work with these, using her background in geospatial assessment and network analysis. Jo farms in partnership with her family on a commercial sheep and beef property where the risks and opportunities of running a business in a dynamic environment are lived every day.
Sophie Horsfall
BSc., MDRR (Dist.)
Consultant
With a diverse background in disaster risk, environmental science, education, and tourism, Sophie thrives in multidisciplinary fields exploring different viewpoints to find novel solutions. She has a passion for understanding how things work and the ripple effects when processes are impacted by change. Her experience of living in different countries throughout her life has also developed an understanding of how social and cultural structures differ globally, allowing her to easily adapt to new environments and positively support collaborative ventures.
Cameron Eade
BA, LLB, LLM (Dist)
Consultant
Cameron has a curiosity for the world around him and is passionate about identifying practical and advantageous solutions to complex modern challenges. With a background in social science, legal research, and disaster law, he thrives in environments that require breaking through silos and navigating across multiple disciplines to understand the big picture. Cameron uses his strong interpersonal, communication, and research skills to produce thoughtfully considered and detailed results.
Louise Home-Dewar
BA, GradDipInfoDesign
Office Manager
Louise is our energetic office manager. Louise has over 20 years’ experience in administration, graphic design, and web management. Louise’s skills are invaluable in the development of engaging and effective communication resources for our clients and other end-users. Louise also keeps our office and team running smoothly.
Lucy Gawn
BA
Administrator
Lucy assists the team in multiple ways. Her key area of responsibility is management of the Response and Recovery Aotearoa New Zealand (RRANZ) Leadership Development Programme. With a background in administration within the Canterbury engineering sector and a degree in History and English, Lucy brings a wealth of experience to our team.
Executive Directors
Erica Seville
BE, PhD in Risk Management
Executive Director
Erica is an internationally-renowned expert with over 16 years’ experience in risk management, organisational resilience; disaster recovery; infrastructure resilience; crisis management; business disruption, and post-disaster reconstruction. She leads and mentors a passionate and enthusiastic team of researchers and consultants and has published over 100 articles about resilience.
John Vargo
BBA, MBA, PhD in Information Systems
Executive Director
John is an internationally renowned speaker on organisational resilience and disaster recovery, with over 15 years’ research, consulting, coaching, and mentoring experience in these specialist fields. As lead on some significant New Zealand government-funded research programmes, John has extensive experience in ensuring high-quality research is translated into practical outcomes for project stakeholders.
Key consultants we work with
Richard Ball
BA, MCM, 1st Class Hons.
Richard has over 20 years’ experience leading complex multi-stakeholder projects for public sector organisations. He enjoys engaging with stakeholders to create pragmatic and agreed solutions to address complex problems. Richard has held senior management positions and worked across a diverse range of topic areas, from transport planning to disaster recovery, biodiversity to air quality. He uses his strong critical thinking, problem-solving, and people engagement skills to deliver effective outcomes.
Chris Hawker
PGDipEmMgmt, MIAEM, AFBCI
Chris brings considerable experience across the corporate business, higher education, and local government sectors with a unique and practical range of skills in the areas of business continuity and resilience development, and crisis preparedness and response. Chris led the development of the University of Canterbury’s emergency preparedness programme and then led the subsequent response to the 2010 & 2011 Canterbury Earthquakes. Chris has shared experiences and taught at universities and colleges internationally assisting with the development of their own resilience programmes. Chris has returned to the consulting sector from four years in local government where he created and led a regional Civil Defence and Emergency Management Group in the role of Director and Regional Controller during which he both led and supported responses to multiple major crisis events.
David Parsons
BEd, BSoSc, MEmMgmt
David Parsons brings a unique set of knowledge and skills in the areas of business continuity management, crisis management and organisational resilience. David has a special interest in incorporating the latest findings in neuroscience into effective crisis leadership capability. David brings extensive experience in all facets of developing and implementing planning, training, simulations and lessons learned programs in corporations and government entities across multiple countries. David managed Sydney Water's organisational resilience programme, including crisis management, business continuity, emergency management and critical infrastructure resilience. He also served for fourteen years on the Australian Government's Critical Infrastructure Advisory Council.
Göksel Kutmen, Kutmen & Partners
CE, MPhil
Göksel is the Director and Principal Consultant of our strategic partner, Kutmen & Partners, a management consultancy company based in Istanbul, Turkey.
Founded in 2015, Kutmen & Partners provides a wide range of services including risk and organizational resilience, continuous improvement (process excellence, operational excellence, business excellence), project management (predictive, hybrid, and adaptive), contract management, BIM management, forensic engineering, and audits prominent outgoing services. They work with organizations of all sizes from various sectors, both locally and internationally.
Kutmen & Partners also sponsor ongoing academic research on the organizational resilience of construction companies in Turkey.