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 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.

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.

George is the Director of the Engineering Leadership Group, the first of its kind peer to peer engagement platform with a vision to capture the voice of engineering firms worldwide. The Engineering Leadership Group is created and delivered by Resilience First and the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure, members of the Resilience Rising Consortium.

From 2019 to 2022, he was Greece's Deputy Secretary-General for Civil Protection. Before that, he was Technical Officer at the European Commission Joint Research Center, where his area of expertise revolved around emergency management, critical infrastructure protection and hybrid threats. Prior to joining the Joint Research Center, he was a Disaster Management Consultant. He has worked in four countries, developed two strategic national risk assessments, helped organize over 60 exercises, developed a dozen emergency operations plans and responded to disasters in the field. He also was a Research Scientist at the Technical University of Crete in Greece, where his interdisciplinary research lay at the intersection of systems engineering and disaster resilience.

George earned his Doctorate in Environmental Science and Engineering from Saint-Etienne School of Mines in France. He also holds degrees in Civil Engineering, Disaster Management and Business Administration, and is a Certified Emergency Manager by the International Association of Emergency Managers.

Visit George's LinkedIn profile here.

Shazre is a programme leader and strategic advisor with over 10 years’ experience in designing and delivering high-impact initiatives for some of the world’s leading organisations and through public-private partnerships. As an Associate Director within the Climate & Resilience Hub at WTW (Willis Towers Watson), from 2019-2022 Shazre was seconded to the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI), a private sector-led initiative with over 125 members supporting investors and policy makers to better integrate physical climate risks in investment decision making. As Programmes and Partnerships lead, Shazre designed and grew the Coalition’s technical programmes such as the CCRI Systemic Resilience Forum and climate resilience pilot projects in multiple jurisdictions, as well as its strategic partnerships globally. Prior to this, Shazre was a senior consultant within the Human Capital advisory arm of WTW, where she led the end-to-end delivery of large-scale change management, communications and talent strategy programmes for global corporates with a focus on the FMCG and retail sectors.

Shazre holds an MSc. in Conflict and Development from SOAS, University of London, and a BSc. (Hons) in Social Sciences and Economics.

Visit Shazre’s LinkedIn 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, she plays a crucial role in planning and delivering a programme of activities to engage and grow Resilience First’s membership base.

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.

Visit Laura’s LinkedIn profile here.