Remembering Jonathon Gascoigne
Jonathon Gascoigne. Photo: Simon Jarratt
It is with deep sadness that the Centre for Disaster Protection mourns the loss of our dear colleague, Jonathon (Jon) Gascoigne, who died on 10th June 2023.
Jon joined the Centre for Disaster Protection in 2019 and became one of the founding team members as a Lead Risk Finance Adviser. Deeply committed to better protecting the lives of those most vulnerable to natural hazards and climate risks, Jon played a pivotal role in shaping and delivering our mission. He led various client engagements and built the Centre's credibility with technical advisory bodies, academic institutions and research councils. His expertise and dedication were instrumental in developing the Centre's climate risk policy.
Before joining the Centre, Jon served as the Director of Risk Analytics at Willis Tower Watson and as a Risk Analyst at Aon.
Jon's professional journey showcased his versatility and expertise across various domains. His roles spanned the public sector, the private sector, non-governmental organisations and university start-ups. He worked in pollution, water and energy services, legal services, media, agriculture, biodiversity, strategic planning, insurance, and poverty alleviation. He earned degrees in Geography from the University of Lancaster and Geographical Information Systems and Spatial Modelling from the University of Leeds. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Widely recognised for his expertise in the insurance industry, Jon excelled in connecting people and ideas in a way that nurtured innovation in catastrophic loss profiling and risk transfer. With a meticulous attention to technical detail, he always approached his work on disasters, analytics, finance and communication with pragmatism and a down-to-earth demeanour. While bringing a sense of gentle authority through his deep knowledge, he had the ability to humanise complex and abstract topics, making them more accessible to others.
His many skills, diverse passions, and boundless curiosity about the world around him, made Jon a true polymath. Beyond his professional achievements, Jon exuded an infectious enthusiasm for ecology and organic farming. His dedication to the environment went beyond his career, embodying a deep, lifelong connection to the natural world.
Jon was not only admired for his expertise but loved by his colleagues. He approached people around him as he did his work: with a curious mind, empathy, thoughtfulness, and a spirit of intellectual challenge as he always asked, 'why?'. We will miss his dry, understated sense of humour and his overwhelming generosity.
His death is a great loss to the Centre for Disaster Protection and to the disaster and climate risk community. And to his wife Rachel, his two sons, his family and many friends. We extend our thoughts to all those who loved him. We will miss him dearly.
In the coming days, we will share more information on how friends and colleagues of Jon can participate in honouring his life and preserving his memory.