Welcome to our new Board
Top (L-R) - Ato Sufian Ahmed Beker, Daniel Clarke, Christina Bennett; Middle - Kimberly Gire, Cleo Blackman MBE, Dr Colin Bruce; Bottom - Stefan Dercon, Rachel Turner, Rob Bailey
The Centre is delighted to announce a new non-executive Board made up of nine members. These expert voices from a range of sectors and a diversity of experience will provide challenge, oversight and strategic support of the Centre’s mission and in line with its values of impartiality, quality, creativity and empowerment.
The Board will be responsible for the strategic direction of the Centre and will have nine members in total: two executive directors from the Centre’s Senior Leadership team, Daniel Clarke and Cleo Blackman MBE, two non-executive members appointed by the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Rachel Turner and Stefan Dercon, as well as five non-executive Board members (acting in an individual capacity):
Rob Bailey (Partner, Oliver Wyman’s Insurance & Asset Management Practice)
Ato Sufian Ahmed Beker (former Minister of Finance, Ethiopian Government)
Christina Bennett (Chief Executive Officer, Start Network)
Dr Colin Bruce, co-chair (Special Envoy for Humanitarian and Development Affairs, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC))
Kimberly Gire, co-chair (Philanthropist and Founder of Global Women Leaders)
Daniel Clarke, Director of the Centre for Disaster Protection, said: “We’re at a pivotal moment in our history where the pressure is on global leaders to take decisive action to protect those most vulnerable to the greatest risks. The exceptional leaders who will be joining our Board bring diverse collective experience to our work and can support us on our mission to change how the world prepares and pays for disasters. This year’s COP can be a giant first step in changing the crisis financing system, stop disasters devastating lives and put in place plans to ensure funding gets to the frontline faster.”
Rob Bailey said: “I share the Centre’s belief that disasters should not be surprises. But moving the international system from reaction to readiness is a huge task that must overcome multiple, complex challenges. The prospect of working with a dedicated institution focused entirely on this goal is hugely exciting.”
Ato Sufian Ahmed Beker said: “We must learn from past crises and prepare much better for the next to minimise devastation. The Centre is perfectly placed to assist vulnerable countries in capacity building to plan, prepare and respond better to disasters and so I look forward to sharing my government experience of dealing with disaster risk.”
Christina Bennett said: “In an era of climate change, disaster management needs fresh thinking, new ways of working and bold action. I have joined the Centre to help drive a more risk-informed, proactive, well-resourced system that can protect societies from the destructive effects of disasters.”
Dr Colin Bruce said: “The Centre is doing cutting edge work. As someone with a strong interest in global crises, I’m excited to contribute to fresh thinking about how to anticipate and address financial, human and social aspects at scale. Now is the time to replace panic with preparation.”
Kimberly Gire said: “The humanitarian and development risk management ecosystem is fragmented and complex; as an impartial centre of expertise, the Centre is well-placed to work alongside governments and institutions heading into COP26 to reset our collective thinking on how the world plans and pays for disasters.”
Rachel Turner added: “Managing disaster risk is absolutely essential to the way we approach partnerships with developing countries. Increasingly, developing country governments have the capacity to build their own disaster risk systems to manage crises, while more and more sophisticated modelling is now starting to build from what vulnerable communities themselves know about the risks they face. Well targeted disaster risk financing joins these up, helping to make the link between the macro and micro levels by putting the right mechanisms in place for money to flow to reach the poorest people when there are shocks.”
The Centre brings together countries and the international development, humanitarian and climate systems, as well as the private sector, to change how the world prepares, pays for and responds to disasters. It works with countries and their partners to support them to manage, plan and finance the risks they face with impartial advice and training.
Looking ahead, the Centre aims to drive change through evidence, experimentation and learning and help improve the quality and quantity of risk financing through multilateral systems that helps countries make better risk management decisions. With climate change acting as a risk multiplier, a focus on more and smarter financing will also be developed to help bring about change to a system which is currently flawed.
The Centre also leads the Crisis Lookout Coalition - a local-to-global group committed to the creation of a smarter system for funding disasters that protects more people caught up in crisis, especially in the poorest countries. Together we are calling for a new approach to disasters that predicts the greatest risks, puts plans and finances in place and makes sure communities have the funds they need when it matters most.
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For images, interview requests or further information, please contact:
Olivia Patt or Simon Henry, Communications
Notes to editors
Biographies of the Board members are available here.