Andrew Mason MBCI

Director, Logical Resilience Limited

With nearly 20 years’ experience of working as a business continuity practitioner, Andy spent 12 years as Head of Business Continuity for PwC and was responsible for the internal BC programme for the UK firm’s c35 offices and c23500 staff, contractors and supplier staff.

Andy completely overhauled the firm’s BC programme and in October 2009 the UK firm was certified to BS25999-2:2007, and in 2013 transitioned to ISO22301. Andy worked directly with other parts of the PwC global network, and was instrumental in helping PwC Africa get certified to BS25999 across 9 countries and then transition to ISO22301 and expand to 16 countries, as well as implementing ISO22301 for PwC in the Middle East (12 countries) and PwC Australia, and providing support to other country firms including France, Greece, Cyprus and Gibraltar. Andy implemented plan management and emergency notification systems across c50 country firms across PwC. Andy started in business continuity management at Sainsbury’s following on from a background in IT operations and IT audit, and was responsible for the development of BC plans for the loss of systems, and a roll-out of BC into the Supply Chain, amongst other areas.

Whilst at Sainsbury’s, Andy also had direct experience of handling incidents ranging from the London bombings, store fires, strike action, fuel strike implications, protest activity and IT issues, through to serious product recalls. Andy is a member of the Business Continuity Institute, a serving member (c14 years) of the BSI Committee that developed BS25999 Parts 1 and 2 and ISO22301, and was awarded ‘Business Continuity Manager of the Year’ at the CIR BC Awards 2010. He is also a member of the British Computer Society and holds Chartered IT Professional status, with a degree in Computing.

Charlie Maclean-Bristol, MA (Hons), PgD, FBCI, FEPS

CEO & Head of Training and a founding director , PlanB Consulting and Business Continuity Training Ltd.

Charlie is a Business Continuity professional with over 23 years’ experience, having worked with a number of major UK utilities before establishing the successful business continuity practice, PlanB Consulting, in 2007.

He is also Head of Training and a founding director of Business Continuity Training Ltd. Charlie is a former BCI board member and a fellow of both the Emergency Planning Society (EPS) and the BCI. In 2011, he was awarded Business Continuity Consultant of the year at the CIR awards. In May 2016, Charlie was Highly Commended in the category of Business Continuity Consultant of the Year at the BCI European Awards.

The strategic skills that shaped his practical and accessible approach to BC were developed while serving as a Captain in the British Army, planning and implementing patrols and anti-terrorist operations. He is a regular speaker at conferences, writes a weekly bulletin on BC Training and has appeared a number of times on TV and radio. He has had a number of papers published in BC and emergency planning journals, including being runner-up in the Continuity Central Essay Competition 2013.

Most recently Charlie was awarded Industry Personality of the Year 2018 at the BCI European Awards.

James McAlister, FBCI MA DipBCM DipEd FICPEM

Director, Crisis Prepared Limited

James is the Director of Crisis Prepared Limited, a multi award winning organisational resilience consultancy and former police officer. He has over 35 years’ experience in business continuity, civil protection, crisis, major incident & disaster management, emergency planning and counter terrorism.

James is a former Chair of the Business Continuity Institute, Global Membership Council, North West Region Forum and subject matter expert to the UK Association of Chief Police Officers. He is a qualified higher education teacher, assessor, coach, ISO 22301 lead auditor and frequent speaker at international conferences. In 2019, James was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the BCI for his services to the industry.

Werner Verlinden FBCI

Owner , Musena Consulting

Werner has a strong professional level of expertise in the domains of Business Continuity Management, Risk Management, Crisis/Incident Management, Information Security and Resilience. He contributes to the BCI and the BCM profession through participation in industry activities. He is a member of both the BCI Forum Belgium organising committee and the BCI Forum Netherlands organising committee. He is also a member of ISO Technical Committee 223/4, which developed ISO22301 and ISO22313 while representing the Belgian Standardisation Organisation (NBN). Werner participated in the development of the national BCM standard of the United Arab Emirates and has set up of Business Continuity Management Systems within large corporate environments.

Most recently, Werner was awarded Continuity and Resilience Consultant 2016 at the BCI European Awards in Dublin.