This document provides biographies and presentation synopses for several speakers at a conference. The biographies describe the professional experiences and backgrounds of speakers such as Jaana Aduson from the Estonian Ministry of Interior, David Alexander from the British Red Cross, and Syra Balanzat and Ana Zapardiel from the European Network of Victims of Terrorism. The presentation synopses provide overviews of the topics each speaker will cover, including community resilience, crisis management, lessons learned from disasters, and engaging citizens in emergency planning.

1. 1
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES AND PRESENTATION SYNOPSES
Jaana Aduson
Jaana Aduson has worked as a public relations
manager for both, private and public sector
establishments for several years. As Jaana has
become increasingly involved in crisis communication,
her focus has shifted to crisis management and
contingency planning in her current place of work in the
Estonian Ministry of Interior. In her current position as
Adviser to the Ministry of Interior in Estonia, Jaana is
responsible for the quality of information delivered by
the Ministry s 24/7 Command and Control Centre.
Nation after nation is recognising resilience as an
overarching focus to the work of government agencies
responsible for national security. While resiliency is
considered to be a set of behaviours, thoughts and
actions that can be developed in anyone, the success
of implementing the elements expected to create
resiliency depends on to whom, and how, the
information is being disseminated. Resilience tools
should therefore rather establish a spectre of
possibilities than provide solid solutions.
David Alexander
David Alexander has worked for many years in the
charitable sector. His focus has been in international
humanitarian aid and development and in UK
healthcare management. In the 1980 s he worked for
Save the Children (UK) in Morocco, Uganda and
Ethiopia. David held a number of key positions within
the International Division of the British Red Cross from
1993 to 2005 as Head of International Aid and then as
International Director. These were complex and
demanding roles with responsibilities for providing
advice and financial and tangible aid to national
societies experiencing emergencies and disasters
across the World. Since leaving the British Red Cross
in 2005, David has been running his own consultancy
business based in Bristol, UK, continuing to share
his knowledge and experience with organisations
such as The Red Cross and Red Crescent National
Societies and the International Federation of The
Red Cross (IFRC).
As the Conference Facilitator, David will support the
Project Team by managing the delivery of the
programme, including the presentations, the work
groups and the feedback sessions. Following the
conference, David will assist the Project Team in
developing the conference report.
Syra Balanzat and Ana Zapardiel
Syra Balanzat is a psychologist and has worked for
three years as Psychological and Technical Personnel
for the European Network of Victims of Terrorism
(VNET) based in Spain. Syra has a Masters Degree in
Intervention in Anxiety and Stress from the University
Complutense of Madrid. She has five years experience
of working with the victims of terrorism following the 11
March bombings in Madrid and has worked for five
years in an NGO as a Psychological Co-ordinator.
Ana Zapardiel is a social worker and has worked for
three years as the Project Co-ordinator for the
European Network of Victims of Terrorism (VNET)
based in Spain. Ana s area of social work expertise is in
immigration and victims of terrorism. She has five years
experience of working with victims of terrorism following
the 11 March bombings in Madrid and has worked for
five years as a Co-ordinator of Social Work in an NGO.
The terrorist attacks in Madrid on 11 March 2003 left
1,700 victims with social, health, psychological,
economic, employment and legal needs. To meet these
needs, an acute assessment protocol and resources
were required. For five years, these resources have
been provided by the government of Spain, the City of
Madrid and Non Governmental Organisations that
responded to the events of 11 March. The learning
from this experience tells us that it is possible and
necessary to improve systems and procedures mainly
in the area of co-ordination across all organisations
that work with victims of terrorism, both in Spain and
indeed in Europe. In 2006, the European Network of
Victims of Terrorism (VNET) was established with the
objective of exchanging information, experiences and
resources amongst all European countries regarding
how best to address the needs of victims of terrorism.

2. 2
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES AND PRESENTATION SYNOPSES Continued
Richard Cox
Richard Cox is currently on loan to the Humanitarian
Assistance Unit of the UK Government Department for
Culture, Media and Sport from the UK Government
Cabinet Office, where he worked on the Government's
Efficiency and Relocation Support Programme. Since
joining the Humanitarian Assistance Unit in 2006 he
has led on the development of the Support After a
Major Incident Website - a government website that
provides support and information for those affected by
major incidents. Richard is currently leading on
arrangements for the unveiling ceremony for the 7th
July Permanent Memorial that will take place in
London on 7 July 2009 (the 4th anniversary of the
bombings in London).
Richard’s presentation will focus on the history and
work of the UK Government’s Humanitarian Assistance
Unit within the Department of Culture, Media and
Sport. He will describe the role of the Humanitarian
Assistance Unit in ensuring the needs of those
affected by major emergencies are properly
considered within Government and explain some of the
initiatives and guidance that have been developed and
disseminated.
Gerry Foitik
Gerry Foitik is the Head of the Operation, Innovation
and Subsidiaries Division in the Federal Commander in
Charge, Austrian Red Cross and he is based at the
Austrian Red Cross Headquarters in Vienna. His former
positions have included Head of the Disaster Relief
Division and the Vienna Branch in the Austrian Red
Cross. Gerry has also been employed as a journalist, a
trainer and an organisation developer. Gerry has
completed many specialist-training courses related to
civil protection and disaster management; his
qualifications include a Masters Degree in Business
Administration and he is a paramedic.
Gerry will introduce participants to the Austrian Red
Cross led initiative ‘Team Österreich’. ‘Team Österreich’
was formed as a consequence of strategic questions; it
is a joint initiative formed by the Austrian Red Cross
together with Hit radio Ö3 - Austria's biggest medium.
‘Team Österreich’ is a team made up of citizens who
are willing to help in their neighbourhood, when necessary,
and within the organised system of disaster relief;
members of the team will be contacted for assistance
at short notice by a text-message on their mobile
telephone. Gerry will talk about the initial questions that
led to the formation of the team, the answers that were
found and the partnership with the media. He will
highlight the results and the next steps in their activities.
Pamela Dix
Pamela Dix is the Executive Director and a founder
member of Disaster Action (DA) in the UK, a charity
established in 1991. The members of DA are survivors
and bereaved people from over 20 disasters in the UK
and overseas. DA acts in an advisory capacity to
central and local government as well as to the statutory
and voluntary services, concerning the humanitarian
aspects of disaster response. DA also offers direct
support and guidance to those individuals affected
by disaster. Pamela has represented DA on a number
of influential groups developing guidance, including
the group led by the Association of Chief Police
Officers that developed the non-statutory guidance
Humanitarian Assistance in Emergencies in 2006.
Pamela is also a book publishing editor, writer and
researcher. She is a member of UK Families Flight 103,
the family and friends of those killed in the Lockerbie
bombing; Pamela s brother Peter Dix was a passenger
on the plane.
Pamela will explain the painful learning experience of
individuals affected by emergencies and disasters that
has been collated by DA. She will describe how that
learning has been shared with government and the
range of organisations in the UK, influencing how they
approach the humanitarian dimension, emphasising the
importance and value of working together effectively in
a co-ordinated way, putting the needs of individuals
centre stage. DA has been working with the Informed
Prepared Together Project Team, to develop the drafts of
the ‘Inform, Prepare and Assist Citizens in Civil Protection:
The Principles of Humanitarian Assistance’ leaflet and
the ‘Inform, Prepare and Assist Citizens in Civil Protection:
Humanitarian Assistance in Practice’ booklet.

3. 3
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES AND PRESENTATION SYNOPSES Continued
Laura Gibb
Laura Gibb is the Assistant Director Community
Resilience and Recovery in the Civil Contingencies
Secretariat, UK Government Cabinet Office. Laura
joined the Cabinet Office in November 2008 to lead on
Community Resilience and Recovery as part of the
Local Response Capability team. She is now
developing a strategy and action plan on community
resilience that has included consulting over 200
organisations, including emergency planning officers
and community volunteers. Laura also leads the
Recovery work stream and is responsible for the
National Recovery Guidance. She joined the Civil
Contingencies Secretariat from the Home Office,
where she worked on organised and financial
crime, prison, probation, prostitution and mental
health issues.
Laura will explain how the UK Government is placing
great importance on the issues of Community
Resilience and Recovery; issues that have become
increasingly significant following the severe flooding in
2007 and the subsequent Pitt Review published in
2008. She will explain the background to community
resilience, the Government contribution and next steps
for Community Resilience in the UK, the recovery
process and National Recovery Guidance. Laura will
include expectations for greater community and
volunteer involvement in resilience and recovery.
Mike Granatt
Mike Granatt is former Head of the UK s Civil Crisis
Management Unit (the Cabinet Ofice Civil Contingencies
Secretariat) and former Director-General of the UK
Government Information Service. Today he is a partner
in City of London consultancy Luther Pendragon;
Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster; and
Senior Associate Fellow at the Defence Academy of the
United Kingdom. He is also an expert commentator on
terrorism and civil emergencies, often used by the BBC
and international broadcasters. A former journalist, Mike
joined the UK Civil Service in 1979. For nearly 20 years
he held communication director posts, at the departments
of Energy and Environment, the Home Office, and the
Metropolitan Police Service. During this period he built
very extensive crisis management and crisis
communication experience particularly in the areas of
policing, counter-terrorism, energy, and environment.
In the summer of 2001, following a series of major
crises affecting the UK, he was asked to set up and
lead the Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat
in parallel with his GIS work. Her Majesty the Queen in
the 2001 Birthday Honours List appointed Mike a
Companion of the Bath.
Mike’s presentation will focus on good risk communication
and the need for a clear strategy. He will challenge
participants to focus on the key messages and the
target audience in order for communications to be
effective. He will offer advice to help the ‘Informed.
Prepared. Together.’ campaign to achieve its aim.
Sue Nelson
Sue Nelson is the Director of Community Safety
Partnerships Ltd, a company that she formed in 2006.
Sue has extensive experience in media, public relations
and crisis management in a high-profile and politically
sensitive industry, with a record of delivery of high profile
campaigns and initiatives. Community Safety Partnerships
Ltd provides expert knowledge on a range of community
safety, crisis management and communication issues
to railway operators, industry safety body, the police
and civil contingencies stakeholders. Sue is a member
of the national Humanitarian Assistance Group of the
Emergency Planning Society, a major player in the
development of the country s civil contingencies
approach. Sue formerly worked in Britain s rail industry
as the Corporate Affairs Manager responsible for
production and delivery of public relations, media and
crisis management strategies at regional level, and
as Head of Community Safety responsible for the
delivery of strategic and tactical approaches to
community safety.
Sue will share with participants the project’s ideas for
developing the family of products and communication
tools that will make up the ‘Informed. Prepared.
Together.’ campaign. She will explain the background to
the family of products and tools and give participants
an opportunity to consider them and make suggestions
for improvement.

4. 4
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES AND PRESENTATION SYNOPSES Continued
Tom Oxley
Tom Oxley is Corporate Responsibility Manager for
Norwich Union - Norwich Union is an Aviva Company,
which is the fifth largest insurance group in the World
and the largest insurance services provider in the UK;
Tom manages the UK Corporate Responsibility
programme. His major projects include climate change,
flooding and other environmental matters and he also
runs the diversity agenda, contributes to product
development and supports corporate responsibility
reporting. Tom is a member of the United Nations
Environment Programme for the Finance Industry, is a
CIM lecturer and a youth volunteer leader with Norfolk
International Projects. He also has eight years PR
experience in the UK with Institute of Public Relations
awards for crisis management and client
relationship management.
Tom will tell the story of ‘Dry Run – a community flood
project’ which involved engaging a community and
linking with other interested organisations and opinion
formers including corporate organisations and
business. He will explain how Norwich Union and he
became involved in ‘Dry Run’, a one-day exercise that
took place in 2008 in a community in Yorkshire.
He will share the lessons learned and how such an
exercise could be run effectively in the future in a
whole range of communities.
Jonas Prawitz
Jonas Prawitz is the Disaster Management Co-
ordinator for the Swedish Red Cross. Jonas has been
with the Swedish Red Cross for the past 20 years and
throughout that time has been working with disaster
preparedness issues, mostly nationally but also
internationally. He led the Swedish Red Cross domestic
operation in response to the South East Asia Tsunami
disaster of December 2004 and has, since then, been
in charge of the development of the Swedish Red
Cross capacity for domestic disaster preparedness
and response. Jonas is also a relief delegate for the
Swedish Red Cross.
Jonas will explain the system for managing
spontaneous volunteers that has been developed by
the Swedish Red Cross. He will describe how, if an
organisation is a well known actor in disaster
preparedness and relief, it would be wise to be
prepared to deal with spontaneous volunteers.
Otherwise, they might become a burden for an
organisation’s short term operation and impact
adversely on its long term credibility.
Vídir Reynisson
Chief Inspector Vídir Reynisson is the Head of the
Department of Civil Protection and Emergency
Management at the National Commissioner of Police in
Iceland. The Department is responsible for the overall
organisation and planning for Civil Protection in Iceland
and operates the National Crisis and Co-ordination
Centre that provides a Command and Co-ordination
role in all major emergencies in Iceland. Vidir s
background is in Search and Rescue (SAR), ranging
from field searches for missing persons to command
and control of SAR operations. He has participated in
commanding a number of large operations such as the
response in 1995 to avalanches in north-west Iceland
that killed 40 persons and left many more homeless
and to earthquakes in 2000 and 2008 which caused
extensive injuries, wreaked havoc on hundreds of
homes and left thousands in fear. Vidir has played a
leading role in the process of re-building the stricken
society in the aftermath. He has been active in the EU
and EFTA civil protection arena.
In his presentation, Vidir will show two examples of
involving citizens in planning for major emergencies in
their local area, as well as commanding and exercising
such plans. He will demonstrate two very small
communities in the northern part of Iceland where all
the local population have taken part in planning for
aircraft accidents at their local airport; the group also
took part in an exercise implementing the contingency
plan. Then he will look at the implementation of mass
evacuation plans for the citizens in the South Lowlands
threatened by a large volcano that is under 700m of
thick ice in one of Iceland’s largest glaciers, which
triggers massive glacial floods during eruptions.

5. 5
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES AND PRESENTATION SYNOPSES Continued
Dr. Brooke Rogers
Dr. Brooke Rogers is a Lecturer in Risk and Terror in
the King s Centre for Risk Management at King s
College London, and co-Director of the Masters Degree
in Terrorism, Security and Society. She obtained a BA
(Cum Laude) in Psychology at Rollins College (USA)
and a PhD in the Psychology of Religion from Royal
Holloway University, University of London. Dr. Rogers is
a social psychologist by training, specialising in the
study of social groups, group interaction, attitude
formation and change, and belief systems. Specifically,
she is interested in public and expert perceptions of risk
and risk communication, and has applied these
concepts to several areas. Her projects and research
are wide ranging, including subjects such as: a large-
scale Home Office study of public responses to
chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN)
terrorist incidents; the training of emergency responders
working in hot zones; the development of public
information leaflets about CBRN terrorism; a multi-
institution project investigating the public acceptability
of counter terror technologies and communication in
public spaces; and the role of resilience in responding
to terrorist incidents.
Brooke’s presentation will establish the importance of
effective risk communication by illustrating the ways in
which public psychological and behavioural responses
help determine subsequent morbidity and mortality
rates. Brooke will explain why our attempts at risk
communication often appear not to be heard or to be
ignored, by identifying the variations in public and
expert understandings of risk. She will suggest steps
that can be taken to improve the attention to and
uptake of risk messages.
Bernard Saquépée
Bernard Sacquépée trained as a civil engineer and
lives in Wickerschwihr, a commune situated on seismic
grounds in Alsace in North East France. He became
the Mayor of Wickerschwihr, in 1989. Bernard used to
lead public works and teach technicians within the
frame of Career, Vocational and Technical Education.
Since becoming the Mayor of Wickerschwirh, Bernard
has become very interested in encouraging the citizens
in his commune to undertake active participation in the
management of risks and in developing a culture of
preparedness, where common values, languages and
attitudes are shared in order to confront risk better.
In his presentation, Bernard will describe how, in the
1980s, the Commune of Wickerschwihr took into
account the risks they face from an earthquake, by
creating a ‘plan for mutual aid and rescue assistance’
(in French: PEGAS). This plan emphasises drawing on
a community’s resources and involving it in emergency
planning in order to develop a culture of preparedness
and to effectively face risks together, without having to
depend on external assistance. Bernard will present
this initiative and the analysis of its strengths and
weaknesses in relation to an earthquake risk. The plan
maps community resources and the capability of each
householder and embraces two levels: the authorities
and the people. The focus of the plan is to practise and
exercise regularly, with learning integrated into revised
plans. It is exercised regularly. The area experienced a
small earthquake 4 years ago.