15th Cambridge Risk Summit (2024)

John Thornhill is the Innovation Editor at the Financial Times writing a weekly column on the impact of technology. He is also the founder and editorial director of Sifted, the FT-backed site for European startups, and founder of FT Forums, which hosts monthly meetings for senior executives.

John was previously deputy editor and news editor of the FT in London. He has also been Europe editor, Paris bureau chief, Asia editor, Moscow correspondent and Lex columnist.

John Thornhill is the Innovation Editor at the Financial Times writing a weekly column on the impact of technology. He is also the founder and editorial director of Sifted, the FT-backed site for European startups, and founder of FT Forums, which hosts monthly meetings for senior executives.

John was previously deputy editor and news editor of the FT in London. He has also been Europe editor, Paris bureau chief, Asia editor, Moscow correspondent and Lex columnist.

Michael Okoroafor is McCormick’s Chief Sustainability Officer. In his role, he is responsible for the development and execution of an enhanced sustainability strategy, working with commercial and communications teams, and building on our foundation to ensure that our successes in this area continue to be recognized in the global market. His focus is working across the organization, through the Purpose-led Performance (PLP) Governing Council, to develop and drive our strategy both internally and externally.

Dr. Okoroafor joined McCormick in 2015, and most recently served as Vice President, Global Sustainability and Packaging Innovation. Prior to his tenure at McCormick, he was Vice President for Packaging and R&D at H.J. Heinz Company, where he was responsible for setting overall global strategy and direction for the packaging organization and leading external innovation across North America. He has also held key leadership roles at other consumer goods and manufacturing companies, including The Coca-Cola Company and PPG Industries, Inc.

Dr. Okoroafor holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Nigeria, a Master’s degree in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Detroit, and a Ph.D. in Organic Polymer Chemistry from Michigan State University. He is also a graduate of the Executive Development Program at Kellogg Business School at Northwestern University.

Dr. Okoroafor is an inventor with over 40 patents, has been published in over 35 technical publications, and is a contributing author to the “Handbook of Plastic Foams.” He serves on the Board of Directors for AMERIPEN (American Institute for Packaging and the Environment) and as Treasurer on the Board of Directors for the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP). He serves as a member of the Engineering & Science Advisory Board for the University of Detroit – Mercy, the Consumer Brand Association Packaging Sustainability Council, the American Chemical Society, the Institute of Food Technologists and the Society of Plastics Engineers. Dr. Okoroafor was inducted into the Packaging and Processing Hall of Fame in 2018 and is a 2020 Honoree to the Environment+Energy Leader 100 (E+E100). He is also a member of the Maryland Department of the Environment’s Extended Producer Responsibility Program Advisory Committee.

Fransje van der Marel leads McKinsey’s global initiative on resilience and portfolio enhancement for the energy, materials and food sector. In the context of the Energy Transition, she helps transform energy and chemicals companies to a cleaner future and better performance. She has extensive experience in the power, oil and gas, and mining industries, working with both the private sector and governments across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She also co-leads the firm’s European power work and leads the sustainability group in Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Fransje supports clients on a wide variety of risk and resilience related topics including risk exposure mapping and quantification and improving risk controls.

Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, focusing on geopolitics and the globalised economy as well as new national security threats. She’s also a columnist with Foreign Policy and Politico Europe and the author Goodbye Globalization: The Return of a Divided World (Yale University Press, February 2024).

Elisabeth was previously a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London. She’s the author of God’s Spies, about the Stasi’s church division (2019), The Defender’s Dilemma: Identifying and Deterring Gray-Zone Aggression (2022), a member of GALLOS Technologies’ advisory board, a member of the UK National Preparedness Commission, a member of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy’s advisory council (on leave), a member of the Aurora Forum’s steering committee, and an adviser to Willis Towers Watson’s research arm. Before joining academia, she worked in the private sector following a career as a journalist. She’s a regular op-ed contributor to the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Times (of London).

Scott is presently Senior Vice President at Risilience, leading the environmental analytics and modelling team. He brings over 20 years of experience working across risk analytics, sustainability and climate change working within academia, business and government.

As a seasoned economist he has given evidence to the US Senate and the New Zealand Parliament. He has worked directly with central banks and governments in Europe and Australia on the development of climate policy for the financial sector.

He currently holds the position of Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney and was previously Chief Economic Advisor to the Parliamentary Commissioner of the Environment in New Zealand.

He was also a post-doctoral Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Risk Studies working with the insurance industry and corporates to assess systemic risks.

He holds a PhD and MPhil from the University of Cambridge in economics and sustainability and a bachelor of engineering from the University of Auckland.

He is a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, a Cambridge Trust Scholar and was a Junior Research Fellow of Darwin College.

He has published over two-dozen peer-reviewed journals and is regularly invited to provide expertise to governments and the private sector on climate change, sustainability and economics.

Andrew Pitt is Head of Global Insights at Citi where he manages research and content services across the firm. He has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry as both an analyst and a research manager, and he has been at Citi since 1996. Andrew launched and has led the Citi GPS public research programme since 2012, and he works with individual experts, universities, and research institutes to create collaborative solutions for the greatest challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. Andrew has two degrees from Oxford University, and he is a member of several academic advisory boards across universities in the UK.

Richard Wilson was born in Wales and took his degrees at Clare College Cambridge (1961-1965). He was called to the Bar but, rather than practice, entered the Civil Service in the Board of Trade in 1966.

He subsequently served in a number of departments including 12 years in the Department of Energy where his responsibilities included nuclear power policy, the privatisation of Britoil, and personnel and finance. He headed the Economic Secretariat in the Cabinet Office from 1987-1990, working directly with Mrs Thatcher on most domestic issues. After two years in the Treasury he was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Department of the Environment in 1992 and Permanent Under Secretary of the Home Office in 1994. He became Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the Home Civil Service in January 1998.

On his first retirement in 2002 he was elected Master of Emmanuel College Cambridge and served from 2002-2012. In the private sector he was a non-executive director and the board of BSkyB for 10 years and chairman of C Hoare & Co, the private bank, from 2006-2016. He had various charitable interests. He currently attends the House of Lords as a cross bencher, and is a Life Fellow of Emmanuel College. He delivers occasional lectures in the University.

He is married to Caroline and they have two children and two grandchildren.

Professor Daniel Ralph is a Founder and Director of the Centre for Risk Studies, Professor of Operations Research at Cambridge Judge Business School, and a Fellow of Churchill College.

Daniel received his PhD in 1990 from the University of Wisconsin Madison. He was a faculty member of the Mathematics & Statistics Department at the University of Melbourne before coming to Cambridge University for a joint appointment in the Engineering Department and Cambridge Judge Business School.

Daniel’s research interests include: risk in business decision making; risk aversion in electricity markets; methods and models for optimisation problems and equilibrium systems. Specific projects undertaken in collaboration with the banking and insurance industry (Catlin, HSBC, ICBC, Lloyd’s, Munich Re, Risk Management Solutions, Swiss Re) cover emerging risk scenarios, financial stress testing and a global ranking of cities by risk exposure. Engagements with other sectors include electricity consultancies (Artelys, LCP), oil and gas (Shell Exploration, Statoil) and retail (BT Retail, Gap) on decision making under high uncertainty. Public service contributions to the UK Cabinet Office, UK Industry and Parliamentary Trust, UK Office of the Government Chief Scientific Advisor, and United Nations World Humanitarian Summit.

Professor Ralph is a member of the Australian Mathematical Society, INFORMS, the Mathematical Optimization Society and SIAM. He was Editor-in-Chief of Mathematical Programming (Series B) from 2007-2013 and has served on the editorial boards of Mathematics of Operations Research and the SIAM Journal on Optimization, as well as the SIAM-MPS book series on optimisation.