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Tel: +44 (0)20 7353 9498
HELPING YOU ENSURE BUSINESS CONTINUITY |
Consultants |
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The Needhams 1834 Team
Needhams 1834 offers clients a strong team of highly skilled, professional and dedicated consultants who approach business continuity challenges with passion. The team has extensive expertise gained in a wide range of public and private sector organisations. This gives them the knowledge, skills and vision necessary to provide clients with reliable, practical and cost-effective solutions.
In addition to their academic and professional qualifications, all of our consultants have operational experience of Crisis Management.
They also have first-hand experience of the business world and understand the inherent pressures of working within commercial environments.
Chris Needham-Bennett MSc MBCI
Chris founded Needhams 1834 Ltd in 1996 and today is regarded as one of the leading Business Continuity consultants in the market. A highly effective communicator, he has led many major national and international projects, often in the glare of media scrutiny.
Chris specialises in:
- Business Continuity strategy
- Crisis Management training
- Design and delivery of exercises
Over the past 12 years he has advised, trained and exercised numerous executive teams from leading public companies and various government departments.
Prior to founding Needhams, Chris served for 10 years in the British Army and worked in the UK and overseas in the private security industry.
Chris is a Member of the Business Continuity Institute, holds an MSc from the University of Leicester and is qualified by the British Psychological Society to conduct Psychometric testing.
Richard FitzHugh BSc (Hons)
Richard has 14 years of project management and broad experience in information technology, medical and communications fields.
Richard specialises in:
- Risk and point of failure analysis
- Exercising and awareness campaigns
- Technological support for crisis management and business continuity
Richard primarily works with clients in medical, legal, charity and government sectors – specialising in risk analysis and mitigation strategies. Richard prepares, plans and facilitates exercises for organisations looking to fine tune their planning and crisis control processes, as well as facilitating training sessions for organisations looking to prosecute their own in-house exercises and awareness campaigns.
In addition to a wealth of experience and qualifications in biomedical, information technology and security fields, Richard holds a Business Continuity Institute Certificate (Merit), and is the Needhams lead for supporting technologies and standards including ISO27K and BS25777.
Phil Russell MBE BSc (Hons)
Phil has 30 years of risk management experience in leadership roles in the commercial, not-for-profit and diplomatic sectors in the UK and in challenging international environments.
Phil specialises in:
- End to end Business Continuity development (all aspects of the BCM lifecycle)
- Executive Board and Crisis Management Team training and exercises
- Organisation training needs analysis, design, delivery and evaluation
Phil is a BSi trained BS 25999 Lead Auditor and works with a wide range of clients across all sectors, he is particularly skilled in crisis leadership and management training at all levels including scenarios that involve difficult situations worldwide. Prior to joining Needhams in mid-2010, Phil spent 5 years as Director of Disaster Operations in an international NGO where he led major interventions aimed at protecting rural livelihoods and food security throughout Asia and Latin America (2004-2009). Previously, he worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office leading high profile conflict resolution missions under difficult conditions in Palestine and South Sudan (2002-2004).
In his first career, Phil served as an officer in The Parachute Regiment where he was awarded an MBE in 1996 for military operations in Southern Africa.
Paul Mackenzie Walker MA MBA, Dip. Law LLM Barrister (non-practising)
Paul brings to Needhams a breadth of experience in both the public and private sectors, gained mostly at senior, strategic decision-making levels or working in support thereof.
Paul specialises in:
- Legal implications of risk and liability
- The input a legal perspective can make to business continuity
- Public policy and business continuity
His early career was spent working for employer and trade bodies, including several years as an Assistant Regional Director with the Confederation of British Industry. After gaining some commercial experience he went on to run a small but highly regulated agricultural trade association as its Director General. Paul then qualified as a lawyer and was Called to the Bar in 2004, pursuing thereafter, both in academic and practical terms, his interest in the resolution of civil law disputes 'out of court'. With Needhams he also developed an interest in crisis management and risk mitigation through business continuity planning and exercising.
In his spare time Paul served in the Royal Naval Reserve, moving to its Retired List in April 2011 after completing over 14 years of service. He attended the Advanced Command and Staff Course (2009), while still only a Lieutenant, and was later selected for promotion to Lieutenant Commander. Paul is a volunteer business mentor with the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust.
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Dr Katherine Devitt PhD, MSc, BA (Joint Hons)
Katherine is a senior lecturer at Southampton Solent University, specialising in leadership, crew resource management and bridge resource management in the maritime sector. Her doctoral research focused on effective strategic leadership in multi-agency major incident response teams, and her model of interwoven leadership has recently been published in a prestigious peer reviewed journal (Devitt, K. R. and E. P. Borodzicz (2008). "Interwoven Leadership: the Missing Link in Multi-Agency Major Incident Response." Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 16(4): 208-216)
She has extensive strategic and operational human factors experience gained at a senior level within several industries as well as the public sector.
Katherine specialises in:
- Selection of Crisis Management personnel
- Analysis of Crisis Management Team dynamics and effective operation
- Effective leadership in crisis situations
- Human factors in Business Continuity planning
Since joining Needhams in 2004, Katherine has worked with a number of clients in addressing human factors issues, including planning for staff and stakeholder support in the aftermath of an incident, and stress recognition and management. She has also developed and delivered a range of Crisis Management courses.
Katherine is a practising business psychologist and executive coach, a certificated NLP practitioner and counseller, and is qualified in business performance coaching as well as a wide range of psychometrics to British Psychological Society intermediate level B standard.
She holds a BA (Joint Hons) in Law and Politics from the University of Keele, an MSc in Organisational Behaviour from the University of London, and a PhD from the University of Portsmouth Business School.
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