Jon is an emergency & disaster professional, a former fire chief and public sector executive director. He is the founder of the Resilience Advisors Network (RAN)* specialising in International civil protection arrangements and disaster risk reduction. Jon works across Europe and beyond supporting emergency and disaster preparedness, research and innovation.Early training in marine oil & gas operations was followed by a long career in Emergency service leadership including 10 years as Chief Officer 6 of which also spent designing, creating and leading specialist national resilience capabilities (CBRN, USAR etc). As the chair of regional resilience arrangements and strategic coordination groups for crisis-hit communities, he led many large scale, wide-area incidents.A qualified expert in the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), in 2015 Jon became Director of Training at the International Fire Service College designing solutions for re-shaping the fire & rescue and resilience sectors. He now oversees an immediate network of RAN’s 200 crisis and disaster experts as well as facilitating the Crisis Management Innovation Network Europe (CMINE), a broader network of some 2000 European crisis and innovation practitioners supporting organisations such as the European Commission, the United Nations and many humanitarian NGO's. A member of many advisory boards and the partner coordinator of 6 security / innovation and disaster resilient society research projects under the Horizon Europe programme.Jon is a proud recipient of the Queens Fire Service Medal, the highest award available for Fire & Rescue professionals.* The Resilience Advisors Network is a group of some 250 international crisis experts who form specialised teams to undertake strategic reviews, projects and research aimed at strengthening community, locality and infrastructure resilience from disasters and emergencies. Operating through companies in Ireland and the UK, the Network is particularly active in Europe and the Middle East.