Associates

BGG Associates offer a wealth of experience and specialist knowledge. Our Associates are professionals in their own field and we are delighted to be able to say they are part of the BGG network and at your service.

Mark Baker. Director

Mark holds a BSc honours degree and is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He has successfully completed the BSI Business Continuity Management Systems (BS25999) Lead Auditor course. He is also a fellow of the Institute of Civil Protection and Emergency Management.

Mark has extensive public sector experience and has held senior management positions including Director of Governance for a large local authority. He has significant project and programme management experience having been responsible for the delivery of multi million pound projects.  Mark has also had responsibility for legal and audit services, servicing Audit and Standards committees.

He has over ten years experience of emergency and business continuity planning, including undertaking business continuity and resilience planning for a number of NHS Trusts, and has operated at a strategic level, attending multi-agency Gold groups on numerous occasions.  He has frequently been exercise director for multi-agency exercises, some involving in excess of 500 players from many agencies.

He has lectured at Easingwold Emergency Planning College and been a speaker at many professional conferences, as well as participating in Home Office anti-terrorism training.

Alison Harker

Alison Harker is an experienced Planning Consultant, she has previously worked for a Development Corporation, a local planning authority and in private practice. She has also held the position of lecturer on the Use and Development of Land and has been an approved assessor for the Assessment of Professional Competence (Planning and Development) for the RICS. Alison has advised and prepared evidence on some 400 planning appeals. She ran her own practice for nearly ten years before joining BGG Associates in 2010 as an Associate Consultant.

Angela Mason Bell

Angela has over 15 years experience of providing audit, advisory and assurance work to a range of public sector organisations in her areas of expertise of corporate governance, risk management and internal audit. She has a proven track record of delivering high quality services to her customers and in her places of employment has been a valued source of independent and objective expertise on risk and internal control matters.  Her focus is always on the business needs of the organisation and the provision of constructive, pragmatic solutions. Angela has well developed communication skills (both written and oral) for effective liaison with officers, members, and external agencies. Her work has involved operating at all levels of organisations, including presenting reports and facilitating activities with senior management teams, head teachers and governors, audit committees, boards and local councillors.

Bob Harker BSc (Hons) MIWPC (Dip)

Bob has a scientific and technical background in the UK water and food industries and has worked within both the Public and Private sectors. He has 20 years experience in sales and marketing at a senior level within a major international industrial company and worked on projects throughout the UK and more recently in Europe and North America. As a highly respected professional within his field, Bob brings an in-depth understanding of the commercial world and its needs.

Caroline Stanger MA (Cantab)

Caroline holds an MA degree and is an affiliate member of the Business Continuity Institute. She has successfully completed the BSI Business Continuity Management Systems (BS25999) Lead Auditor course. Caroline has over 25 years experience in the public sector, including 2 years seconded to central government, and has held a number of senior management positions including Director of Business Support.

Caroline has had responsibility for ICT, programme and project management, procurement, efficiency, electronic business and business continuity in a large local authority. Her interest in business continuity started when she directed the Millennium Bug programme on behalf of a County Council, and since then she has been involved in both planning for continuity and taking part in testing exercises. Most recently she has been assisting a number of councils to develop strategies for managing significant financial challenges as part of their business continuity planning.

In 1998 Caroline co-authored ‘The Millennium Time Bomb’ which was commissioned and published by the Institute of Directors, and described as ‘An excellent review of the theoretical and practical implications relating to this issue’.

David Walker Dip EP MEPS RAF (Retd)

David has extensive experience of contingency planning gained both in the RAF, where he was commended for meritorious RAF service, and in the NHS. A graduate of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, David is an expert in risk and threat assessment, with particular reference to counter terrorism and Chemical, Biological, Radiological & Nuclear defence. He has also devised and implemented training courses for military personnel both for and during operations and shaped force protection activities and security operations both in the UK and abroad.

In the NHS, he has formalized, advised and co-ordinated the emergency response and business continuity arrangements of 40 NHS trusts in the Eastern region and is recognised for the initiation and leadership of a strategic training project for 60,000 NHS staff in the East of England region, and beyond. Most recently he was selected to represent all 10 NHS Strategic Health Authorities on the national strategic Pandemic Influenza Operational Management Planning Board and initiated and ran the NHS Regional Pandemic Influenza Incident Control Room during the AH1N1 swine flu pandemic outbreak.

David has lectured at the Government’s Emergency Planning College and has designed, delivered and debriefed national, regional and local seminars, workshops and training events for senior NHS and partner organisation staff.

Lucy Easthope LLB MSc MEPS

Lucy is a Tutor in Mass Fatalities and Pandemics at the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath and a guest lecturer on emergency management programmes at the Universities of Teeside, Huddersfield, Leeds and Leicester. She is an Associate Course Director at the Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College and a member of the East of England Resilience Forum sub groups for both Humanitarian Assistance and Mass Fatality planning.

Her main consultancy and research areas focus on community recovery and the care of survivors, the bereaved and the deceased after disaster. She has a special interest in the care and return of personal effects. Her further research interests include the effectiveness of legislation in the field of emergency management and the human aspects of risk management, insurance and business continuity processes.

She presents regularly and engagements include presentations to FEMA, Chinese government representatives, the Metropolitan Police and the American Academy of Forensic Science. Lucy has developed contingency plans, training programmes and exercises with a number of international organisations. She has also participated in the response to major incidents including aviation disasters, the Bali terrorist attacks, and the operations at Brize Norton during the military campaign in Iraq.

Lucy has a law degree from the University of Bristol, an MSc in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management from the University of Leicester and is currently a doctorate candidate at Lancaster University. As part of her doctorate research she has been conducting ethnographic research into community recovery after flooding since 2007.

Rachel Bemrose BSc (Hons), PGCE

Rachel has a wealth of experience in business continuity and public sector operations. She has developed an extensive portfolio of knowledge and skills working in a number of public sector organisations. She has an excellent level of commercial awareness and her communication skills are exceptional. Rachel is committed to maintaining the currency of her own skills and knowledge.

She holds an honours degree in Third World Development Studies and subsequently achieved a post graduate certificate in education and qualified teacher status. Most recently Rachel has been awarded a post graduate diploma in management studies awarded by The Institute of Learning and Management.

Initially Rachel’s career focused on education and training, particularly relating to young people with special needs. This provided her with an extensive understanding of the issues and legislation relating to both equality and diversity. Subsequently she took the opportunity to diversify her skills by accepting a post as an extended schools co-ordinator identifying the manner in which educational assets could be used to meet the wider needs of local communities. After a successful period in this role she opted to apply her knowledge and management skills to a role in Emergency Planning in a large County Council.

In this role she was particularly involved in developing emergency plans and helping to organise large scale exercises underpinning the regional and national initiatives to address significant threats such as pandemic influenza. Following a short maternity break Rachel has now accepted a role addressing the needs of the more vulnerable members of society for example ensuring that those in transient and migrant populations are able to access basic health needs. This is dynamic role that enables Rachel to continue working in an environment which is both challenging yet extremely rewarding.

Richard Potter

Richard is a Chartered Town Planner with twenty years’ experience in analytical and policy roles in national and local government.  He is an excellent relationship manager with good communications and facilitation skills.  He is comfortable working with Ministers, senior local politicians and Chief Executives.  Under Richard’s role as Head of Analysis, the Government Office for the East of England became the most highly rated for its analytical capability.

In organisational management and improvement Richard has been the Government representative on local authority improvement boards, supporting organisations tackling difficult issues.  He has managed demographic and survey work, crime and disorder audits, mapping functions, and the analysis of administrative data.  Richard has run training courses in surveys, performance inspection and has led development for members in Scrutiny.

Richard led the implementation of a Council’s first performance management system and has a PRINCE2 foundation qualification.  The organisational and cultural changes ensured the Council became one of the highest rated in the Country.

 Roy Elflett

Roy has over 30 years of experience with a major police force occupying key roles in operational, policy making and strategic areas. His last appointment before retiring from the force was as Chief Superintendent, Force operations. Following this he joined Norfolk County Council and soon after became Head of the Emergency Planning Unit with responsibility for county wide local authority emergency planning and, in partnership with local districts, for a number of Emergency Planning Officers based in the District Council areas. Roy has considerable experience of working within a multi agency environment. He was a member of the Norfolk Resilience Forum Strategic Group and chairman of the Norfolk Resilience Forum Support Group. Whilst at Norfolk County Council he was also responsible Business Continuity planning.

Roy’s specialist knowledge areas include strategic incident response skills, emergency planning and business continuity development.

Simon Cobby BA (Hons), MCIPR, NCTJ

Simon has a background in media and public relations. He was Weekend News Editor of the Press Association, Production Journalist for News at Ten and News Editor of the Cambridge News. In 1996 became Communications and Media Manager for a large local authority. His range of experience spans devising, leading and managing marketing and media strategies, campaigns and consultations, crisis management and emergency planning and advising the Leader of the Council and Cabinet on the media impact of political and strategic decisions.

Simon’s specialist knowledge areas include media management for crisis planning and response, mediatraining for senior managers, councillors, headteachers, schools governors and other agencies.

Steve Green

Steve holds a BA honours degree and is a member of the Emergency Planning Society. He is also a Graduate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Steve has extensive experience in the Civil Service working in H M Customs and Excise and more latterly the Government Office for the East of England. His responsibilities there included the negotiation of the Local Area Agreement for one of the region’s counties and representing central government on a Performance Improvement Board for a district council.

He was the Director of Resilience for the East of England for 5 years. His duties included  chairing  the Regional Resilience Forum and  representing central government  at the regions 6 Local Resilience Forums and Strategic Co-ordinating Groups. Steve was the national policy lead for the Government Office Network for Flood Planning and helped set up and chaired the East Coast Flood Planning Group, obtaining Defra agreement to taking on the work of this group as a key project within their National Flood Emergencies Programme.  He has extensive experience in helping to organise and participating in resilience planning exercises and has chaired and spoken at many professional conferences.

Trevor Gibson