Speakers

Charlie is the Senior Crisis Management Lead for Northern Europe within International SOS branch Consulting & Solutions and is based at the International SOS offices in London. 

Charlie brings extensive experience in crisis management, operational resilience, and emergency response gained across both government and private sector organisations. She works with clients to enhance organisational resilience through crisis management frameworks, exercising, governance, and business continuity, enabling leaders to navigate complex and high-pressure situations with confidence. 

Prior to joining International SOS, Charlie was Operational Resilience Manager at Bank of Ireland UK, where she led operational resilience testing across critical business services in line with PRA/FCA regulatory requirements. She designed and delivered complex scenario-based exercises, supported crisis and incident management activities, and drove continuous improvement through lessons learned and resilience maturity initiatives. 

Before moving to the UK, Charlie held several crisis management and operational resilience roles within the New Zealand Government. As a Senior Adviser in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's Strategic Crisis Management Unit, she coordinated responses to nationally significant crises, advised senior government officials, led post-incident reviews, and strengthened cross-government resilience across cyber, terrorism, natural hazard and other emerging risk events. 

Charlie also served with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, where she was deployed to support a number of significant international crisis events. Based in Iran, she played a key role in the evacuation of more than 800 people from Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul, coordinating complex international operations across high-risk environments. She was later deployed to Indonesia to support the New Zealand Government's response to a complex hostage incident involving a New Zealand citizen, working alongside government agencies to coordinate the on-the-ground response. 

Charlie holds a Bachelor of Commerce in International Business from Victoria University of Wellington, with minors in Chinese and Environmental Studies. She is passionate about helping organisations build practical, effective crisis management capabilities and developing trusted partnerships that strengthen resilience before, during, and after a crisis.