PRESS RELEASE originally posted on Business Wire.
12 September 2022 – Resilience First is delighted to announce the appointment of a new Global Executive Director, Martyn Link, who takes up the leadership of the world’s largest network connecting businesses and communities in pursuit of resilience.
Effective 1 September 2022, Martyn will help ensure the delivery of Resilience First’s vision and ambitious goals. Martyn was most recently Chief Strategy Officer at Wood, one of the world’s largest engineering consultancy companies, where he led the focus on clean energy transformation, sustainability and resilience.
Founded in April 2018, Resilience First is a not-for-profit membership organisation, created by London First (now known as Business LDN), led and funded by business to strengthen collective business resilience.
Under the leadership of Mike Rooney since its formation, Resilience First has developed a global network of over 600 businesses, operating in 150 countries and employing some 10 million people. That network advances resilience by building a community to share and create best practice. In February 2021, Mike oversaw the creation of a strategic partnership with The Resilience Shift. That in turn led to the joint creation of the Resilience Rising Consortium which was launched in January 2022.
Under Martyn’s leadership, and within the global Resilience Rising Consortium, Resilience First will continue to convene and engage with business and community leaders to develop and share the innovative tools and best practice necessary in an increasingly complex and uncertain world.
Martyn Link, Resilience First’s new Global Executive Director, said: “I am incredibly excited about joining the Resilience First team and the broader Resilience Rising Consortium. It is more important than ever to prepare for the future by embedding resilience into the building blocks of our society. I look forward to accelerating the discussion about the transformation of our global and local businesses, building large-scale commitment among members and stakeholders to adapt and incorporate sustainability and resilience into our organisations and accelerate collaborative solutions.”
Mike Rooney, Resilience First Founder and outgoing CEO, said: “I am delighted that Martyn is taking the baton from me to lead Resilience First in the next phase of development through his extensive resilience knowledge, senior corporate management experience and networks. Thanks to my Chair, team and members for all their support.”
Seth Schultz, CEO of Resilience Rising, said: “At a time of unprecedented change and uncertainty across the fragile systems that underpin our society, and a time of increasing funding for new solutions, the Resilience Rising Consortium is re-imagining radical collaboration to bring about a global step change. We are thrilled to have Martyn bring his broad set of experience and expertise to the rapidly growing business network at Resilience First to usher in a new era of corporate collaboration and leadership to enhance the resilience of companies, employees and customers around the world.”
Simon Collins, Chair of Resilience First, said: “Under Mike Rooney’s leadership Resilience First has become the leading voice for business resilience. The world needed that in 2018 when we started, and needs it substantially more in today’s unpredictable and turbulent times. I am delighted that Martyn Link has joined us and look forward with confidence to the organisation thriving under his leadership.”
About Martyn Link
Martyn is an experienced strategic leader, passionate about enabling organisations prepare for, and adapt to, the biggest challenges of our time. Most recently Martyn spent 11 years at the global engineering giant Wood Plc, where he was responsible for corporate strategy, organisational design and the pivot towards the energy transition. He led the formation of the strategic partnership between Wood Plc and The Resilience Shift to launch Resilience Realised – a global search for resilient infrastructure projects; as well as ensuring Wood was a founding member of the Engineering Leadership Group (ELG) – a leadership group of the largest engineering companies in the world advocating for change at the G7 and G20. Martyn is a scientist by training and has two degrees from Edinburgh University. He started his career at Wood Mackenzie where he focused on corporate strategy and competitive intelligence. Martyn subsequently helped shape the investment portfolio of an innovation fund before joining Wood.
About Resilience First
In a world of deep uncertainties and vulnerable interdependencies, Resilience First provides the pathway to drive resilience through the collective will of our business membership by convening, sharing and co-creating resilience best practice for mutual and societal benefit. Our network of over 600 global businesses employs 10.4 million people worldwide, is based in 150 countries including over 75 in Global South.
About Resilience Rising
Resilience Rising is a global consortium working together to accelerate a safe, resilient, and sustainable future for all. The world is dealing with increasingly complex and interconnected challenges that no one sector can solve. We convene essential communities of practice, from businesses and policymakers to engineers and infrastructure owners and operators, to harness the power of collaboration, spur systemic and inclusive change, and tackle some of society’s most pressing problems with a proven, cross-cutting solution – resilience.
Contact: Resilience First enquiries: Laura Michelon laura.michelon@resiliencefirst.co.uk