S3 E10 - ’Talking Disasters, Resilience and Families’ with Brett Ellis ESM and Dr Randolph Kent

Moments of Clarity

Welcome to the 10th installment for Season 3 of Moments of Clarity with Matthew Sortino and Toby Kent. We have something a little different for you in this episode - 2 guests! And not just any guests, Matt and Toby are joined by Toby's former business partner and good friend Brett Ellis ESM and Toby's dad, Dr Randolph Kent.

Brett has a stellar record of achievement as a senior executive in state and local government, community organisations and small business in areas as diverse as emergency management, public safety, environmental management, risk management and societal resilience.

During a 30-year career Brett has held senior strategic planning, culture change and operational roles in organisations tasked with supporting communities and implementing major change management programs. As a result of his expertise and experience, a number of initiatives he led inform state, national and international disaster and resilience policies and frameworks.

His expertise has seen him perform senior government operational roles during significant emergency events and disasters including the State Consequence Manager, State Relief and Recovery Manager and Municipal Emergency Manager. Brett has been awarded the Emergency Services Medal (ESM) for distinguished services to the community for improvements to Public Safety and the National Emergency Medal for sustained service during the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires.

Dr Randolph Kent is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a Visiting Professor at the African Leadership Centre at King’s College London, Honorary Professor at University College London’s Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, as well as a member of the Global Science Forum of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Previously he has directed the Humanitarian Futures Programme at King’s College London, where he and his staff worked from 2004 to 2016 with a wide range of multilateral, bilateral and non-governmental organisations to strengthen their strategic and planning capacities for dealing with longer-term disaster threats.

Prior to this Dr Kent was assigned as UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia (2003), UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Kosovo (1999), UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Rwanda [1994-1995], Chief of the UN Emergency Unit in Sudan [1989-1991] and Chief of Emergency Prevention and Preparedness in Ethiopia [1987-1989].

Since leaving the United Nations, much of Dr Kent’s attention has been focused on projects dealing with organisational and systems behaviour. These interests had led to appointments on a range of governmental and non-governmental committees in Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the private sector, he had served on the policy committees of DHL Deutsche Post Sustainability Advisory Council and Deloitte’s Humanitarian Innovation Panel.

Dr Kent's publications include include 'Anatomy of Disaster: The Relief Network in Action' as well as 57 book chapters and journal articles and co-edited, 'The Study and Teaching of International Relations'. He is also currently writing a book – Planning from the Future: Why it Matters - intended to guide governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations on ways to address new types and ever more complex disaster threats.

Links

https://www.firesticks.org.au/

https://www.resilientco.au/

www.linkedin.com/in/brett-ellis-esm

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/randolph-kent

Humanitarianism InFocus with Randolph Kent - A New Debate Productionhttps://youtu.be/cZmwtYkSy_A

https://rusi.org/people/kent

Time Stamps

0:00 - 4:57 Introduction with Matt and Toby

4:58 - 57:36 Part 1 with Brett and Randolph

57:37 - 90:25 Part 2 with Brett and Randolph

90:26 - 91:39 Outro

Thank you to the team at Ex-Zero for our branding and design work and to Christian Prochilo for our music and sound editing.

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