I arrived at BEIS at an historic moment as the Government prepared for the anticipated adverse impact of leaving the EU. I was hired to provide leadership to a team of forty people in the Emergency Operations Room. With my immeadiate team, I created and implemented policy and processes to mitigate barriers to moving freight accross borders. Working with material protected under the Official Secrets Act, I liaised with the Cabinet Office, the Border Control Centre and the Department for Transport, among OGDs and private companies in the freight sector. I wrote Situational Reports and other briefings for COBR. Creating and implementing the policy while leadership was largely absent, required sensitive relationship building, at pace, while dealing with complex material. The project contributed sucessfuly towards effective civil resilience. In particular, the protection of the country’s energy supplies. This project was a good example of crisis management, teamwork, creating policy, stakeholder relations, dealing with senior leaders, civil resilience, managing deadlines and leadership.
