Judging panel 2025

John Bolton, Head of TPRM and Operational Resilience, Canada Life
Michael Calamito, Resilience Expert and UK Domestic Responder, RE:ACT Disaster Response
Colm O’Keeffe, Global Head of Business Resiliency, Barings
Virag Shah, Global Head of Business Continuity Management, Hitachi Vantara
Jonathan Tabois, Business Continuity Manager, QBE
Russell Williams, Operational Resilience Manager, GoCardless
Trevor Woodbury, Global Head of Enterprise Resiliency, Dell Technologies

Chairman: Deborah Ritchie, Group Editor, Perspective Publishing

John Bolton, Head of TPRM and Operational Resilience, Canada Life
Approaching 30 years in the resilience industry, John Bolton is the current Head of Third-Party Risk Management and Operational Resilience for Canada Life, following previous roles as an executive lead at Axa, and various consultancy roles, managing and deploying business continuity, incident and crisis management, disaster recovery and IT resilience strategies and solutions, along with regulatory operational resilience compliance. Primarily working in the financial services sector within insurance, John has also consulted within the legal, engineering, publishing and retail fields to deliver business resilience for both businesses and their customers. As a passionate educator, John has spoken widely about operational resilience around the world. As a previous judge of the Business Continuity Awards, John is delighted to once again assess this year’s submissions and admire the exceptional achievements of his peers.

Michael Calamito, Resilience Expert and UK Domestic Responder, RE:ACT Disaster Response
Michael Calamito has worked in the financial services industry for over 30 years in a variety of business operations and business continuity roles. He joined Hargreaves Lansdown in March of 2021 as Head of Operational Resilience and retired in September 2023. Michael was also Head of Global Business Continuity Management at Fidelity International, where he oversaw business continuity activities across 27 countries for Fidelity International. Michael’s service with Fidelity’s domestic operations dates back to 1987. Michael also served in the US Army Reserves for 30 years, retiring in 2015 with the rank of Colonel. Michael had an accomplished career that included deployments to Iraq in 2006-2007 as an Iraqi logistical advisor and Afghanistan as the Commander of the Defense Logistics Agency in 2013. Michael holds a BS in Business Management and Industrial Relations from Seton Hall University and is a Master Business Continuity Planner (MBCP) from the Disaster Recovery Institute. Michael is also a trained UK Domestic and International Responder for RE:ACT Disaster Response Charity.

Colm O’Keeffe, Global Head of Business Resiliency, Barings
Colm O’Keeffe is Barings’ Global Head of Business Resiliency and member of the Organisational Risk team. Based in London, Colm has overall responsibility for Barings business resilience programme, which encompasses business continuity, crisis management, disaster recovery, incident response and operational resilience. With two decades of expertise in business resilience and continuity on a global scale, Colm joined Baring Asset Management in February 2001. Over this time, he has overseen the integration of the firm’s business resilience programme following the merger in 2016. This involved the implementation of a new business resilience framework, aligned to industry best practice standards – reducing complexity and ensuring a consistent approach to business resilience across the firm globally. Colm works closely with Barings CTO and CISO to ensure the business resilience programme is aligned with the firm’s cyber security programme.  Colm was awarded an MSc in Facilities Management (1996) and a BSc in Real Estate Management (1995) from South Bank University, London. He achieved a Pass with Merit in the Certificate of the Business Continuity Institute Examination in January 2015 and is a member of the Investment Association’s Operational Resilience Committee.

Virag Shah, Global Head of Business Continuity Management, Hitachi Vantara
Virag Shah is a Global Leader for Hitachi Vantara’s Business Continuity and Crisis Management. Virag has over 20 years of experience in the file of business continuity and risk management. He holds an MBA from Strathclyde Business School and MBCI, CIA, CISA and CRMA certifications. Virag is active on the speaking circuit in both the UK and the US.
He lives in London and practices Vipassana meditation.

Jonathan Tabois, Business Continuity Manager, QBE
With more than 20 years’ experience in the UK financial services industry Jonathan is business continuity manager for QBE Insurance European Operations. Jonathan has spent 16 years in business continuity, disaster recovery and resilience roles with the likes of Legal & General, Cofunds and M&G Investments featuring on his CV. Now in his ninth year with QBE, Jonathan is the current chair of the Insurance Sector Business Continuity Working Group.

Russell Williams, Operational Resilience Manager, GoCardless
Russell Williams has 20 years’ experience in the resilience and business continuity arena, having held senior positions at Deutsche Bank, BNY Mellon, Meta (Facebook), Vodafone and UK business continuity services provider Daisy. Most recently Russell has been helping fintech start-ups mature their resilience and continuity programmes and he is currently leading the operational resilience programme at payment fintech GoCardless. Russell is a previous winner of the Business Continuity and Resilience Manager of the Year Award.

Trevor Woodbury, Global Head of Enterprise Resiliency, Dell Technologies
Trevor Woodbury is an internationally recognised expert in the technology and risk management domains. He is multi-organisation recipient of Distinguished Technologist and Technology Fellow honors and has held leadership roles within top 10 global banks and investment firms, Fortune 500 high tech companies, healthcare organisations, the US armed forces, federal government, aerospace, oil and gas and manufacturing industries. He has spent a career in pursuit of next gen technology solutions, and leads innovation and risk management initiatives representing multi-billion dollar programmes and technology portfolios. Trevor lives in Arlington, VA, US, where he spends his free time in animal rescue and rehabilitation as an active board member and animal foster with the Animal Welfare League of Arlington and a founding board member and Purrfessor in the National Kitten College, a non-profit dedicated to providing vital support to animal shelters and rescues working to save the world’s most euthanised animal: neonatal kittens.