Mike Balmer spent 21 years as an Intelligence Officer in the Royal Air Force before building a second career, since 2003, around Operational Resilience, Risk Management and Business Continuity. He has led major programmes worth up to $100 million across Aerospace, Oil & Gas, Energy, Utilities and Government, frequently in demanding environments — including Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain — where he has advised at C-suite level and built resilience capability from first principles, most notably a new Operational Resilience function for the Royal Commission in Jubail, KSA, now recognised as national best practice.
As an accredited trainer for the BCI, BCS and BSI, Mike has delivered Business Continuity and Operational Resilience training across the UK, Middle East, Africa and Asia, with a strong record of student success on qualifications including the CBCI. A former lecturer at Cranfield University, where he developed a module for the Advanced Information Systems Masters, he brings the same energy to the classroom as he does to client engagements, and is equally in demand as a coach and mentor. His clients have included Shell, Occidental, Prudential, Royal Bank of Scotland, Serco Defence and G4S Risk Consulting, among others.