Cambridge Risk Symposium 2026

Fernanda is a Research Associate in systemic risks at the Centre for Risk Studies. She is a Mexican engineer focused on the application of technology for development and social innovation. Previously, Fernanda worked on gene and cellular therapies for several years and then transitioned to consulting in technology innovation, disaster risk management (DRM) and emergency preparedness and response (EP&R). Fernanda is also a passionate traditional fencer and martial artist, looking forward to this new opportunity to work on systemic risks at the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies.

Dr Timothy Less runs the study group in geopolitical risk analysis at the Centre for Geopolitics. He also works as a consultant for the private sector with a specialisation in the politics of central and eastern Europe about which he writes and comments for the media.

Previously, he worked as an analyst, diplomat, and policymaker at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he led the Countries at Risk of Instability project and ran the British Embassy Office in Banja Luka and the EU Institutions department. He also taught Eastern European Politics at the University of Kent.

Tim holds an MA in Eastern European Studies from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, an MSt in International Relations, and a PhD in modern history from the University of Cambridge. His recent publications include the ‘City Risk Index 2022’ (co-author, Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies, January 2023); ‘The New Warsaw Pact’ (Engelsberg Ideas, May 2023); and ‘What If? Ten Geopolitical Risks to Keep You Awake at Night’ (GIRO conference paper, November 2023).

Professor Danny Ralph is a Founder and Director of the Centre for Risk Studies, Professor of Operations Research at Cambridge Judge Business School, and a Fellow of Churchill College.

Danny received his PhD in 1990 from the University of Wisconsin Madison. He was a faculty member of the Mathematics & Statistics Department at the University of Melbourne before coming to Cambridge University for a joint appointment in the Engineering Department and Cambridge Judge Business School.

Danny’s research interests include: risk in business decision making; risk aversion in electricity markets; methods and models for optimisation problems and equilibrium systems. Specific projects undertaken in collaboration with the banking and insurance industry (Catlin, HSBC, ICBC, Lloyd’s, Munich Re, Risk Management Solutions, Swiss Re) cover emerging risk scenarios, financial stress testing and a global ranking of cities by risk exposure. Engagements with other sectors include electricity consultancies (Artelys, LCP), oil and gas (Shell Exploration, Statoil) and retail (BT Retail, Gap) on decision making under high uncertainty. Public service contributions to the UK Cabinet Office, UK Industry and Parliamentary Trust, UK Office of the Government Chief Scientific Advisor, and United Nations World Humanitarian Summit.

Professor Ralph is a member of the Australian Mathematical Society, INFORMS, the Mathematical Optimization Society and SIAM. He was Editor-in-Chief of Mathematical Programming (Series B) from 2007-2013 and has served on the editorial boards of Mathematics of Operations Research and the SIAM Journal on Optimization, as well as the SIAM-MPS book series on optimisation.

Dr Trevor Maynard is the Director of Systemic Risk at the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies located at the Judge Business School.

He qualified as an actuary and holds a PhD in Statistics from the LSE and a Masters in Pure Mathematics from the University of Warwick.

His work has involved risk modelling in various guises from Pensions and Life Assurance to general insurance, working for firms such as Lloyd’s of London and Mercer. Whilst at Lloyd’s his team produced risk reports on subjects including Pandemics, Climate Change, Deep tail Marine disasters, Nano Technology, Geopolitics, AI, Robotics and IoT working with many think tanks, universities and specialist risk modelling firms.

Additionally he advises insurtech firms on risk and data science.

Kevin is a researcher at the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies. His research looks at climate disaster risk and recovery, systemic economic and climate risk, and global trends, networks, and linkages in the design and analysis of risk taxonomies and scenarios. He has worked in research related to climate financial risk, including input/output analysis of climate-economy modelling, climate scenario modelling and stress testing, carbon accounting, energy systems, and transition and fiscal policy. He has been a researcher at Oxford University’s School of Geography, Department of Economics, and the Said Business School, where he has worked on topics related to international trade, competition, infrastructure, international development, inequality, and long-run growth. He has been a lecturer at Oxford University and the University of Buckingham. He holds a PhD and MSc from Oxford University, and a BA from Northwestern University.

In his work for Marsh, a global professional services firm in risk, strategy and investments, Christopher has led the Geopolitical and Economic Risk Analysis team within the firms’ Credit Specialties practice since 2023. Among a variety of offerings, the team provides geopolitical and economic risk assessments and analysis, as well as sector-specific insights for clients and internal applications. Prior to joining Marsh, Chris worked at Darktrace on critical infrastructure cyber security issues and he holds master’s degrees from Sciences Po, Paris, and the London School of Economics in international affairs and global security issues.

Nicholas is the Asset and Operational Performance Manager at E.ON UK, where he leads strategic programmes focused on optimising asset performance and delivering operational excellence across a broad energy portfolio. His work centres on improving the performance, resilience, and governance of assets, supporting long-term value creation. Prior to E.ON, Nicholas worked with Arup supporting asset intensive organisations across the energy and transport sector on capital investment planning, digital transformation, and regulatory compliance.

Nicholas recently completed an MSt at the Laing O’Rourke Centre for Construction Engineering and Technology at the University of Cambridge, with a focus on risk-based asset management. Previously, he studied engineering at Imperial College London and Swansea University.

Dr. Ramit Debnath is a University Associate Professor and Executive Director of Centre for Human-Inspired AI (CHIA) at the University of Cambridge, where his group pioneers responsible AI systems for climate and environmental justice decision-making. His work advances environmental computational social sciences, designing tools to mitigate environmental risks and align AI with public good. He leads the Cambridge Collective Intelligence and Design Group and climaTRACES Lab, advises the UK Government on AI methods, and co-leads Caltech’s Climate and Social Intelligence Lab. A Gates Scholar, he holds an MPhil-PhD from Cambridge in engineering and computational social sciences.

Bhargav Srinivasa Desikan is the AI and Tech Lead at the Autonomy Institute and a D.Phil researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, as well as holding visiting research positions at the MCTD, University of Cambridge, and the Computation and Culture Lab at Stanford University. His research and policy work examines the societal impact of AI, with a focus on work, culture, and climate implications. His work has been published at leading venues such as Nature, AAAI, Cognition, Organisation Studies, and more.

Ville Korpela is Managing Director at Prometheus Capital Group and a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He is also Co-Founder and Director at the Finland based Impact Innovation Institute. His work is focused on advising family offices and governments on emerging technologies, purpose-aligned investing and geopolitical developments. Ville was educated at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford. In his spare time, he enjoys Japanese poetry and photography.

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Dr Michael Hochberg helps run the Mackinder Forum, the world’s oldest operating organisation for the promotion of geopolitical thought, where he devotes his attention to questions of geopolitics, foreign relations, grand strategy, economic statecraft, business and technology, with a particular interest in the areas where these different fields intersect.

Previously, Michael was a physicist, an engineer, a professor, a founder, an executive at a large multinational, a freelance advisor to CEOs, and a corporate board member, and has created over a billion dollars’ worth of startup companies. In 2024, he was also a visiting scholar at the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge.

Michael’s articles have appeared in Science, Nature, and other top scientific journals, and have been cited over 20,000 times in the scientific literature. He has also written extensively on geopolitics for publications such as National Review Online, The Hill, and the Naval War College Review.

Michael holds a BSc, MSc and PhD from Caltech in Physics and Applied Physics and was the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering.

Dr Viviana Bastidas Melo is an Assistant Research Professor in Urban Systems and Infrastructure in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. She works on the interdisciplinary Digital Cities for Change (DC2) project at the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC). Her work focuses on the design and governance of digital solutions for public value, including data-driven and AI-based systems. She is currently investigating human-oriented approaches to AI-based systems to guide their responsible development and deployment. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Innovation Value Institute, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, where she also received a PhD in Computer Science (2021).

Mario is a Partner at McKinsey & Company, and a core leader in the Banking and Insurance practices, with functional expertise in Risk Management, Finance and Digital & Analytics.
Mario has led several complex transformation programs, from strategy setting to implementation, in the Financial Institutions industry (banks, insurance, asset management, fintech / regtech), and in non-financial corporates (mainly focused on Finance / Risk).

Former M&A/ Advisory Investment Banker, with Private Equity and Corporate Finance experience, both as a practitioner and a consultant.
Additional experience in Growth Strategies and New Business Building – from design to scale – in the financial services arena. e.g., business building creation in digital consumer finance, digital SME financing, brokerage / marketplace platforms in fin. services arena, regtech / fintech with a focus on risk management.

Mario is also an Advisory Board member of the Cambridge Judge Centre for Risk Studies, where he contributes to the definition and prioritization of research areas, leveraging Cambridge academic rigor and McKinsey inside-out view on the global economy and its main risks ahead.

Sam Olsen is Chief Analyst at Sibylline and a widely published authority on China–Western relations, the Indo-Pacific, and the changing world order. With 25 years’ experience across government, intelligence, and the private sector, he specialises in combining geopolitical analysis with data-driven methods to help leaders navigate global risk. Sam previously led the Adarga Research Institute, where he developed models for geoeconomic risk and Chinese influence, and founded the Evenstar Institute for research into strategic competition. A graduate of Oxford and Cass Business School, former British Army intelligence officer, and U.S. Senate Legislative

Fellow on Chinese trade policy, he has advised governments, national security agencies, and leading financial institutions.

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Ruben is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and he leads the Telecom, Media and Technology Practice in Europe. Ruben advises corporate clients, PE-owned portfolio companies and founder-led businesses on AI transformation, growth, technology and strategy topics. He also frequently leads digital and AI transformations for adjacent industries such as consumer, retail, insurance and financial services.