About Us

Doogie Black is our Lead Analyst. Doogie is a leading member of the core team that developed the CaDD framework (renowned for being the most effective method for measuring and developing the adaptive capacity of organisations and their respective systems). He has applied the CaDD framework to assessing over two thousand public, private and civil society organisations globally. He has 16 years’ experience working specifically on climate change projects, and a further 10 in sustainable development.

Doogie was the Principal UK Expert (and one of the main authors) of ISO 14090, the first international standard on climate change adaptation (published in July 2019). He is currently commissioned by the European Commission to write guidance on how to embed ‘adaptation to climate change’ within new and existing European Infrastructure Standards (through CEN-CENELEC), and by the German Environment Agency to research and make recommendations on best practice in standardisation across Europe. He is also an active member of the BSI Adaptation Committee and reviews numerous standards that contain adaptation to climate change as a theme.

Doogie is currently leading on writing ‘adaptive capacity’ into ISO 14091 (the forthcoming international standard on climate change risk assessments). As a consultant, Doogie also works within and across a wide range of organisations; ranging from local authorities and national policy makers through to infrastructure operators, multinational corporations and development banks and donors. Doogie also presents and sits on panels at numerous events, including being a key note speaker and panellist at multiple side events at COP 25 in Madrid in December 2019.

Nick Pyatt is our Lead Trainer & Coach. He has a background of leading organisational development consultancy for international natural resource management within complex commercial, social, environmental and climate sensitive environments. He now works with a wider range of clients addressing climate and other long term sustainability challenges; Government, infrastructure operators, construction, manufacturing, international trade and services companies.

He is a specialist in CaDD analysis of organisational capacity to address climate and other sustainability challenges. He supports decision systems analysis to identify the high impact intervention points in systems that will address barriers to complex systemic change that addresses climate and other sustainability challenges. Nick is also qualified executive coach working with business leaders who include corporate responsibility and sustainability outcomes in their objectives.

John Dora is our Technical Lead. As well as his expertise in infrastructure and adaptation, John is a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey and an accomplished lecturer, teaching at the Universities of Birmingham and Surrey. He has thirty-nine years’ experience in managing infrastructure, including flood risk management and asset management of railway structures.

John is the global lead for adaptation for the International Standards Organisations (ISO) and was the Convener (Chair) for the group that drafted ISO 14090 – the first international standard dedicated to adaptation to climate change. As a prominent international expert on climate change adaptation, his clients have included the World Bank, the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and CEN/CENELEC, the European Standards’ organisations.

John is frequently invited to advise upon and participate in events on infrastructure resilience matters, for example in running a rail climate resilience workshop for the World Bank in Delhi in 2018, running the London workshops, and assisting the Beijing workshops on rail adaptation for the International Union of Railways (UIC) in April and June 2017.

John frequently chairs discussion sessions, such as at the 2018 COP24 (the annual UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties), the Flood and Coast Conference in Telford and for the Construction Industry Research and Information Association’s (CIRIA) Infrastructure Resilience series. At December 2019's COP 25 in Madrid, John presented on ISO Standards, and acted as Adaptation Advisor to UIC's Secretary General M. François Davenne. He has also been the Chair of the UK’s Infrastructure Operators’ Adaptation Forum since its inception in 2012.

Tim Reeder is our Lead Technical Adviser. He is a world-renowned thought leader and practitioner in strengthening decision making for uncertain climate futures. He pioneered the Adaptation Pathways approach in protecting London from sea level rise as Project Scientist for the Thames Estuary 2100 Project. He now advises on use of the Adaptation Pathways approach in Europe, USA, Australia, Central Asia and Africa.

Tim is a contributing author to the IPCC 4th assessment report and the UKCP09 projections report. He is also Advisor to the London Climate Change Partnership. Tim has written several papers on climate change uncertainty and decision making and continues to contribute to climate change adaptation practice and policy world-wide.

Alastair has over 35 years’ experience in strategic investment, management, and business governance. Since 2005 as Managing Director of an international forestry management organisation and from 2012 as a consultant advising on direct investment, asset management and valuation, corporate governance, and due diligence.

Alastair’s focus remains strategy, risk management, compliance, and corporate governance; that focusses on and manages long term commercial and sustainability objectives in a changing climate.

He served for five years as Chair of the UK forestry body responsible for promoting industry wide Health & Safety (FISA) and latterly until 2021 as President of the UK’s Institute of Chartered Foresters. He holds an MSc in Forestry & Land Management from Oxford University.