Senior appointments for resilience centre

One of the country’s most senior former police officers is to chair the Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC), it was announced yesterday. Paddy Tomkins was HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland and is now chief executive of Droman, a consultancy that provides advice on policing, civil contingency and public safety markets in the UK and overseas. His appointment as chairman follows unanimous approval by the SBRC board.

Tomkins will be joined at the SBRC by Douglas Barnett – AXA’S head of customer risk management – who becomes vice-chair.

The newly appointed chairman, who has been on the SBRC board since last year, thanked his predecessor, outgoing chair Alasdair Macfarlane.

He said: “Alasdair has led the board through very challenging operating conditions, and it is a great tribute to his leadership, wisdom and energy that the SBRC has grown so strongly under his chairmanship. I am delighted to be taking on the role at such a critical time for the Scottish business community, where undoubtedly the biggest threat to Scottish businesses, indeed to the services and infrastructure that underpins our lives in Scotland, is cybercrime.

“If we do not put cyber security and cyber resilience at the forefront of our thinking in all we do then we risk disruption, loss of intellectual property, financial harm and the undermining of public confidence that is essential a flourishing economy.”

Barnett has been with AXA for 17 years. 0 Former police officer Paddy Tomkins made chair