What does a fractional Chief Resilience Officer do?

A fractional CRO provides flexible senior resilience leadership, helping an organisation establish, review or strengthen resilience, crisis management and preparedness capability without requiring a full-time executive appointment.

Can support be provided during an incident?

Yes. Crisis and heightened-risk support can add strategic capacity during significant incidents, increased risk or organisational disruption, including incident management, coordination, recovery and lessons learned.

Can you support crisis technology selection or implementation?

Yes. The offering includes technology strategy and requirements, assessment of existing systems, mass-notification and incident-management solutions, implementation support and partner assessment.

Service Area

Fractional Chief Resilience Officer

Natalie Fairchild is an international crisis management and organisational resilience specialist, providing independent strategic advice and fractional Chief Resilience Officer support — combining strategic resilience expertise with hands-on experience of real-world crises.

How we help

Organisational resilience planning and implementation for organisations ranging from small businesses to multinational organisations.

Strategic resilience expertise informed by international crisis response, humanitarian operations, cyber resilience and crisis technology implementation.

Flexible senior support that can provide ongoing leadership, deliver a resilience transformation, lead a defined project or add capacity during a crisis.

Typical matters

Strategic resilience and risk
Crisis management and preparedness
Exercising, training and capability development
Crisis technology and innovation
Crisis response and strategic support

Typical process

Understand the organisation, its risk environment, critical dependencies and resilience priorities
Agree the most suitable fractional engagement model and the required level of leadership support
Build, review or strengthen resilience capability through an agreed programme, project or response plan
Provide practical strategic oversight, implementation support and continuous improvement

Flexible executive capability

The Fractional Model

Select the level and shape of senior resilience support that matches your organisation’s current needs.

Ongoing Strategic Support

Retained fractional CRO function providing regular leadership input, resilience oversight and programme development.

Resilience Transformation

Defined engagement to establish, review or strengthen organisational resilience capability.

Project-Based Support

Specialist advice and delivery around a particular risk, programme, exercise or technology implementation.

Crisis & Heightened-Risk Support

Additional strategic capacity during periods of increased risk, significant incidents or organisational disruption.

Expertise

Crisis & Resilience: preparedness, response, recovery, contingency planning and organisational resilience
International Response: responded to 10+ international events, including aviation, maritime and COVID-19 incidents
Humanitarian Operations: established Family Assistance Centres for Ukrainian evacuees in Poland; supported UK Government humanitarian interventions
Cyber Resilience: helped organisations prepare for, respond to and recover from cyber attacks, restoring critical operations
Technology: advised on and implemented crisis management software solutions for multinational organisations
International Policy & Academia: contributed to UN-ICAO working groups on aviation family assistance; MSc in Risk Analysis, Disasters and Resilience, King’s College London

Service Offering — Fractional Chief Resilience Officer

Flexible fractional Chief Resilience Officer support, tailored to the organisation’s resilience priorities, risk environment and operating context. The service offering covers the five core areas set out below.

Strategic Resilience & Risk

Resilience strategy & frameworks
Risk & vulnerability assessment
Critical dependencies
Governance & accountability
Strategic risk mitigation
Maturity assessments
Stakeholder mapping
Resilience roadmaps

Crisis Management & Preparedness

Crisis management frameworks
Crisis plans & procedures
Business continuity planning
Roles, responsibilities & governance
Decision-making & escalation
Crisis communications planning
Incident management structures
Humanitarian response planning
Recovery & lessons learned

Exercising, Training & Capability Development

Crisis management exercises
Tabletop & scenario exercises
Executive & leadership exercising
Crisis management training
Role-specific preparedness training
Exercise design, facilitation & evaluation
Lessons identification & improvement planning

Crisis Technology & Innovation

Technology strategy
Technology requirements
Assessment of existing systems
Digital transformation
Mass notification & incident management solutions
Technology implementation support
Partner & solution assessment

Crisis Response & Strategic Support

Crisis management team support
Strategic incident management
Humanitarian response coordination
Stakeholder coordination
Family & survivor assistance considerations
Recovery & post-incident support
Independent review & lessons learned

Key Experience

Crisis management software specialist
International disaster practitioner
Masters-level academic
Advocate on international policy and guidance
Keynote speaker

Contact Natalie Fairchild

Email: natalie.fairchild@crisisdna.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/natalie-fairchild23

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions.

Have a more specific question? Contact our team for a confidential initial discussion.