Speakers

Gregor joined The Scottish Government in 1996.  He worked across a range of policy areas, in Private Office, on the establishment of The Scottish Parliament and in HR before joining the Civil Contingencies Unit in 2003.  Initially assigned to work on the Scottish aspects of civil contingencies legislation and the development of Preparing Scotland Guidance, he subsequently led on a wide range of resilience policy issues. 

Operationally, Gregor worked as part of the Resilience Division on-call team.  He also led the work of the Scottish Government Resilience Room during a range of civil contingencies activations, as well as for planned events such as the G8 Conference at Gleneagles in 2005.  Gregor has also worked as a Scottish Government Liaison Officer, representing The Scottish Government at Resilience Partnerships across Scotland, in particular in the Tayside, Grampian and Highlands and Islands areas, in planning, response and recovery.

In 2006 Gregor set up and managed the Scottish Resilience Development Service, providing training and exercising support to Scotland’s resilience community.  He remained there until 2012 when he was asked to establish the Scottish Government’s Cyber Resilience Unit.

Gregor spent 2017 in Kosovo, acting as the UK Adviser to the Head of the Kosovo Security Force.  On return from Kosovo, he supported the establishment of Social Security Scotland, leading work to set up the new Agency’s business continuity arrangements. He then transferred to the Cabinet Office, initially to work on the programme to train members of the UK and Northern Ireland Civil Services to prepare for the possible consequences of a no-deal Brexit, and then to work with resilience partners to set up arrangements for the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

In 2020, Gregor moved to a new role in the Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College where he is responsible for the College’s resilience training, exercising and advisory services, supporting agencies with resilience responsibilities across the UK and internationally.