Chief Resilience Officers and resilience leads chart ambitious path forward
London, December 2025 - The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the network of Corporate Chief Resilience Officers (CCRO) convened their annual in-person meeting on 1-2 December, hosted by Sky at its London headquarters. Members of leading multinational companies gathered to review progress made in 2025, share lessons from major events across regions, and define priorities to accelerate private-sector contributions to disaster risk reduction (DRR) and business resilience worldwide.
A year of consolidating and global engagement
Throughout 2025, the CCRO network consolidated its governance and membership, raised the profile of resilience in global policy dialogues, and launched the Resilience Maturity Assessment (ReMA) tool, with a special focus on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
At the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GO2025) in Geneva, CCRO members led and contributed to six major sessions, placing private sector operational resilience at the centre of global DRR discussions.
These engagements showcased the network's growing leadership in articulating how corporate resilience, supply chain management, and risk-informed investment practices contribute to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Beyond Geneva, CCRO members actively promoted resilience globally at a Barcelona SME resilience workshop, at a webinar with ARISE Egypt, and at the ARISE-US 2025 Conference. In Zurich, UNDRR and the CCRO Network jointly presented "How the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction & a network of Chief Resilience Officers are partnering to improve societies' resilience" at the Risk-In 2025 Conference, further expanding outreach to practitioners and the financial sector.
The launch of ReMA was also highlighted globally during MSME Day 2025, where SRSG Kishore referenced the tool in his official video message.
Since the launch of ReMA, CCRO members have regularly engaged with various stakeholders, including business networks and technology accelerators, to expand ReMA's uptake.
"We created ReMA to be simple, free, and scalable. It's about helping organizations-especially those with limited resources-understand where they stand and how they can move forward."
Laurent Giezendanner, Head of Corporate Security and Legal Transformation at Syngenta Group
Strengthening ReMA implementation and setting country targets
A significant focus of the London meeting was on strengthening the rollout of ReMA across companies' operations and supply chains, including potential supplier-level requirements. Members also reviewed country-level progress and committed to scaling implementation in selected countries.
Discussions highlighted the need for translation, contextual adaptation, and stronger global communications to ensure accessibility across regions. The network set a list of actions to address these and other items to increase the adoption of ReMA.
"Our discussions in London focused on practical steps to scale implementation, adapt the tool to local contexts, and ensure it supports better decision-making across different markets."
Richard FitzHugh, Group Head of Resilience at Holcim
Adoption of network KPIs
The network also adopted a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to guide its work through 2027. These KPIs use quantitative and qualitative measures that are time-bound and cover specific outputs expected from the network.
These indicators aim to shift the network from awareness-raising toward measurable impact, ensuring that ReMA adoption and other initiatives translate into concrete improvements in business continuity.
Advancing executive education on resilience
Members also met with representatives from University College London (UCL) to advance work on a potential collaboration. This collaboration aims to position the CCRO network as a recognized actor in corporate resilience capacity building and to support the development of the next generation of Chief Resilience Officers.
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond
Closing the meeting, the CCRO network agreed on several next steps:
- Strengthening ReMA deployment and uptake with diversified actions
- Finalizing a potential collaboration with academic partners
- Continuing to contribute to global DRR policy dialogues and UNDRR initiatives
- Sustaining visibility through coordinated communications
The meeting concluded with a renewed sense of purpose and the appointment of Laurent Giezendanner (Syngenta Group) and Richard FitzHugh (Holcim) as Co-Chairs for 2026, underscoring CCRO leadership's continued commitment to advancing global resilience.