Becoming a Fellow

What first sparked your ambition to pursue Fellowship, and was there a defining moment when you knew you were ready?

If I’m honest, Fellowship wasn’t a single moment of confidence, it was a slow realisation that my work had shifted from doing safety to shaping the conditions in which safety could thrive. Over the last couple of years, I contacted the office several times to ask about the process, always curious, never quite convinced I was ready. I didn’t apply initially because I felt I didn’t yet meet every criterion. I now recognise that as a familiar pattern: waiting to be 100% qualified before stepping forward.

What changed wasn’t a sudden surge of self-belief. It was the evidence of impact. Through my work with the IIRSM branches, contributing to the Emerging Risk Leaders Network career workbook, writing on business continuity for The Sentinel and becoming an Ambassador, I realised I had quietly moved beyond operational delivery into influencing professional standards, capability development and strategic thinking. Ironically, I became a Fellow because others saw the readiness in me before I did.

If there was a defining moment, it was recognising that Fellowship is not about perfection, it is about contribution. And sometimes the only thing holding us back is our own threshold for ‘ready’. I share that openly because many capable professionals, particularly women, disqualify themselves too early. If you are already shaping the system, not just operating within it, you may be closer than you think.

How has becoming a Fellow changed the way you see yourself as a professional and a leader?

Becoming a Fellow didn’t change who I am, it legitimised who I have always been.

I have always been a systems thinker. I naturally:

• See patterns across functions rather than within silos

• Anticipate second- and third-order consequences

• Notice misaligned incentives and structural frictions

• Ask governance questions rather than procedural ones

• Design frameworks instead of reacting to incidents.

However, in some of the operational roles I’ve held, those capabilities were underutilised. I was often rewarded for execution rather than architecture.

Fellowship has given me permission, and credibility, to lean into more strategic, cross-functional work. It has reinforced that my value is not only in solving problems, but in redesigning the conditions that create them.

It marks a shift from practitioner to architect. And that shift matters, because sustainable safety does not come from more activity. It comes from better-designed systems.

What do you value most about being a Fellow, beyond the post-nominals – and why does it matter? 

Beyond the post-nominals, I value what Fellowship represents: trust in professional judgement at a strategic level.

It signals that our profession is not limited to compliance and incident response, it includes governance design, organisational resilience, business continuity integration, and enterprise risk thinking.

For me, Fellowship matters because it positions safety and risk professionals as contributors to organisational architecture, not just operational assurance.

That reframes conversations in boardrooms. It enables us to speak about risk appetite, system fragility, decision governance, and long-term resilience, not only metrics and lagging indicators.

When the profession is seen as strategic, not reactive, it changes the influence we can have.

Can you share a specific example of how Fellowship has influenced your career opportunities, credibility or industry voice?

Fellowship has strengthened my ability to position safety and risk through a governance lens.

When engaging in conversations about enterprise risk, business continuity, and cross-functional resilience, the Fellowship designation provides an immediate signal of strategic credibility. It shifts the dialogue from health and safety perspective to organisational systems perspective.

It has also amplified my industry voice, enabling me to write, speak and contribute with greater confidence on topics such as governance integration, enterprise risk alignment, and the structural reasons organisations fail to learn.

Perhaps most importantly, it has changed how I introduce myself. I no longer lead with tasks I deliver. I lead with systems I help design.

How do you see Fellowship contributing to greater diversity and inclusion in the profession?

Fellowship plays a powerful symbolic and structural role in representation. When professionals from diverse backgrounds e.g. neurodivergent thinkers, women, career switchers, people who have taken unconventional paths, achieve Fellowship, it expands the visible template of what leadership looks like.

But beyond symbolism, it shifts influence.

When diverse professionals hold strategic credentials, they are more likely to:

• Influence governance design

• Shape risk frameworks

• Challenge narrow definitions of competence

• Embed psychological safety into systems.

Inclusion is not only about who is in the room. It is about who shapes the rules of the room.

If Fellowship enables more diverse professionals to move from operational delivery into system architecture, it changes the profession itself, from within.

Find out more and become a Fellow