Theme: Resilience Reignited

“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”

• Maya Angelou

The word resilience has numerous meanings, and we all connect with it in different ways, but most would agree that the general principles of resilience are optimism, adaptability and purpose. Resilience is the ability to respond to adversity, to take it in our stride and to rise from such life events with our sense of self and purpose remaining. Some people envision soaring mountains ready to be scaled accompanied by a sense of achievement and victory at overcoming great challenge. Others are inspired by the renewing energy of a flame and compelled to see the light in dark places.

This year, we have sought the answers to questions such as “How can we help to develop physically resilient structures as the climate crisis worsens?”, “How will businesses need to adapt as we enter an age where we are living more and more of our lives in the digital world?”, “Can we foster socially resilient communities by creating products that will make a real difference to their lives?” and “Can we instil in ourselves the courage and confidence to overcome failure and cement our emotional resilience in the years ahead?”

Whatever your personal connection to the word resilience, we want to take you on a journey as we explore some of these questions. These are not just abstract musings nor just simply ideas that we should perhaps begin thinking about in the years ahead. These are the difficult questions that we to take action on now. How can we build a resilience global community when almost 132 million of us will be living in extreme poverty by 2030 and where over 200 million will be displaced due to the climate crisis? What actions do we need to take to ensure we provide people with the tools to improve their emotional resilience when 13% of us are suffering from mental ill health? Our pursuit of knowledge and the answers to some of today’s most complex and multifaceted questions have led us to hosting a conference where some of the most accomplished speakers will share their interpretations of what it means to be resilient.

Here, inspirational ideas and thought-provoking stories will be shared, and we invite you to bring your unique perspectives with you, listening with an open mind and a willingness to learn. You will have the opportunity to have your assumptions challenged, to be inspired and emboldened to take action in your own lives, whether that is through activism for a cause that is important to you, to reignite your passion for your career or to making the changes you would like to see in the world. Our conference will help you to redefine your ideas on success and failure through the lens of resilience.

"Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again"

• Nelson Mandela.

Technology and Innovation Centre
121 George St
Glasgow, Glasgow City, G1 1RD
United Kingdom

Barry Rowe

Barry Rowe is Head of Airbus Program Engineering and Executive Champion DE&I at Spirit AeroSystems (Europe) Ltd. As part of Barry’s international remit, he leads a team accountable for the engineering of Airbus products, such as the best-selling A320 aircraft, A220, and A350. This also includes the newly launched state-of-the-art automated RTM (Resin Transfer Molding) composite Spoiler line. As engineering leader at Spirit Prestwick, Barry is a member of the Senior Leadership Council, responsible for operating one of Scotland’s biggest aerospace engineering companies. He is an advocate of technology and innovation, and recognizes the importance of our sustainable future, and represents Spirit on the ATI FlyZero Governance Advisory Board. Rowe joined Spirit directly from Airbus in Toulouse, where he previously worked as Head of Engineering for their Fuselage and Wing Products. Also serving for three years as a Senior Auditor at Airbus Group Corporate Headquarters, he has a rich history of Operations, Corporate, and Engineering management. He holds a BSc(Hons), MEng, PG(Dip) and MRAeS. Barry is a keen traveler and sport lover, he is married with twin daughters and lives in Ayr, Scotland, UK.

Damian Riley

Damian Riley is Chief Executive Officer of the Army Recruiting Group, a partnership between Capita plc and the British Army. He was previously Client Partner and Managing Director of Capita Education Services. Prior to joining Capita in 2016, Damian had a career background in management consultancy, and was a Director at PwC, with over 15 years’ experience working with public sector leaders on business transformation. Damian began his career in the UK Civil Service at the Audit Commission, as Private Secretary to Sir Andrew Foster. A former rock climber and competitive triathlete, Damian was critically injured in a cycling accident in 2019. He is a spinal cord injury survivor, registered disabled, and is an advocate for disabled people in the workplace. Damian is married with two children, and lives in North London. He holds a first class degree in Government & a Master’s degree in Ideology and Discourse Analysis, from Essex University.

Deborah Sass

Deborah Sass, born and raised in London, with an Indian Jazz musician father and a British model mother, Deborah experienced growing up in the challenging environment of the 70ies and 80ies in England, embattled by poverty and racism. Her strong base comes from growing up in a loving family with two younger siblings. The family moved to Australia where Deborah finished school and went to work as a sales woman for the Yellow Pages being only 17 years old, learning the hard graft of cold calling customers and convincing them to pay for an ad. Discovering success and reward through her own power and strength put her on a different path. Deborah started her media career working in advertising, radio and TV in Perth, Australia, then back in London soon after. She then moved her career to the digital music and film industry, first at Muze, then as an SVP at Macrovision, overseeing all their European Business. Moving to Los Angeles in 2007 she helped set up a digital entertainment consultancy practice and became a passionate champion for all things digital & entertainment. By 2014, now an experienced executive with a global outlook and a strong focus on tech, entertainment & raising money, she understood that there is more to happiness than success in business and first moved to Bali, then 2 years later to Ibiza, which she now calls home. In 2016 Deborah was contacted by a colleague of many years, Thomas Reemer, to restart a venture he had created in 2008 called Space Hero. The cooperation proved to be successful and the venture took off in an incredible way. For two years both founders travelled to meet with the global space industry. The venture is now on a path to becoming an impactful global project. Deborah lives on a farm with her two beautiful jack russells, affectionately called Buzz & Armstrong and grows her own vegetables. She enjoys a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

Dr Emma Mellanie Morton

Emma Mellanie Morton is an Architect, within City Design at Glasgow City Council. Emma’s philosophy is that great architecture should tread lightly on the environment, and she cares about both the architectural design aesthetic and the environmental impact of our buildings. She is concerned with how to sustain and reuse natural resources, which the city consumes and retains, so that we can better serve future generations. Emma is passionate about environmentally led design and her research interests lie in energy performance and holistic sustainable building design solutions for the city.

Dr Lorenzo Conti

Dr Lorenzo Conti is the Founder and Managing Director of Crover Ltd, an Edinburgh-based startup which developed the world’s first ‘subterranean drone’ (i.e. a CROVER). Lorenzo is an Enterprise Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and holds a PhD in Engineering from The University of Edinburgh (UoE), where he worked on granular rheology (the study of how granular matter flows) and discovered the ‘CROVER effect’. Before that, he completed an MEng in Civil Engineering at UoE and worked on construction projects in Italy, Switzerland and Germany.

HH Basma Al Said

HH Basma Al Said is a well-established Psychotherapist and Clinical Hypnotherapist, owner and founder of the first mental health centre in Oman, Whispers of Serenity Clinic. Serenity clinic is a holistic wellbeing centre. She is also a mental health consultant and psychotherapist with over 20 years of experience seeing and treating patients from a wide array of disorders. She received a Master’s degree in Health Counselling in 2008 from Curtin University of Technology in Australia. Sayyida Basma is a pioneer in mental health issues awareness and is renowned for dealing head on with taboo subjects in the Middle East such as abuse and eating disorders. She is one of the few psychotherapists in the Gulf to use techniques such as Hypnotherapy as well as her most recently earned training of Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PET) for PTSD from Harvard University. In 2014, Her Highness initiated “Not Alone” an ongoing campaign in Oman to create societal awareness of the importance of mental wellbeing. This is a living proof of her dedication and ambition towards the betterment of the society. Not Alone campaign had opened a messaging support line during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic where it provided psychological and emotional support dedicated to teens, the elderly and most importantly, the frontline health workers. She also spearheaded the provision of free counselling for individuals and groups during the second wave of COVID-19 in India, the Beirut incident and the current situation of Palestinians. Moreover, she is the current Honorary President of Oman Heritage – a team that looks after and preserves Omani practices and culture. Recognized not only in the Arab world but also internationally, she has attended and delivered a total of 800 governmental and 400 private institutional talks, workshops and webinars. She also has been featured and interviewed by prominent networks and media such as CNN Arabia, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar Arabia to name a few. She was awarded the International Social Responsibility Ambassador by The International Union for Social Responsibility (IUSR) on July this year and has been honoured as one of the 50 Omani women who have played a significant role in the country’s development and for their achievements in the field of their work by the Honourable Lady, Wife of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik on Omani Women’s Day 2020.

Kelvin Murray

Kelvin is an underwater and polar explorer and expedition leader. His decades of hard-won knowledge have been earned through complex missions on every continent and every ocean. In 2019, he participated in the Five Deeps Expedition, which took a manned submersible to the deepest reaches of the five oceans. Recently, Kelvin was Expedition Leader for the deepest manned dives in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Philippine Trench, and the exploration of the world’s deepest known shipwreck, the fabled USS Johnston, which rests at 6,460 metres. Formerly with the British Antarctic Survey, he managed the UK’s scientific diving programme throughout the extreme environment of the Antarctic winter. Kelvin has led exploratory diving expeditions throughout Svalbard, the world’s largest fjord system in East Greenland and the Subantarctic wildlife paradise of South Georgia, altogether supervising several thousand polar dives. Kelvin manages high-end private expeditions worldwide and is also a Special Consultant to Blue Abyss, a project to develop a world-class commercial astronaut training centre and underwater exploration facility.

Miguel Dupret

Miguel Dupret is a well experienced startup director and strategic operations consultant, with comprehensive intercultural and international experiences, including renowned institutions like Harvard and Oxford universities. Currently positioned as Associate Strategic Operations at Kearney and an Equity Investor and Board Member at MPD SME CAPITAL. Miguel has worked in director positions throughout Europe in cities including Geneva, London, and Milan for MPD PARTNERS alongside managerial positions throughout the world during his time at Sentient Blue Technologies S.r.l. Miguel has developed vast and extensive knowledge in all fields of business and management across five educational institutions around the world. This began with learning International Project Management in Stuttgart, followed by an MSc in Aerospace Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal, and an MBA from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration specialising in Project and Process Management. Miguel also underwent various Project Management qualifications following his MBA and completed a Strategic Finance Diploma from Oxford University - Said Business School and their Negotiation programme, with his most recent education coming from Harvard Business School’s Leading Professional Service Firms Executive Education in 2018. Miguel’s professional and educational experience have taken him all over the world and helped shape his extraordinary career and the success within it, making him an amazing asset to our 2021 TEDxUniversityofStrathclyde Annual Ideas Conference speaker lineup. Miguel is also fluent in five languages (nearly six).

Omar Esa

Omar Esa is an independent award-winning, chart topping International faith-based singer/songwriter (nasheed artist) from the United Kingdom. He uses only his voice in all his songs and sings in mainly the English language, in addition to the Urdu and Arabic languages. His songs are very versatile thanks to the Lord, as he can write both contemporary and traditional sounding songs. As an internationally recognized nasheed artist, his success has allowed him to travel and perform in many countries, including concerts and tours in America, Qatar, South Africa, Canada, Switzerland, Holland, Norway, Australia, Dubai, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Pakistan. Omar Esa was previously an RnB/Pop singer in 2011 and was inspired to change his path to share the beauty of faith with the world. His new journey began with a simple dream to show the world the beauty of his religion Islam through his songs. Omar Esa is a strong advocate for voice only songs and has coined the phrase “Anything music can do, so can the voice – My voice is my instrument”. His debut album called ‘Omar Esa’ was released in November 2012. His 2nd album ‘My Muslim Family’ which released in June 2017 charted number 1 on the iTunes UK world album charts. His 3rd and most recent album ‘Allah and His Beloved’ which released on the 9th of April 2021 has done really well in the charts thanks to the Lord. Despite being an independent artist without a marketing budget to promote the album and no radio play, he made history and became the first artist in his faith-based music genre to chart in a mainstream chart. The album was recognised by the UK charting body, as from the charting week of 9th April 2021 to 16th April 2021, the album was the 4th most downloaded album in the whole of the United Kingdom, peaking at number 3 in the main iTunes chart. His singles ‘Tera Pyaar - Your Love’ (2018), ‘Nikah’ (Marriage) (2019), ‘Ya Allah’ (2020) and ‘Spiderman’ (2021) have all hit the number 1 spot on the iTunes UK world chart. Omar Esa’s musical content is all about his faith Islam, ranging from songs about his Lord, his prophet and ultimately sharing love and tranquillity through his music. He says the world needs music for the soul. He regards his voice as a blessing from the Lord and aims to use his songs to forward the wonderful messages of peace, love and unity throughout the whole world, Lord willing.

Philip Braat

Philip Braat is the Lord Provost and Lord Lieutenant of Glasgow and is the elected member for the Anderston/City/Yorkhill ward. He was first elected to represent the ward in 2007. During his tenure in office, Philip has held a variety of high-profile roles within the Council. During the last Administration, he held the post of City Treasurer of Glasgow City Council and Convener of Strathclyde Pension Fund, with ultimate political responsibility for all matters financial. Between May 2017 and January 2019, he served as the Depute Lord Provost of Glasgow. Until the unification of the Single Police Service of Scotland on 1 April 2013, he was the Convener of Strathclyde Police Authority, the then largest Force in Scotland prior to 1 April. In 2018, Philip was appointed Honorary Officer in the Royal Navy Reserves, and has the rank of Captain. Over the years, Philip has had many responsibilities within Glasgow City Council and has been a member of several committees and boards. He was Chair of the Anderston/City Area Committee, the Central & West Local Planning Partnership Board (LCPP) and the Central & West Local Housing Forum. Philip has been a member of various Council Committees, such as Development & Regeneration Services, Land & Environmental Services, Education and Social Work Services, as well as the Finance & Audit and the External Governance Scrutiny Committees. He has served as Deputy Executive Member for Business and the Economy and, until March 2009, he also served as a member of the Licensing Board. Among others, Philip has been a Board Member of Glasgow Housing Association, the Kelvin Hall Sports Trust, the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre Limited (SECC) and was the Council’s official representative to the United Nations Association Glasgow branch. Philip also sat on the Glasgow Criminal Justice Authority and on the Board of the Legal Services Agency. He was Glasgow’s appointee to the Board of the West of Scotland Loans Fund and played a pivotal role in the formation of Business Loans Scotland. Philip is a graduate of law from Glasgow University and obtained his Diploma of Legal Practice at the Glasgow Graduate School of Law. He has practised Commercial Property Law and is a Notary Public. In November 2019, he was awarded a Postgraduate Masters Degree (MSc) in History from the University of Strathclyde. He has dual nationality (British/Belgian) and having lived in Belgium for many years, he is fluent in Flemish/Dutch.

Prof. Silvestre T Pinho

Silvestre Taveira Pinho is a Professor in Mechanics of Composites at the Department of Aeronautics at Imperial College London in the UK, where he teaches Structural Mechanics and Dynamics to Aeronautical Engineering students. His research seeks to achieve more lightweight advanced aircraft structures so that aircraft spend less fuel. In particular, he develops numerical simulation models to aid in the design of aircraft structures, and investigates how to take inspiration from nature to design even better materials to be used in aircraft.

Sam Rogers

Sam Rogers is Design Lead and a Jet Suit Test Pilot at Gravity Industries. Sam focuses on designing the Gravity Jet Suit. He is an expert in design optimised for metal 3D printing. His passion and expertise stems from growing up making pyrotechnics with his grandfather, building solid fuelled rocket motors, homemade camera stabilisers and radio-controlled aircraft. This led him to work on 3D printed rocket engines prior to joining Gravity. Sam also runs his company Quartermaster, focusing on design for 3D printing. He has a degree in Product Design and Technology (BSc) from Loughborough University.

Sir Jim McDonald

Professor Sir Jim McDonald is Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde. He Co-Chairs, with the First Minister of Scotland, the Scottish Government’s Energy Advisory Board. He is also Co-Chair of the Independent Glasgow Economic Leadership Board. He currently holds several senior business appointments with organisations including the Weir Group plc, Scottish Power plc, the UK National Physical Laboratory and the UK Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. Additionally, he Chairs or participates in several senior committees related to research, economic development and education. In the Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours List 2012, Professor McDonald was awarded a Knighthood for services to education, engineering and the economy. He was elected President of the Royal Academy of Engineering in September 2019, through which he is a member of the UK Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology. He has held the Rolls-Royce Chair in Electrical Power Systems since 1993. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institute of Physics, the Energy Institute and a Foreign Fellow of the Chinese Society of Electrical Engineering. Professor Sir Jim McDonald is an electrical engineer and has held the position of Principal and Vice-Chancellor since 2009.

Strathclyde Pipers

The national instrument of Scotland, the bagpipes have a place at all important ceremonies and events across the world and our Resilience Reignited annual ideas conference was no exception. With three traditional piobaireachd or pipe music, the three Strathclyde Pipers proudly welcomed our international speakers to the TEDx stage as well as entertaining our fantastic audience. Powered by Deccan Airsports.

Thomas Reemer

Thomas Reemer, born and raised in East Berlin, Thomas was only 18 when the wall came down. Both his parents were diplomats working for the East German government, they raised the family with a communist mindset. Thomas launched his first successful business, a hip-hop nightclub in his old neighbourhood, right after he finished studying history and politics at the Free University in Berlin. He went on to manage a pop band racking up four #1 hits in Germany. By the late 90's his thirst for knowledge took him and his young family to Liverpool, where he studied at the auspicious Music Business School set up by Sir Paul McCartney. From managing a club, then a band to starting Artists First, the first ecommerce site for independent artists, Thomas was fast establishing himself as a passionate & driven international music tech entrepreneur. Space Hero was born in 2008. Thomas spent several years fleshing out the idea & raising money. The first iteration had to be shelved, because seats to the ISS were unavailable for private missions. Thomas' next business venture took him to China, where he grew a successful ecommerce platform for music, apps and games. In 2016 Thomas contacted his colleague of many years, Deborah Sass, to restart Space Hero. The cooperation proved to be successful and the venture took off in an incredible way. For two years both founders travelled to meet with the global space industry. The venture is now on a path to becoming an impactful global project. An avid reader, Thomas now lives between the city & a farm outside of Berlin with his brilliant partner and the occasional drop in from his grown-up children.