Ruth Murray-Webster and David Hillson developed their unique approach to making risky and important decisions (the MRID Approach) drawing on over twenty years of shared thought-leadership combined with practical experience and applied expertise.
Ruth Murray-Webster
Dr Ruth Murray-Webster is recognised as a leader of project-based organisational change and risk management, performing roles as a practitioner, advisor, facilitator, researcher, and author. For more than 30 years,
Ruth has practiced and advanced change and risk management approaches, developing commercially astute strategy centred around emerging risks and disruptive trends. Ruth has experience in delivering change objectives in most sectors. Prior to returning to her own company, Potentiality UK, in 2018, Ruth held appointments as Director, Change Portfolio and Group Head of Risk for a major port operator and Director, Risk in the Boardroom practice for KPMG LLP. Ruth researched organisational change from the perspective of the recipients of change for an Executive Doctorate at Cranfield School of Management between 2008 and 2012. She is an Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School, where she supports senior leaders on the Major Projects Leadership Academies for the UK and Australian governments and as Head Tutor for the University of Oxford Leading Strategic Projects online program.
Ruth’s interest in risk management arose from a passion to help organisations to take educated risks, not avoid them. She has co-authored numerous books on the human aspects of risk management and has published papers in the areas of project complexity, organisational ambidexterity through projects and programs, and multi-paradigmatic perspectives on business transformation programs. Ruth was Lead Editor of the Association for Project Management Body of Knowledge, 7th edition (2019) and the 5th edition of Managing Successful Programmes™ (2020). She is currently working on the 6th edition of the Chartered Institute of Building Code of Practice for Project Management in the Built Environment.
Ruth was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Association for Project Management (APM) in 2013 for her services to risk and change. The synergies between the two disciplines continue to drive Ruth’s thinking, writing, and practice.
Ruth can be contacted at ruth@potentiality.uk
David Hillson
Known globally as The Risk Doctor, Dr David Hillson is recognised as a ground-breaking thinker and expert practitioner in risk management, and he has made several innovative contributions to the discipline, which have been widely adopted.
David has a reputation as an excellent speaker and presenter on risk. His talks blend thought leadership with practical application, presented in an accessible style that combines clarity with humour, guided by the Risk Doctor motto: “Understand profoundly so you can explain simply.”
He also writes widely on risk, with twelve major books and over 100 professional papers. He publishes a regular Risk Doctor Briefing blog in seven languages to 10,000 followers and has over 10,000 subscribers to the RiskDoctorVideo YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/RiskDoctorVideo).
David has advised leaders and organisations in nearly 60 countries around the world on how to create value from risk based on a mature approach to risk management, and his wisdom and insights are in high demand. He has also advised on strategic risk at the national leadership level for several nations facing radical change.
David Hillson’s ground-breaking work in risk management for over three decades has been recognised with a wide range of awards. David is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Risk Management (IRM), and he was named their inaugural Risk Personality of the Year in 2010-2011, recognising his significant global contribution to improving risk management and advancing the risk profession. David is also an Honorary Fellow of the UK Association for Project Management (APM) and a PMI Fellow in the Project Management Institute (PMI®), both marking his contribution to developing project risk management.
David was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) to contribute to its Risk Commission, and he led the RSA Fellows project on societal attitudes to failure. He is also a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).
David can be contacted at david@risk-doctor.com