Resilience Spotlight: Laura Jury - A Resilience Leader in Crisis and Business Continuity
Laura Jury is a passionate resilience professional living in the disruption risk-rich environment of New Zealand - featuring everything from large-scale earthquakes and being on the Pacific Rim to the ever-expanding global risks of cyber and physical security and every possible disruptive event in between. Laura has a proven track record in crisis management, business continuity, and emergency response strategies, particularly within financial services and aviation. She excels in strategic thinking, taking decisive action, and leading teams through complex disruptions, driving positive change in dynamic environments to ensure organizations are prepared for not just the identified risks but the unforeseeable ones.
Beyond her work in the aviation industry, Laura is dedicated to fostering a vibrant community of Risk, Security, and Business Continuity professionals in New Zealand. As the chair of the NZ Chapter of the Institute of Strategic Risk Management (ISRM), she actively shares engaging content that sparks discussion, promotes continuous learning, and pushes the boundaries of capability and development within the resilience domain.
My Approach to Resilience
In the fast-paced, high-reliability world of aviation, resilience is a multifaceted superpower. It's not just about planning and preparing for operational disruptions but continuously improving responses based on lessons learned and anticipating "what if" scenarios. I design strategic crisis management exercises that stress-test response systems, challenging executives and boards with real-world scenarios to ensure a truly effective response.
My understanding of resilience is informed by regulation from the financial services industry. I find myself constantly checking in on my thinking - is what I am recommending an effective action or is it “ticking a box” to meet a regulation, maybe one that is not fit for purpose in the Aviation environment? What helps inform my decision-making is my background in responding to a wide variety of disruptions and crisis events; reflecting on those events certainly helps me to learn the hard way what works under the stress and pressure of a crisis response.
I think of resilience as the outcome we are all working towards, whether that is the Enterprise Risk teams measuring risks and creating metrics and controls to understand risks or the Technology Disaster recovery programs that are planning for the recovery of the Digital footprint. Not all of this span of resilience will be within the direct remit of a Resilience Manager, but we do need to have influencing skills to be able to interconnect the details within these programs.
Building my personal and collective brand of the team is crucial, and I seize every opportunity to influence future strategy, adaptation, and positive change within organizations. I consider the entire spectrum of resilience – operational, tactical, and strategic – ensuring that mitigation strategies integrate and align across all levels.
By focusing on the human element and designing resilience strategies that are practical and human centered, I aim to support effective decision-making under stress. Recognizing that no team or process operates in isolation, I emphasize the importance of interconnectedness for an effective response during disruptions. My goal is to be prepared for the foreseeable while maintaining agility to handle the unexpected.
Current Projects
Currently, I am enhancing Air New Zealand's business continuity program, ensuring readiness for volatile challenges. I am also leading a targeted initiative to strengthen the resilience within our complex aviation supply chains. Understanding key suppliers’ capability and bridging the gap by developing robust contingency plans for high-risk disruptions.
Collaboration is key to my approach, and I actively foster connections across the board, involving internal and external stakeholders, executives, and risk management partners. Together, we are connecting processes and people to achieve a truly resilient organization. Additionally, I keep the broader Air New Zealand team informed on resilience topics by delivering discussion papers on specific risks and advising on strategic risk management.
Vision for the Future
I envision a future where individuals, teams, organizations, and governments are not only prepared for disruptions but also thrive, by fostering a culture of resilience and adaptability, not just in response to a large event but also in the everyday, small, limited disruptions that an airline faces every single day. To achieve this, we need a diverse and adaptable resilience workforce.
If you're considering a career in resilience, I encourage you to bring your unique perspectives and backgrounds – we will need it all to face the challenges ahead in the aviation sector and beyond. Living in New Zealand, I find inspiration in our country's commitment to looking forward to the future, agility and community, which drive my passion for resilience in every aspect of my work.