founding leadership team

Sam Ragnarsson

Board Member

Sam wields his data-driven expertise in environmental policy project management and advocates for sustainable agricultural practices. He has a proven track record in guiding policy frameworks from development to execution, ensuring alignment with both environmental goals and industry needs.

Pia Johanson

Board Member

Pia's interests are in food sovereignty, security, and resilience. She aims to work collaboratively toward agile adaption to marine biodiversity collapse and invasive species.  Passionate about syntropic agroforestry, she seeks to develop the potential for incorporating bio-digesters, biochar, and intensive food production within systems of native afforestation succession.

Nick Wilson

Nick is a professor of public health at the University of Otago, Wellington. He has a long term research interest in catastrophic risks - particularly nuclear war and pandemics.

Matthew Boyd

Board Member

Matt is medically trained and completed his PhD in philosophy. He founded independent research consultancy Adapt Research in 2015. Matt initiated and led the philanthropically funded 2023 Aotearoa NZ Catastrophe Resilience Project. He has published numerous articles on global catastrophe and loves to blog on health, technology and global catastrophic risk.

associate members

Chad Payne

Chad brings a background in process design and data strategy, with a focus on making information usable, trusted, and actionable. As co-founder of Rongo, he champions the value of diverse data perspectives to build a fuller picture of risk and resilience. He believes the right data, used well, puts communities in a stronger position to anticipate, respond to, and recover from disruption.

Mike Hodgkinson

Mike Hodgkinson is a Christchurch-based analyst, entrepreneur, and game director with a strong focus on Global Catastrophic Risks (GCRs) and strategic innovation. Through Laloli Research, he conducts independent research into GCRs, focused on shipping, fuel, and food security.

Mike is also the founder of Laloli Games, where he is developing "Humankind: Extinction or Utopia," a PC game designed to explore individual agency in mitigating existential risks (X-Risks).

supporting organizations