Federica Maria Rita Livelli AMBCI Spotlight: A new leader for the Italy Chapter
We are very pleased to introduce the new leader of the BCI Italy Chapter, Federica Maria Rita Livelli AMBCI.
Federica joined the BCI community in 2017 and was awarded BCI Italy Activist of the Year by the Italy Chapter in the same year. In 2018, she joined the Board of the BCI’s Italy Chapter. Federica is a Business Continuity & Risk Management consultant, teacher at national and international universities and publicist, besides other corporate activities aimed at developing the culture of cybersecurity and cyber resilience in Italy.
Speaking on her introduction to the resilience sector, she says:
“As a natural evolution of my past accredited working experiences in national and international corporations - where I had implicitly applied the resilience principles - I decided to become a professional in the business continuity (BC), risk management and cybersecurity disciplines.”
As part of this, Federica improved her awareness of resilience culture by attending various institutions and universities in Italy and abroad. She is a member of multiple committees in relevant sectors, as well as representing ANRA in several technical groups in the UNI (the Italian Association entrusted with the development, publication, and promotion of standards).
In addition to this, Federica speaks and moderates conferences and seminars. She is also author of a wide variety of material in the BC, risk management, cybersecurity, supply chain, procurement & logistics, artificial intelligence, and crisis management world.
Where are we now?
When looking at the current landscape in the sector, Federica says that “organizations must rethink what resilience means for them and think about the lessons learned from the pandemic, supply chain disruption, cyber-attacks, and extreme weather events, without forgetting the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the energy crisis, and the related macroeconomic and geopolitical risks that are, and will be, impacting not only Italy but also the wider European region.”
She notes that the frequency of disruptive events does not seem to be falling but that, on the contrary, we are entering a new era characterised by the ‘unpredictable certainty of risks’ and where we are moving from crisis management to the management of a polycrisis.
Federica is also keen to make sure that organizations are aware of the need for a structured implementation of resilience disciplines to face these challenges. As part of this process, she thinks that, “in the medium-long term, the standards referring to risk management, BC and cybersecurity will become mandatory.”
Sharing advice across the sector
Federica also adds that “we must see the positive in the difficulties and threats because, through awareness, we will be able to better manage the processes and activities necessary to deliver products and services and restore them after an interruption.”
She also finds that BC Managers need to function as a magister – the one who shows the way – and, with the support of all other security actors, guide organizations through the endless journey to resilience.
In terms of developing a resilience culture, she adds that organizations must be aware of the importance of investing not only from a technological point of view, but also in training and awareness programmes. “Namely, we need to train the resilience muscle in peacetime – as I often like to remind my various interlocutors – to act in times of ‘war’.”
On this, Federica finds that “there is no more time to lose,” so it is necessary to ensure the spread of a culture of prevention and planning of recovery strategies to help organizations and, above all, SMEs, perform. She adds that it is also critical to develop public/private partnerships for a defense of the national interest, through the growth of awareness of risks (by both entrepreneurs and citizens).
What will the BCI’s Italy Chapter be offering?
Looking ahead to what the Chapter will be hoping to achieve under her leadership, Federica explains that the Chapter’s Board aims to guarantee a dialectic interaction and alignment with its LinkedIn group members by periodically circulating white papers, articles, and documents to address trending topics, provide an overview in terms of experiences and lessons learned, best practices, regulations, and trends.
“My desiderata for 2023 and beyond – as leader of the BCI Italy Chapter and with the support of the Board members – is to further raise the awareness of the importance of resilience by sharing methodologies, experiences, and best practices.”
As part of this programme, she says that the Chapter is “planning to schedule 2-3 webinars before the end of 2023 by involving other associations and representatives of different organizations to address the group members’ requirements. And, hopefully, organize some in-person events in 2024.”
Personally, Federica also plans to continue her activity as a teacher of resilience modules at different national and international universities. Furthermore, she will try to develop the resilience culture at an institutional level with the support of the Board.
