Your plan won't lead the response. Your people will.

Rik Mills is an emergency management practitioner and strategic advisor with more than 20 years' experience leading across government, emergency services and high-risk operating environments. His focus is the whole system: the strategy, governance, structure and workforce capability an organisation needs to be ready before an emergency tests it, and the operational command to lead once it does. Rik has directed enterprise-wide emergency service reform within Western Australia's largest metropolitan local government, designed and led immersive live-in leadership programs for senior operational personnel, and set the strategic direction for specialised wildfire and bushfire training and capability products. He works across the full hazard spectrum rather than a single discipline, and is regularly engaged at executive and board level to turn strategic intent into capability that holds up operationally.

Rik has held and directed roles across every AIIMS function, at Level 1, 2 and 3, on wildfire, cyclone, flood and complex multi-agency emergencies. Through COVID-19 he ran operational programs across Federal, State and Local Government, from international repatriation and standing up quarantine facilities to operational planning, multi-agency coordination and executive reporting. He has been seconded into specialist teams investigating arson and fire-related incidents, and now sits alongside senior site leaders in the resources sector, giving them decision assurance when it counts and building real depth into their response capability. Rik is recognised for resolving complex operational problems in challenging, time-critical environments and for setting the direction that turns strategic intent into capability an organisation can sustain.

Russell Wells is a bushfire, emergency management and operational capability specialist with more than 15 years' experience across government and emergency services. He combines deep technical expertise with executive-level leadership in strategy, governance, workforce capability and organisational performance. For almost a decade, Russell led statewide bushfire training and capability programs supporting more than 30,000 staff and volunteers across Western Australia, including a network of 400+ trainers and assessors. He has led the development of bushfire doctrine, training and operational capability across fire behaviour, prescribed burning, intelligence, remote-area firefighting and aviation.

Russell brings extensive operational experience across major bushfire and complex emergency events, having served as Incident Controller, Planning Officer and Operations Officer across Level 1, 2 and 3 incidents. His technical grounding runs deep across fire behaviour analysis, prescribed burning, incident intelligence, remote-area firefighting and emergency management aviation, and he has used it to shape doctrine, training and assurance frameworks rather than simply apply them. He has established niche capabilities from scratch, including appointment as the inaugural remotely piloted aircraft operator for the world's largest single emergency management district, and has delivered strategic bushfire risk and emergency management outcomes in local government. He has also built and mentored large trainer and assessor networks, designed and evaluated multi-agency exercises, and advised executives and boards on bushfire risk, capability investment and operational readiness. Russell is recognised for translating complex operational and technical requirements into practical, scalable capability, strengthening people, systems, governance and organisational readiness.