Now going into its sixth year, in 2017 the Australian & New Zealand Disaster & Emergency Management Conference will be held from 22 to 23 May at Jupiters Hotel on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

The Australian & New Zealand Disaster & Emergency Management Conference welcomes new program committee member Mr Graham M Sunderland QPM, MA, Grad. Dipl. (Cambs), Grad. Cert. (Dundee), BA (Hons), Co-Ordinator for Professional Development & International Police Training/ Senior Lecturer, Australian Graduate School of Policing & Security, Charles Sturt University. Program Director for Mid-Career Training for Senior Police Officers with the Indian Police Service.

Specialising in Leadership & Command for Emergency Management, Disaster Victim Identification and Major Investigations, both operationally and training, Graham is currently the co-ordinator for post-graduate qualifications in operational command and multi-agency investigations with Charles Sturt University. He was a police officer for over 30 years and a former Assistant Chief & Acting Deputy Chief Constable in Cumbria, UK (AC-Crime & Ops). He has chaired numerous UK emergency management committees such as Regional (NW) Emergency & Operational Planning, Resilience Forums and the Nuclear Emergency Planning & Resilience Committee.

Prior to that he was a Divisional Commander and a Senior Investigating Officer in West Yorkshire Police, one of UK’s largest police forces. He led various Process Improvement Projects including crime investigation and intelligence and headed many high profile homicide and other major investigations. Graham was the Lead for Public Protection and an International Hostage Negotiator Co-ordinator, working in Sierra Leone during the civil war alongside the British High Commission, United Nations and Special Forces. Graham has attended the Crisis Negotiation Course at the FBI College in Quantico, USA and was the Vice Chair of the National Negotiator Committee.

Graham was the Strategic Commander of widespread floods in Cumbria, UK in 2005. He was also the Director and author of one of the largest counter terrorist exercises ever held in the UK with over 3000 players.

Graham took the Lead on behalf of UK Government for Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) in 2005 and was the DVI Advisor at the London bombings. He reviewed the response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami in Thailand on behalf of Interpol and was the Identification Manager at the Selby rail crash. He was also the Strategic Advisor for the UK Government (Foreign & Commonwealth Office) on numerous disasters around the world and Vice Chair of the UK Emergency Management Committee. He provided consultancy support to UK Government (Cabinet Office) to improve UK resilience and was a member of the UK Major Disaster Advisory Team to advise commanders dealing with major events and civil emergencies.

After leaving the police, in 2009, he continued as the National Strategic Director for UK DVI and the Deputy Chair of the Interpol DVI Standing Committee. He spent 3 years as the Course Director of the Multi Agency Strategic Command Course training Chief Officers from all UK Emergency Services, Government Departments, Military and private sector industry, as an associate of the UK National Police Improvement Agency. Graham became the Director of his own Emergency Management & Training Consultancy until February 2012 when he joined the Australian Graduate School of Policing & Security.

In 2013 he was selected by The New Zealand Government as a member of the Pike River Mining Disaster Expert Reference Group to assist the implementation of the Royal Commission recommendations.

In 2009 Graham was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal and received the National Emergency Planning Society award for ‘the greatest contribution to the development of an emergency response capability within the Resilience Capabilities Programme’.

He has a Masters Degree in Leadership & Management, BA (Hons) Degree in Public Administration and Organisational Studies from the Open University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Criminology from Cambridge University and a Post Graduate Certificate in Human Identification from Dundee University. Graham is married with 3 children and now resides in Queensland, Australia.

For further information on the 2017 Australian & New Zealand Disaster & Emergency Management Conference, to submit an abstract or to register please visit the conference website.

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