Andy Garlick is in the forefront of risk management professionals. For 35 years he has provided advice to clients on many different aspects of risk, and has helped to build risk-based consulting businesses. For the last 14 years he has been a freelance risk consultant who continues to promote new and different ways of dealing with risk and uncertainty.
A mathematician by discipline, Andy originally worked on modelling fluid flows, particularly the modelling of interstellar gases, star formation and explosions. During a long period with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority he started working on the analysis of the safety risk posed by nuclear reactors and other installations. Randomised methods, also called Monte Carlo, became one of his particular interests.
With the privatisation of the UKAEA as AEA Technology, Andy moved into management roles. He became particularly interested in the adaptation of the risk-based approach for other types of plant and, beyond this, to commercial applications in business. His aim was to make the techniques more relevant and more accessible. His final role with AEA Technology was to help found the management consulting practice, Risk Solutions, which is now a successful independent firm.
As a director of Manex (UK) Limited, Andy's main project was the London Underground public private partnership. Andy then set up his own consulting firm, The Risk Agenda, which has carried out numerous assignments in the transport and construction sectors. More recently he temporarily moved out of his consulting comfort zone and spent 15 months as an actual risk manager, working for CVB on the East section of the Thames Tideway Tunnel.
In 2007 Andy published his book on risk analysis, Estimating Risk: A Management Approach, which is now used as a textbook on many courses. This reflected the purpose of The Risk Agenda to improve the way organisations deal with an uncertain future:
• by contributing to the advancement of good practice
• by helping organisations adapt this good practice
• by working with them on their specific risk challenges.
Better Futures has been in development ever since and reflects Andy's experience and thinking on these matters.
Andy is a member of the Society for Risk Analysis and a Fellow of the Institute of Risk Management. For many years he helped organise the North West branch of the IRM and its special interest group on PPP/PFI.
You can find more about Andy and The Risk Agenda by visiting the website riskagenda.com. The site contains material on risk analysis and risk management, and provides tools and other materials for free download. Andy also runs a blogging site on cloudsofvagueness.com, named for Ken Arrow's famous quotation which so accurately reflects the challenge the risk manager faces. Finally, he has set up the ratitles.com site for sales and feedback on this book and others.
As well as consulting services, The Risk Agenda offers courses and lectures based on this book, Estimating Risk and other topics which can be customised for different organisations and audiences. If you would like to learn more, you can email Andy at
andy.garlick@riskagenda.com.