At the ICPEM Conference held in Kettering on 8 April 2011, the Institute’s Annual Award of excellence was jointly awarded to Mr Peter Jefferson, Head of Health Emergency Preparedness, West Midlands Conurbation, Birmingham England and Dr Walter J Ammann, the founder and Director of the Global Risk Forum and Chairman of the International Disaster and Risk Conference (IDRC), both of which are based in Davos, Switzerland.

Mr Peter Jefferson’s nomination explained;

Through Peter’s enthusiasm, drive and commitment he has ensured that emergency preparedness and NHS resilience across the West Midlands Conurbation is fit for task and that the NHS Trusts in his area have had the appropriate training to ensure a response which is appropriate to any major incident.

The NHS in the West Midlands Conurbation is better prepared to deal with any major incident or event which impact upon the local health economy. In my view, this is due largely to Peter Jefferson and his Team. He is prepared to provide support, guidance and assistance at any time - day or night. He works tirelessly to ensure that all staff have had appropriate training and have the necessary skills to better enable them to respond appropriately to any Major incident.

Peter epitomises the key objectives of the Institute; he promotes education and training of NHS senior managers and staff in the skills required to deal with such emergencies and he always presses for the highest possible standards of professional practice. He is a dedicated, enthusiastic, adaptable and highly motivated individual who maintains the highest professional standards.

Dr Ammann’s nomination explained:

Dr Walter J. Ammann is a very eminent and authoritative figure in the fields of disaster risk reduction and climate change management. He is the founder and Director of the Global Risk Forum (GRF), which has established an excellent reputation for research, service and the diffusion of knowledge in the hazards and disasters field.

Dr Ammann works extensively with Swiss, European and world institutions, which greatly value his knowledge and advice, which is always unassumingly given and is invariably useful. He has developed and pursued an ambitious agenda designed to help promote disaster reduction, to help prepare the world for the effects of climate change, and to stimulate debate on the complex issues involved.

Dr Ammann is widely recognised as a source of excellence in the broad field of civil protection. He is much liked for his endearing modesty of character, but also admired for his tenacity in pursuing an agenda for change. His reputation is truly worldwide: he is, for example, as respected in Japan, China and Iran as he is in Switzerland and the rest of Europe. I believe he deserves special recognition for his very valuable efforts to promote disaster risk reduction worldwide, and for his ability to break down barriers of all kinds in pursuit of this aim. He is especially strong on multilingual, multicultural initiatives, and has been highly active in bringing together the private sector and public sector institutions both in Europe and elsewhere.

They jointly receive the magnificent Welsh glass trophy and shared the £300 prize.

Previous recipients have been:

2005 Steve Gregory
2006 Muriel McLenahan OBE
2007 Dr Anne Eyre
2008 Tony Thompson
2009 Not awarded
2010 Bill Blake and Tony Moore