The Lighthill Risk Network

Dougal Goodman is the Chairman of the Lighthill Risk Network. In 2000 he was appointed Director of the Foundation for Science and Technology a charity which works with parliament, Whitehall, industry, the Research Councils and universities to promote debate about policy issues with a science or technology element. He also undertakes consulting work for the insurance industry and is currently working for the International Group of Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Clubs on their annual reinsurance purchase strategy. The P&I Clubs provide third party liability insurance for around 90% of the global shipping fleet. He is Vice-Chairman of the Hazards Forum (an engineering body promoting improved awareness of risk issues) and a member of the Greenwich Forum (a group interested in maritime affairs).

Dougal was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge where he read Natural Sciences specialising in theoretical physics. He stayed on at Cambridge to take a PhD and to do post-doctoral work at the Cavendish Laboratory, the physics department at Cambridge, undertaking research into the creep and fracture properties of ice. After a year spent in a Japanese university, he joined BP to run a research effort in Alaska and Canada to estimate the design load for offshore production structures to be built in sea ice zones. In the mid-80s he worked as a production manager in the North Sea responsible for the Magnus oil field and for a period worked offshore as a production manager on a Forties platform. At the end of the 1980s he was appointed Head of Safety for BP with responsibility for safety across all the company's operations.

After spending a year at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, California as a Sloan Fellow he moved into strategic management in the company working first on corporate strategy and then in refining management and corporate risk management. He worked on the strategy to refocus the company onto its core businesses, as strategy and planning manager for European refining and for the Company Secretary on risk management issues.

In 1995 he became Deputy Director (and Acting Director) of the British Antarctic Survey where he was responsible for research strategy and implementation, making the case for the future funding of the Survey, economic studies of South Georgia, began a PFI deal to purchase a ship and devised the process for the bid for the next five year plan. During this time he was also awarded a £0.5 million grant by the DTI to develop closer links between the UK science base and the insurance industry and ran a Short Programme at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences on managing uncertainty.

Dougal has been on fifteen expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic for scientific study and with his family. He was awarded the Polar Medal by HM Queen in 1998 for his contribution to scientific exploration in the Arctic and the Antarctic. He is a Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining, the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Royal Geographical Society. He is a member of the Gino Watkins Travel Fund committee.