Falling for Nature: One CEO, One Skydive, One Very Good Cause
Our CEO Will decided to put his risk management skills to the ultimate test: by jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane to raise funds for Nature’s SAFE and support the future of nature restoration.
When a risk professional decides to take risk personally
Two weeks ago, our illustrious CEO Will and supposed ‘risk professional’ took that definition with a slightly different interpretation. Will took the – unilateral we hasten to add – decision to fall from a plane above the baked heights of the West Country in mid-November.
This wasn’t some risk chasing, thrill seeking example of poor decision-making that – we’re glad to point out – would be very far out of character, but rather a skydive with a specific goal: to raise funds for a fantastic charitable partner of ours ‘Nature’s SAFE’.
Nature’s SAFE, in their own words, is a wildlife cryo-biobank preserving live cells and cell tissues from animals at risk of extinction. They preserve these tissues in the hope that future generations and scientists can bring forward technologies to reverse the sadly destructive impacts of human action.
Preserving nature today for restoration tomorrow
At GaiaSicura, our focus is on biodiversity and nature as a whole, and often that means focussing on restoration from the ground up, looking at the vegetation and base layer in an ecosystem that supports the wider ecological structures, of which animal life is a critical part.
Nature’s SAFE is taking the restoration element to its absolute fringe extend, acknowledging the fact that some species may well need restoring long after they’re gone because they or their environment simply no longer exists.
The relationship with Nature’s SAFE began when Camilla Curry, Underwriter at AXA and member of the Nature & Sustainability committee hosted a webinar surreptitiously called Equine AI. It became quickly clear that the ‘AI’ mentioned didn’trefer to the usual ‘Artificial Intelligence’ but rather the livestock version of the abbreviation. What began as a webinar of thirty, or so unsuspecting attendees became a full show of hundreds enjoying the spectacle of just how Tullis Matson at Nature’s SAFE and the team go about ‘collecting samples’.
The hilarious, graphic, and deeply informative webinar stuck with Will, and so when Tullis put the message out that there would be a sky-dive to support the charity, he thought he’d sign on the dotted line.
A leap of faith for Nature’s SAFE
Needless to say the day was a great success and the money raised was entirely worth the slight thrill of being strapped to a man half his size like a backpack and falling from the sky to drift over the sun-baked earth. As you can see from the pictures and video below, the experience was not necessarily flattering, but was certainly exhilarating, and even hopefully leading to a small element of restoration as well, as the wildflower seeds, he had surreptitiously squirreled away in his pocket were dispersed across the high winds to hopefully land in some cracks of the scorched ground, ready for when it finally, eventually rains again.
Tullis and the team continue to carry out the good work and Nature’s SAFE’s donation requirements won’t stop soon, so here is one last ask whilst the link remains open to donate to Will’s poor decision making in the absence of a D&O policy, but great decision making in the face of a fantastic charity doing great work for the preservation and restoration of nature.
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If your organisation is involved in the development or delivery of a natural capital or nature restoration project, our team of experts can help you understand how risk transfer and nature insurance fits within your wider risk management strategy.