Obituary – Gianna Detoni
The BCI is saddened to hear of the passing of Gianna Detoni FBCI, the first chair of the Woman In Resilience (WiR) Initiative and a former leader of the BCI Italy Chapter.
Gianna’s career began in the banking sector, where she spent over 30 years in the business management and risk resiliency sector. Following this, she founded Panta Ray in 2009, which was the BCI’s first Licensed Training Partner in Italy.
Gianna also contributed towards the creation of the BCI’s Good Practice Guidelines (2018) and was also actively contributing towards to the creation of the upcoming edition. Gianna’s expertise in this industry was further showcased by her positions as Professor of Business Continuity at the Luiss University and at the University of Genoa, as well as being Professor of Enterprise Risk Management at the University of Tor Vergata, Rome, on the Masters Course for Security Managers.
Gianna’s contributions also extended into the field of ISO standards, where she contributed to the editing and review of ISO 22301, 22313, 22317 and 22332. As well as further contributing to ISO 22331 and working as a liaison for ISO 28000, she was also nominated Project Leader for the review of the ISO 22318, which provided guidelines on supply chain continuity and was issued in December 2021.
This breadth of work was recognised by the Industry Personality award that Gianna received at the BCI Global Awards in 2017.
“Gianna paved the way as the first Chair of the BCI WiR, challenging gender inequalities in our resilience industry with immense vigour. Her legacy in challenging the resilience industry status quo to become fair and equal in ensuring women get that voice heard will continue to remain a key ethos in underpinning everything WIR deliver. My deepest condolences to Gianna’s family and loved ones. We will miss you.”
– Rina Singh, Chair of WiR
“A special memory for me was my first meeting with Gianna and her son Alberto at a BCI event in Amsterdam in 2014. She was very enthusiastic about the BCI and what we were doing at the time in regard to growing membership by creating professional forums and chapters around the world. Italy was not a very active BCI region. That changed!
Gianna was a true professional. Fully committed to the industry and to making inroads where opportunities were to be found. Her drive and commitment in regard to standards and to women in resilience were perfect examples of what Gianna was all about. She made things happen!
Gianna was a very dear friend and I will miss her very much as will everyone who knew her or of her work in the industry.”
– Steve Mellish, Former Chair of the BCI
“Gianna was a driving force in the BCI for many years, founding the Italian chapter and becoming a successful BCI training partner. Gianna always contributed to BCI thought leadership events and was an inspiration to many practitioners around the world. To me, she was the epitome of a true professional. She always spoke her mind, never afraid to challenge and share her experience and ideas to further the industry and continue learning.
She was a fantastic speaker at many BCI conferences and made a massive contribution to the good practice guidelines. I also worked with her closely in the standards development committees with the BSI. The business continuity and resilience world has lost an inspirational leader and a highly respected professional. Thank you Gianna.”
– Deborah Higgins, Head of the Emergency Planning College
“I was very saddened to hear of Gianna’s passing. She made many contributions over her career, was well known and will be missed in our industry. On behalf of the BCI I would like to pass on our deepest condolences to her family during this very difficult time.”
– Christopher Horne, Current Chair of the BCI