Speakers

Dr. Christina Baxter is the CEO of Emergency Response TIPS, LLC and a partner in Hazard3, LLC which provides practical, evidence-based solutions for emergency response through the development of next generation tools for enhanced responder safety and education.

Prior to forming Emergency Response TIPS, LLC, Dr. Baxter was the CBRNE Program Manager for the Department of Defense’s Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office where she was responsible for developing and fielding next generation capabilities for the CBRNE response elements.

r. Baxter holds a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has over 25 years of experience in the hazardous materials/CBRN response community where she remains active in teaching and participating in standards development processes.

Shaiful joined the Singapore Civil Defence Force in 2005 and has recently served as the Division Commander of 1st SCDF Division – the largest land division in Singapore, comprising over 5,000 active Regular officers, National Servicemen, and civilian officers. He is a professional with over 17 years of experience in emergency preparedness and operations, including firefighting and rescue. His areas of specialisation are in the fields of HazMat and fire investigation respectively. He has also been involved in staff postings which involved policy work in the fields of fire safety and national security.

Shaiful now helms the post of Director, HazMat Department in the SCDF. He provides strategic direction for the organisation’s capabilities and competencies to deal with incidents involving hazardous materials. He also oversees regulatory policies, plans and systems aimed at reducing fire safety risks from the handling of petroleum and flammable materials in the industry.

Dr Laura Cochrane works for Emergent Countermeasures International UK as the Director of Medical and Affairs.  Her background was in Chemical and Materials engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada, and since then she brings an extensive background and tenure in Defence Research and Development with military agencies, technology transfer and the science of chemical and biodefense around the globe.

She has focused her specialty for the last 20 plus years in medical applications in CBRN  research development programs and commercialization of clinical decontamination, and medical device countermeasures. 

Matt Scullion is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing, BioFire Defense and has been in the biodefense sector for over 15 years, initially entering the field from his formal training in biology and as an R&D scientist.  Since then he has gained first-hand experience during the anthrax attacks of 2001: performing training and advising biodetection efforts in New York City and Washington DC. He was also a critical asset in the strategic deployment of diagnostic aid to the U.S. Military during the Ebola crisis in West Africa.   

He participated in the first U.S. Department of Defense InVitro Diagnostic platform program (JBAIDS), from its award to expansion, and is now intimately involved with the launch of the US DoD’s Next Generation Diagnostic System for syndromic diagnostics and surveillance.  

Mr. Scullion has supported BioFire in multiple capacities, ranging from Director of Business Development for Government Programs to now Vice President of Sales and Marketing for BioFire Defense, LLC. 

Mr. Roy Odom was born in Cleveland, OH and has over 30 years of acquired Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High Yield Explosives (CBRNE) knowledge, training, and skills providing technical analytical, operational, and strategical level support. These services include Building Partner Nations Capacity through Security Cooperation initiatives, bilateral engagements and equipment training, interpretation of CWMD Lines of Effort (LOEs) from

Combatant Commands, concept and capability development, acquisitions, strategic planning and requirement analysis, validations, technology integration. He currently serves as the Building Partnership Capacity (BPC) A&AS contactor Japan’s office for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Major Gregory Sablan is the Building Partnership Capacity Operations Officer at Japan’s office for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. He is a 2021 graduate of the Joint Combined Warfighting School and completed the Command and General Staff Officer Course in 2019. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 2006 and was assigned to the 326th Engineer Battalion, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He deployed to Iraq in 2009 as part of the 887th Engineer Support Company and later became the Civil Military Operations Officer of the 37th Engineer Battalion. In 2012 he deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan and was in charge of all route clearance, tactical infrastructure build-up, and retrograde operations for Combined Task Force Arrowhead. He taught at the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering at West Point and attended the University of Texas at Austin to obtain a Master of Science Degree in Nuclear Engineering in 2016. In May of 2019, he completed teaching at USMA as an Instructor and Assistant Professor in PANE’s Core Physics and Nuclear Engineering Programs. 

MG (ret) Daniel Tjen is the Commissioner at Mayapada Healthcare Group. His previous post was Mayapada’s chief medical officer and was responsible for all of Mayapada hospitals operations. He was appointed Special Advisor for the Minister of Health in 2019 – 2020 and prior to that was the Surgeon General of Indonesia Armed Forces and responsible for the medical support and force protection in the military deployment both domestically and overseas (UN PKO). He was appointed Chairman of International Committee of Military Medicine in 2015 and actively participated in the Multilateral Dialogue on Biosecurity (hosted by Center for Health Security, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) since 2014. He is a regular contributor for Opinion in Jakarta Post.

Iain M Findlay was a member of the British Army (17th/21st Lancers) from 1983 to 1996, serving on operations in Gulf War 1 and Bosnia.  Since leaving the armed forces, Iain has worked extensively in the field of international business development. 

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His broad experience in defence sales encompasses systems integration, simulators, field based forensics and a variety of detection technologies.  He has more than 15 years experience of Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) detection and has participated in live agent trials. 

He has managed projects for naval detection systems, vehicle borne installations and systems used in the protection of critical infrastructure.  Iain is now a business owner, Director of CRF-I and supports market leading companies in the development of markets in the Far East.    

Samantha Sonnett is a police officer with the New York City Police Department where she is lead instructor for the COBRA Unit (Chemical, Ordinance, Biological, and Radiological Awareness). As a COBRA instructor she and her team are responsible for training approximately 5,000 uniformed members of the service annually in the proper response andmitigation of CBRNe incidents. Ms. Sonnett is a veteran of the Unites States Air Force. She holds numerous certifications in the CBRNe/Hazmat field and is a certified instructor not only for the NYPD, but she also travels the nation on behalf of Texas A&M’s Extension Service and Pro Board accreditation service to certify first responders in WMD/Hazmat operations. Ms. Sonnett has 19 years of experience with the NYPD. 

Dr. Alexander Hamilton is Regional Coordinator for Southeast Asia at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI). He assumed his post in April 2020, continuing UNICRI’s long-term support to the implementation of the European Union Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence Initiative.

With UNICRI since 2012, he has worked extensively with partner countries in Southeast Asia and Africa, among other regions, to develop strategic action plans and to deliver capacity-building actions that have helped strengthen national and regional capacity to prevent, detect and respond to CBRN emergencies. Hamilton holds a doctorate focusing on risk governance and biosecurity from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He has published extensively on these subjects and is a regular contributor to international efforts dedicated to combating biological weapons.

Mr. Samuli Kirjalainen is the Sales Manager at Observis Oy, a Finnish software company providing world-class CBRN software solutions and integrated CBRN detection systems. Samuli has over 20 years of experience in CBRN business ranging from product development to business management. In his current role he’s responsible for Observis’ sales projects in APAC region.

He holds a Master’s degree in electrical engineering and has broad experience in CBRN vehicles, integrated CBRN detection systems and networking of CBRN detectors. Recently he has been involved in several development projects related to CBRN vehicle systems, CBRN situational awareness solutions and integrated CBRN detection solutions.

Colonel Bambang Karyawan Pinilih is currently serving as Head of Sub-Directorate for Development of EOD and CBRN under the Indonesian Army Corps of Engineers, previously he was serving as previously served as Senior Intermediate Officer in Science and Technology at the Army Military Education and Training Command. Kolonel Bambang. he attended the Army Engineer Advanced School in 2002 and attended the Indonesian Army Command and General Staff College in 2009.

He has attended military assignments in several Regional Military Commands (Kodam) in Indonesia, such as the Kodam V Brawijaya in East Java, the Kodam XVI Patimurra in Maluku, and the Kodam Iskandar Muda in Aceh. He received his master degree in Management during his assignment in Aceh at the Syahkuala University.

Major General TNI Harfendi, S.I.P., M.Sc. currently serving as an Expert Staff Officer to the Army Chief of Staff for Politics and National Security, which previously he served as chief of staff for the regional military command area Military Command Area (Kodam) IX in Udayana Bali until 2022. Major General Harfendi who joined the Military Academy in 1989, attended the Regimental Officer Basic Course (ROBC) in Australia in 1993, attended the Army Engineer Advanced School in 2000, He also attended The Defense Services Staff College (DSSC) in India in 2003.

Major General Harfendi, concluded the Indonesian Army Command and General Staff College in 2014, and continued his education at Korea National Defense University in 2016. He completed his Master’s degree in Strategic Studies at Madras University/India (2004).

Dr. Sumarjaya currently serves as Acting Director of the Center for Health Crisis, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia since 2022. In his career spanning more than 15 years at the ministry of health, he has served in several important positions, one of which is Acting Director of Center for Health System and Strategic in 2021 before serving as Head of General Bureau Affair in 2022.

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Dr. Sumarjaya is currently carrying out major responsibilities carried out under the Health Crisis Center (PKK/HCC) - MoH where PKK or HCC has a key role in formulating technical policies in the fields of prevention, mitigation, preparedness, facilitation of emergency response and early recovery in health crisis management, PKK or HCC is also responsible for implementation in the fields of prevention, mitigation, preparedness, facilitation of emergency response and early recovery in health crisis management. 

PKK or HCC also performs information management functions in the areas of prevention, mitigation, preparedness, facilitation of emergency response and early recovery in health crisis management.

Mr. Khairul is Senior Nuclear Security Officer at National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia. He is working in the area of nuclear security and physical protection since 1986 to 2023.

He also joined with IAEA expert mission at IPPAS for Asia Pacific Region, and IAEA Mission INSServ 2008 (Sri Lanka Government). He has been actively involving in the enhancement of nuclear security in Indonesia and the region. Development of selfassessment method for nuclear security culture in cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is one of his major accomplishments.

Police Commissioner Octoralas Simbolon currently serves as Commander of Detachment A - KBR Unit (CBRN) Gegana Brimob, Kompol Octoralas has served in the CBRN field since 2011.

He studied for his master's degree at the Defense University in Jakarta, and also took various education and courses in the CBRN field such as the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) First Responder Training Program organized between The Indonesian National Counter Terrorism Agency and the Canadian government in 2006, WMD Commodity Identification under US DOE in 2010, CBRN Operation Course under DS-ATA in 2014, to Nuclear Security and System for Major Public Event Course between AEA - BAPETEN in 2017.

Commissioner of Police Octolaras has also undertaken various tours of duty at home and abroad, one of which was in Papua and ended under UNAMID in Darfur Sudan in 2008-2009.