About Hilary Estall

I first became involved with management system standards in 1998 when I joined the British Standards Institution (BSI). With a previous career in banking behind me, my first area of work was to audit ISO 9001 in banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions. I soon became involved with developing standards in the legal sector (BARMARK and Lexcel) as well as industries such as Contact Centres. Life was never dull!

I became involved with business continuity through the development of BS 25999 Part 2 in 2007. I joined the BSI Standards Technical Committee responsible for developing BS 25999 Parts 1 and 2, and took on a new role responsible for developing BSI’s own BC management system certification scheme, training auditors and obtaining UKAS accreditation for BSI, globally. During that time I joined the BCI and obtained the CBCI certificate.

I remain a Committee Member of CAR/1 the British Standards Technical Committee for Business Continuity and Resilience as well as G/001 Governance and regularly attend meetings convened to develop and review business continuity and governance related standards and guidance documents. We are the UK’s voice for all the relevant standard related matters. I am a Member of the Business Continuity Institute (MBCI).

I set up Perpetual Solutions Limited when it became apparent that whilst there are many business continuity consultancies, there are very few in the position that I am, being able to offer support and guidance specifically about how to work towards ISO 22301 certification. This was also the prompter for me to write my book Business Continuity Management Systems; Implementation and certification to ISO 22301. As well as this, I wanted to use my knowledge and experience working in the management systems sector to support organisations with, or seeking, certification to or alignment with a recognised standard. Describing how certification bodies progress third party certification audits and certifications in practice is a great help to our clients who understandably are anxious about how to approach certification. This is where Perpetual Solutions add real value to its clients.

I look forward to working with you in the future to help you achieve your business goals and aspirations.