Joseph F. Bruno

Plenary # 1 Joseph F. Bruno, Commissioner - Office of Emergency Management - New York City

In March 2004, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appointed Joseph F. Bruno commissioner of the New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM). He is the fourth head of the agency since it was established in 1996.

Among his first major initiatives, Commissioner Bruno successfully oversaw New York City's adoption and implementation of the Citywide Incident Management System (CIMS). CIMS is now the City's standard for responding to and managing emergencies and planned events.

After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, Commissioner Bruno oversaw the development and operation of a Family Assistance Center to assist victims who migrated to New York City. Later that year, Commissioner Bruno headed the City's plan to maintain order during the transit strike - three days that left New Yorkers with no subway service and minimal bus transportation.

Commissioner Bruno oversaw the comprehensive revision of the City's Coastal Storm Plan (CSP). Today, the CSP ensures the City is prepared for a worst-case scenario hurricane and can shelter more than 600,000 residents. OEM also developed the "What if New York City.," a post-disaster housing competition that challenged teams of architects and planners to design temporary housing for dense, urban environments. The competition marks a critical step in New York City's effort to plan ahead for long-term housing after a catastrophic disaster.

Commissioner Bruno led the City's response to the Queens blackout in July 2006, which left more than 100,000 residents without power for several days. In summer 2007, he also guided the City's response to a massive steam pipe explosion in midtown Manhattan and an EF2 tornado, which touched down in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, causing extensive property damage and injuries. In 2008, the commissioner and OEM were challenged by two
major crane collapses that caused multiple fatalities, crushed nearby buildings, displaced hundreds of residents, and shut down more than 10 city blocks.

Under Commissioner Bruno's leadership, Ready New York, the City's emergency preparedness campaign has grown to include 11 guides in 23 languages, as well as an instructional video. The program has reached more than 6.5 million New Yorkers.

OEM leveraged new technology under Commissioner Bruno by adding its expertise to the creation of Notify NYC, an emergency notification system for New York City residents. The system uses text messaging, e-mail and reverse-911 technologies to warn subscribers about emergencies.

Commissioner Bruno's distinguished career in public service began in 1971, when he joined the City Law Department. He served in various trial attorney and managerial posts at the Law Department and in 1987 he became Fire Commissioner of the City of New York.

Subsequently, Commissioner Bruno was elected in 1991 and 2001 as a Judge of the Civil Court of the City of New York and in 2002 as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

Commissioner Bruno graduated from City College in 1966 with a B.S. in Economics and in 1968 he earned a J.D. from St. John's Law School. Commissioner Bruno is a lifelong city resident.

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Trefor Munn-Venn

Plenary # 2 Trefor Munn-Venn - Director, National Security and Public Safety – National Conference Board  of Canada

Communication Strategies for Communities and Emergency Responders

Mr Munn-Venn’s recent article ‘A Resilient Canada – Governance for National Security and Public Safety’ has garnered much interest and accolades.

With an extremely busy work schedule - Trefor currently holds the following positions:  Co-Chair of the Public-Private Partnership Working Group at Operation INTERSECT, Associate Director, National Security & Safety at The Conference Board of Canada,  Board of Advisors at Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies – we feel privileged that Trefor has taken the time to share his knowledge at our symposium.

Trefor’s presentation will address issues such as coordinating the actions of many organizations when responding to a crisis, the increasing role of the private sector in emergency management, the six key principles to effectively respond to disasters, and the importance of training exercises. 

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Peter Power

Plenary # 3 Peter Power - Managing Director of Visor Consultants

Characteristics of Crisis Leadership – Understanding and Communicating Effectively

Peter Power is Managing Director of Visor Consultants (www.visorconsultants.com) based at 212 Piccadilly London. He and his team regularly run strategic Crisis Management and Business Continuity projects and exercises for clients ranging from the UK Government to Burberry and KPMG.

He is a member of the UK National Security Commission (Resilience Subgroup) and sits on the British Standards Institute Crisis Management Standard Steering Group Committee.  He is also a member of the Business Continuity Institute Crisis Management Special Interest Group. In addition, Peter is the primary author of the ubiquitous Gold, Silver & Bronze command structure used throughout the UK and was Business Continuity award winner for ‘Personality of the year’ 2000 and ‘Lifetime achievement’ 2006. In March 2009 he won the BCM ‘Best Contribution to the Profession’ (London) award.

He also regularly appears on TV and Radio to discuss crises and how we should prepare and respond. Before setting up his company in 1995 Peter spent 20 years in the UK Police, almost all of which was at New Scotland Yard where he was attached to various units such as the Anti Terrorist Branch, Special Patrol Group and Forward Planning Unit.

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Dr. David Mckeown

Plenary # 4 - Dr. David McKeown -Toronto's Medical Officer of Health

Public Health Emergency Response-Management and Communications Challenges

Dr. David McKeown is Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto and Executive Officer of the Toronto Board of Health.  He leads Toronto Public Health, Canada's largest local public health agency, which provides public health programs and services for 2.6 million residents.  He is a physician specialist who has worked in the public health field for twenty-five years. Dr. McKeown is also an Adjunct Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

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John Collin

Plenary # 5 Brigadier-General John Collin - Commander LFCA/JTFC

Communications within Unified Command-Domestic Operations

Brigadier-General John Collin began his career at Royal Roads Military College.  Graduating in 1982, he joined the 8th Canadian Hussars as an Armoured Officer.  During his career he has commanded at the Troop, Squadron and Regimental levels.  He has also served as the Commandant of the Army’s Staff College which educates senior captains for their future roles. 

He has served in numerous Headquarters including the 1st Canadian Division, Allied Forces Central Europe, Land Force Atlantic Area and National Defence.  Overseas, BGen Collin was the last Canadian Tank Squadron Commander in Germany, served with UNPROFOR during the opening of the Sarajevo airport in 1992, and was among the first Canadians to serve in Afghanistan in 2002.  BGen Collin has completed the National Security Studies course and has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Queen’s University.  BGen Collin assumed command of Land Force Central Area and Joint Task Force Central on 5 March 2008.

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Mark Scoggins

Plenary # 6 Mark Scoggins - Solicitor Advocate of the Supreme Court of London

After The Event – A Lawyers View

Mark Scoggins is a Solicitor Advocate of the Supreme Court, based in the City of London since 1983. He appeared for the National Rifle Association in the public inquiry arising out of the Dunblane school shooting of 1996 which claimed the lives of 16 children and their teacher, and for Thames Trains at the public inquiry into the October 1999 collision near Ladbroke Grove in which 31 people were killed. In 2003 he handled the successful Old Bailey defence of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens and his predecessor Lord Condon on all ten charges brought against them by the health and safety regulator arising out of roof falls suffered by patrolling police officers.

Appointed by Balfour Beatty on the October 2000 fatal train derailment at Hatfield, in July 2005 during a 6-month trial Mark helped win the acquittal of its rail division on all corporate manslaughter charges which it faced over the incident. He represented the Metropolitan Police again in the health and safety prosecution brought to trial against the service in October 2007 over the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell station the day after the failed 21/7 suicide bombings.

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Dinner Reception Guest Speaker - Kevin Sack

Mr. Sack joined the City of Toronto as the Manager of Corporate Communications and Media Relations in mid-1999 and became the Director of the newly created Strategic Communications Division in July of 2006.

Reporting directly to the City Manager, Kevin has provided senior counsel, direction and leadership on several major corporate communications initiatives and campaigns - all aimed at ensuring residents and business had the information they needed to thoughtfully participate in City programs, become involved in civic affairs and respond to emerging issues and major critical incidents.

In addition, Mr. Sack, together with colleagues in the Division, developed and delivered a highly successful internal media relations training program to hundreds of senior managers and has provided strong communications leadership to the organization. Mr. Sack oversees a division of 22 staff that are dedicated to a workplan consisting of communications policy development, strategic communications planning and research, issues management, media relations and advertising.

On a part-time basis, Kevin has also taught the post-graduate Media Relations program at Toronto's Centennial College and he has spoken at several major conferences on topics ranging from crisis communications, issues management, media relations and municipal communications campaigns.
Prior to joining the City of Toronto, Mr. Sack was the Regional Manager of Communications for the Ontario Region of the Canadian federal department of Citizenship and Immigration.

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Mark Dailey

Dinner Reception- Master of Ceremonies - Mark Dailey

In 1968, Mark began his career as a radio and television news reporter in Ohio. He was a radio anchor/crime reporter in Detroit for two years before coming to Toronto (CHUM) in 1974. He joined "CityNews" in 1979. Mark served as an assignment editor and producer before taking the reigns of the Crime Beat for more than ten years. He's been the anchor of "CityNews Tonight" for almost a decade. Mark has been involved with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Salvation Army, St. John Ambulance, Sick Children's hospital clown program, Jennifer Ashleigh Foundation, Kinder Foundation and many other charitable agencies.

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