DRI’s Future Vision Committee is proud to announce the addition of two new members, including one with years of experience working with the White House under two U.S. presidential administrations and another with significant experience in the Australian public sector.

Richard Reed is Senior Vice President, Disaster Cycle Services at the American Red Cross. In this role, he leads the development and execution of programs which help Americans prepare for, respond to, and recover from nationwide disasters. Richard led a comprehensive organizational assessment of all American Red Cross preparedness, response, and recovery programs which resulted in revamped processes to improve service delivery in disasters small and large.

In addition to his current role, Reed most recently served on special assignment to the White House as Deputy Ebola Response Coordinator to support the coordination, management and leadership of the U.S government response to the recent Ebola epidemic.

Prior to assuming his role at the Red Cross, Reed served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, where he led in the development of national policy related to resilience, trans-border security, and community partnerships. He also served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Resilience Policy (2009-12) and Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Senior Director for Continuity (2006-2009).

David Porter has been the Director of Business Continuity Management (BCM) at the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) since September 2010. He has also chaired a whole-of-government BCM Community of Practice, with members from over 35 Commonwealth and state based agencies. Porter and his team provide regular mentoring support for other organisations and have contributed towards readiness activities across the public sector and wider finance industries. Porter is a regular presenter at industry events and contributor to the Business Continuity Institute Oceania 2020 think-tank.

The ATO BCM team has won the Australasian Business Continuity Institute Team of the Year award three times and the team’s integrated BCM Framework and approach to organizational resilience have also been recognized in two peak Australian Government insurer awards for excellence in risk management.

“I am delighted to participate in this initiative and contribute wherever and however I can,” said Porter. “I am keen to explore other avenues and opportunities within our industry and this group is a great mechanism for sharing ideas and shaping the future. As the chair of a cross agency public sector BC group I can bring a strong personal and an extensive sector wide view to our discussions.”

The goals of the Future Visions Committee:

• Create the leading global “Think Tank” on matters of operational resilience, discipline integration and the future role of resilience professionals.
• Work with other professional bodies and membership organizations on an international basis to share knowledge, develop common strategic frameworks and promote resilience concepts to as wide an audience as possible using existing and new promotional channels.
• Provide input into other committees (in particular the Professional Development and Global Infrastructure Committees) to ensure their development activities are consistent with the future directions of the resilience community as a whole.
• Keep the Institute at the forefront of innovative thinking; influencing governments, regulators, standards bodies and academic institutions – and ensure it is recognized internationally as the thought leader.