Mr. Brent Woodworth is a well known leader in global risk and crisis management.  He has a distinguished history of working with governments, private sector companies, and non-profit organizations.  In December 2007, he took his retirement from IBM after 32 years of service which included the development and management of all worldwide crisis response team operations.  Notable achievements include:

• Founder and manager of "The Crisis Response Team" - a team of individual international specialists focused on helping governments and businesses to prepare, respond, and recover from catastrophic events.  Brent has extensive experience in managing this team along with private sector, government sector, academic institution, medical personnel, and operational specialists.  Brent and his team have responded to over 70 major events in 49 countries including floods, earthquakes, hurricanes/ cyclones, volcanic eruptions, tsunami, fires, and man-made events including wars, civil unrest, and acts of terrorism.

• Concept creation, initial design and roll-out of the "Sahana" international emergency management system.  Now considered a global standard for nationwide crisis management, this open source system is currently running in 17 countries. (www.sahana.lk)

• Developed business enterprise risk management procedures for early identification and mitigation of potential exposures reducing financial loss exposures by over 2/3 per incident.

• Co-Author of the U.S. government principles for natural hazards reduction along with multiple position papers including congressional testimony on the benefits of government and private sector investment in pre-disaster mitigation.

Brent consults on a global basis with business leaders, elected officials and heads of state in the development and implementation of improved risk identification, disaster management, and global humanitarian relief services.

Brent is certified in disaster recovery, business continuity, incident management, disaster communication, search & rescue, and emergency medical services.  He is a regularly featured speaker on radio and television broadcasts along with industry conferences, government sessions, and senior executive board meetings.  Brent has written multiple articles on disaster management and has been a guest lecturer at colleges and universities including Caltech, Stanford, Wharton School of Business, Harvard, and Yale Law Schools.  Brent and his team have worked for many years in cooperation with international UN relief agencies and NGO's including WHO, WFP, OCHA, World Bank, UNHCR, World Vision International, Red Cross, and USAID.