Contingency Planning Symposium Keynote Speakers
Randy Till, MBCP
Randall Till (MBCP) has over 20 years experience creating and implementing business continuity practices for organizations to help manage operational risks. His expertise spans marketing, management, and application of business continuity practices following a holistic approach to protect company assets and build resilient services.
Throughout his career, Mr. Till has been responsible for creating business continuity programs from inception to maturity, and has successfully established “best-in-class” practices. He has extensive experience working with senior management to promote business continuity within their organizations, and to foster the appropriate oversight for the BC Program.
Mr. Till serves as a member of the Executive Council for the Disaster Recovery Journal. He is recognized as an industry expert and is a regular speaker at industry events, trade shows and webinars. Mr. Till has also taught business continuity classes for the past 12 years. He started as a certified instructor for Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) and has developed and taught his own classes to share best practices in Business Continuity Management.
Dr. Laura Myers
Dr. Laura Myers is a community disaster resiliency professional. Her work has produced a regional resiliency disaster response planning model for disaster response planning stakeholders, including police, fire, emergency management, civilians, and the private sector. Dr. Myers is a disaster preparedness research professor with Mississippi State University and a senior scholar and lecturer with Clemson University. Dr. Myers has published books and articles on disaster preparedness, emergency management, disaster recovery, criminal justice education, organizational ethics, cultural diversity in professions, and the administration of public agencies. She is a residential and online educator and also is a trainer for criminal justice and emergency response professionals. She serves as a consultant to both the public and private sectors on disaster preparedness, business continuity, organizational administration, and criminal justice topics.
Breakout Session and Panel Speakers
Brian Abrahamson
Vice President, Corporate Communications
Gaylord Entertainment Company
Brian Abrahamson is Vice President of Corporate Communications for Gaylord Entertainment where he is responsible for corporate public relations, crisis communications and public affairs.
Over the past 15 years, Abrahamson has held various human resources and public relations positions throughout his career. He joined Gaylord Entertainment in 2003 as director of staffing. His hospitality career began in 1999 at Harrah’s Entertainment working in their corporate human resources department.
Abrahamson is a graduate of the University of Minnesota where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Communications. He serves on the board of the PENCIL foundation. He resides in Brentwood, Tenn. with his wife, Jennifer and their son, William.
Mat Adams
Business Consultant, CBTS
Mat Adams recently joined CBTS as a Business Consultant with over 13 years in information technology services. As a Certified Business Continuity Vendor (CBCV), Mat is recognized as a specialist in Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning. He has successfully developed and implemented recovery and continuity plans for a broad range of industries including healthcare, state and federal government, utilities, transportation authorities, and other organizations. Prior to joining CBTS, Mat was technology consultant in both the Nashville area and Atlanta, Georgia. Mat is a current member of the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP).
Monty Blight
Vice President of Managed Services
Peak 10
Monty has been with Peak 10 since June, 2001. He is responsible for Peak 10’s full suite of managed services including Hosting, Virtualized Services, Server Management and Monitoring, Managed Security, Storage and Backup, and Business Continuity.CDR. Monty works directly with clients and partners and also presents frequently on Business Continuity, Cloud, Hosting, and other technology services.
Prior to Peak 10, Monty worked in various technology services positions including Internet streaming with Yahoo!, distance learning for Primedia, and software simulated banker training for Omega Performance.
Highly engaged in his local community, Monty is a member of the Elder Council and chair of the audit committee for Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, N.C. He is also a youth basketball coach.
Monty received is BBA from Baylor University in Texas and is a graduate of the Charlotte Leadership Forum.
Edward J. Boekenkamp, M.A.
National Security & Strategic Studies,
N.W.C. Total Security Services International, Inc.
A former U.S. Marine Corps Officer, Edward J. Boekenkamp has spent more than 35 years leading numerous security initiatives. Having trained more than 60,000 individuals since 9/11, with a chief focus of detection, development, and implementation of active anti terrorism countermeasures, plans and curriculum, he has a breadth of experience in the international arena and maritime operations. He has conducted world –wide foreign travel facilitation, ground truth, protection, contingency plans, critical vulnerability and threat analysis for Fortune 500 companies and other entities in addition to state and federal infrastructure.
He possesses extensive command and operational experience, and was dynamically involved in the development of the Colombian Riverine Program. A charter member of the Riverine Steering Group, RSG, (Inter-Agency Entity), and Defense Analysis Group, DAG, (Inter-Agency Entity), as well as, other working groups, whose chief focus was the defeat of terrorism. While on active service, he was responsible for activating the first USMC Special Boat Unit and because of its’ unique nature, this organization had a worldwide mission to provide direct support to Force Commanders in conventional, unconventional, counter-drug and counter-insurgency operations. As a former Operational Intelligence Officer, he has served in the capacity of Advisor to Argentinean, Colombian and Ecuadorian Security Forces.
Ed possesses an M.A. in National Security & Strategic Studies from the Naval War College, and a B.A. Degree in International Studies, History & Government with a Minor in Spanish from Norwich University.
Kelley Ealy
Principal Consultant, CBTS
Kelley Ealy is currently employed at CBTS, Inc. as a Principal Consultant working with clients in the telecommunication, manufacturing, utility, finance, education, and healthcare industries. She has over 10 years experience in the security field, previously working for a large national healthcare company and a regional insurance company. She has a breadth of experience in the arena of disaster recovery and business continuity planning, managing the IT aspects for audit/compliance, designing and implementing secure infrastructures, and developing Information Security and Disaster Recovery Programs. Kelley holds her CISSP and SANS GSEC certifications.
Mike Franklin,
Assistant Chief, Nashville Fire Department
Mike Franklin has worked with the Nashville Fire Department for 31 years and is currently assigned as an Assistant Chief in charge of Special Operations. The Special Operations Division maintains coordinates, and facilitates all resources that are dedicated to activities that have any type of special training or response capabilities. This would include Hazardous Materials response, High Angle Rescue, Trench Rescue, Confined Space Rescue, Urban Search & Rescue (USAR) and Swift Water Rescue. He was born and raised in the Nashville, Middle Tennessee area and currently lives in Franklin, TN with his wife Carol.
Chief Franklin has Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Leadership, Public Administration from Middle Tennessee State University.
Chief Franklin holds certifications in National Incident Management System; NIMS ICS 300-400, T-N-T, May 2007 (NFA)
Dr. James Gantt
Director, Center for Telecommunications Systems Management (CTSM)
Murray State University
Dr. James Gantt became the Director of the Center for Telecommunications Systems Management (CTSM) in February, 2005. The CTSM is part of the Murray State University Program of Distinction in Telecommunications Systems Management, established in 1999.
Dr. Gantt received a Bachelor of Science degree from Murray State University, a Master of Science degree from the University of Missouri at Rolla and an Education Specialist degree in Management from Ball State University. He was selected to spend the 1981-1982 school year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Fellow in the Center for Advanced Engineering Studies. He completed his Ph.D in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 2003 he was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of Murray State University.
From 1973 until 2004 Dr. Gantt held a variety of jobs with the U.S. Army. In September, 1996, he became the Director of the Information Science and Technology Directorate at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL). He was selected to become a member of the Senior Executive Service in 1998. Between 2000 and 2004 Dr. Gantt served as the Deputy Director and then Director of ARL’s Computational and Information Sciences Directorate. As Director he was responsible for conducting research for the Army in Computational, Computer, Communications, and Atmospheric Sciences. From 2003 to 2004 Dr. Gantt also served as the Chief Information Officer of ARL.
Ann S. Pickren
Executive Vice President , Firestorm
Firestorm Solutions, LLC is a national leader in providing critical decision support and planning to corporations, schools and universities on issues of business continuity, crisis management and pandemic, safety, security, threat and vulnerability analysis. Ms. Pickren is the Executive Vice President of Firestorm.
As Executive Vice President, Ann has oversight of the development of all methodology and oversees the delivery of all client services to ensure the continued best-practice application of Firestorm’s PREDICT. PLAN. PERFORM.™ process.
Ann joined Firestorm in 2009 after spending 17 years with SunGard Availability Services. During her tenure with SunGard Ann carried various responsibilities that included the national oversight of both business continuity consulting services and software product development and support for SunGard’s various product solutions.
Before her national assignments, she was the regional director for Comdisco Professional Services, which was acquired by SunGard. She was responsible for business development, consulting engagement delivery and the management of professional staff for Comdisco’s Southern US consulting practice.
Prior to 1992, Ann was the Manager of the Professional Services for a technology services and manufacturer. In this role she developed consulting opportunities and managed client engagements and the professional staff in the consulting practice. The consulting practice specialized in the design and implementation of image-based application systems and local and wide-area networks, as well as systems integration.
Prior to moving into the consulting field, Ann held various managerial positions within information technology organizations for 16 years. She was MIS Director for a manufacturing firm, manager of On-line and Database Application Development for a healthcare institution and held various positions in application development in an IBM mainframe environment. She specialized in on-line transaction processing and database application development.
Ann holds a Masters in Business Administration from Georgia State University. Her undergraduate studies focused in Math and Statistics.
Stephen C. Piggott
Vice President
Premier Accounts Program, SunGard
Stephen C. Piggott, Vice President, Premier Accounts Program, has been involved with business continuity/disaster recovery program development for over 20 years, the past seventeen with SunGard Availability Services in both the professional services and strategic sales organizations.
Steve has developed comprehensive, tiered recoverability strategies and executable programs for Fortune 500 companies across diverse industries and has participated in numerous customer declared disaster recovery efforts.
Steve’s current responsibilities encompass a select customer portfolio across North America. Steve’s primary focus is to interface with senior customer executives and ‘C’ suite officers as a trusted advisor and to delve into their respective business drivers for resiliency and recoverability.
Steve provides insight into current industry trends and directions, evolving practices and methodologies and correlates customer’s specific production resiliency and recovery requirements to the appropriate suite of SunGard’s Availability services and products.
The internal, commercial and hybrid programs that Steve develops are the result of a collaborative approach to understanding the business drivers for resiliency and recoverability and in providing optimal economic and operational alternatives that facilitate making educated decisions on cost vs. risk.
Steve’s ‘hands on’ approach to solution design, sales and service delivery, affords his customers a unique combination of industry experience, credibility and ability to execute.
Scott Potter
Director of Nashville Metro Water Services
Scott Potter is the Director of Metro Water Services. Metro Water Services produces an average of 100 million gallons of drinking water and collects and processes 115 million gallons of wastewater each day. The utility is also responsible for stormwater and watershed management for Nashville and Davidson County.
Scott graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering and earned a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia.
Scott served 12 years in the United States Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer, serving aboard the destroyers USS COCHRANE, homeported in Yokosuka, Japan, and USS CALLAGHAN, homeported in San Diego, California. Scott deployed to the approaches of the Persian Gulf in 1987 and to the Northern Persian Gulf in 1993. While stationed at the United States Naval Academy, he served as a Master Instructor, teaching courses in Statics, Materials Science, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics. He was an adjunct member of the faculty at the University of Louisville, teaching Solid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, and has taught a class in water and wastewater policy at Vanderbilt University. Scott has recently been named to the Vanderbilt University Mechanical Engineering Department External Advisory Committee.
Scott has been married to Melissa for 20 years. They have three children: Ryan, who is 15, Shelby Grace, 12, and Carson, 7. He enjoys reading, hiking and bicycling.
Bobby Williams
Business Continuity
Emdeon
Bobby Williams is a DRII Certified Business Continuity Planner and serves as the Business Continuity Manager for Emdeon (a publically traded company on the NYSE) in Nashville, TN. He has worked in the IT industry for 20 years in technical roles, vendor education, pre/post sales engineering, disaster recovery management, and business continuity management. He has worked or consulted for the US Government, the Nuclear Power Industry, private healthcare companies, and publically traded companies.
Bobby serves as a business continuity and disaster recovery subject matter expert for the Criteria Committee of the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC). This has allowed Bobby to apply his HIPAA knowledge and experience to the BC and DR requirements of the EHNAC accreditation process.
Bobby has a BSEE degree from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. He retired from the Tennessee Army National Guard where he served as an artillery officer in the 196th Field Artillery Brigade.
Bobby is the Vice-President of the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the Association of Contingency Planners.
Bobby and his wife, Susan, live in Lebanon, TN. Susan is a stay at home mom and home schools their boys, Robby and Johnny.
