Press Release

Caversham, Reading, UK

The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) is pleased to announce that Richard Reed, Vice President for Preparedness and Resilience Strategy at the American Red Cross will be delivering the keynote at the forthcoming BCM World Conference and Exhibition that takes place 7th to 8th November this year at Olympia, London.

Reed, who was the former Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Resilience at The White House, will be discussing the US approach to preparedness and societal resilience.  In particular, he will be looking at how major events including terrorism, health emergencies, major accidents and catastrophic natural disasters have shaped and modified the approach of successive administrations.  The Presidential Policy Directive on National Preparedness issued in 2011 outlined the President’s vision and Richard will be expanding on this in his presentation.

Reed who holds an MSW, a master’s degree in the field of social work, is currently leading a comprehensive organisational assessment of all American Red Cross preparedness, resilience and recovery programmes, domestic and international.

Reed is responsible for developing strategies and programmes across all Red Cross services that help build prepared and resilient communities.   In addition, he heads up a cross-functional Red Cross team in re-engineering the entire disaster cycle – preparedness, response, and recovery – to improve service delivery processes in all phases of Red Cross disaster programs.  Richard was appointed to this position in April of 2012.

Prior to joining the Red Cross, Reed completed a 20-year career with the Federal Government.  From 2006-2012, he worked at the White House on the Homeland Security Council (2006-2009) and the National Security Staff (2009-2012), where he led the development and implementation of the national resilience policy.  He has also worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the General Services Administration.

Reed has bachelor’s degrees from Indiana University and Purdue University, and an MSW from Indiana University.