Our Solutions

Colin Vissering

Managing Director

Colin Vissering, Managing Director of Preparedness, Hazard Mitigation and Resilience services for the public sector, has more than 25 years of experience in disaster recovery programs, working to support hazard mitigation program implementation at every level of government. Colin has not only led national-level program policy development for FEMA and other agencies, but has been deployed in senior advisory roles to the majority of catastrophic disasters since the early 1990s. Colin brings a blend of expertise in urban planning and recovery and mitigation programs to support implementation of innovative resiliency programs and projects across all sectors. Colin is a Certified Planner (AICP) and Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) with a Masters in Community Planning from the University of Maryland and Bachelors in International Affairs from George Washington University.

Charlie Fisher

Senior Managing Director

Charlie leads our client success and growth efforts across a range of sectors. He has led transformative preparedness reviews for corporate CEOs, governors, mayors and university presidents. He has led a range of independent post-incident assessments, including the Indiana State Fair structure collapse, directly contributing to the improved resilience. Based in Chapel Hill, NC, Charlie has shared his thought leadership on four continents.

Hal Cohen

Associate Managing Director

Hal is an Associate Managing Director with more than 12 years experience as a preparedness consultant and emergency planner. He specializes in hazard mitigation, disaster recovery and reconstruction, continuity of operations, emergency notifications and communications, operation center staffing support, organizational reviews, after-action reports, and much more. His skillsets also include plan development, training, exercises, writing and editing. Hal has managed numerous continuity of operations (COOP) and business continuity planning (BCP) projects for municipalities and private sector clients. He has also served as project manager for numerous disaster recovery planning and hazard mitigation projects for federal, state and local agencies, utility companies, education facilities, and corporations.

Prior to joining Witt O’Brien’s, Hal served as the director of planning for the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) Support Foundation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As the project manager for the post-Katrina “Louisiana Speaks” regional plan, he helped establish a long-term planning and policy framework that includes integration of levees, coastal restoration, land use, infrastructure, and economic development. The plan was developed in coordination with FEMA Emergency Support Function (ESF) Annex #14 Long-Term Community Recovery planning efforts, City of New Orleans recovery planning, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, and other state agencies.

Hal has also worked as a professional editor and journalist and has been published in The New York Times, Village Voice, Metropolis, and numerous other publications.

Bob Patterson

Managing Director

Bob is responsible for our energy sector’s overall success and growth. His background includes over 30 years’ experience in operational resilience, crisis management and enterprise client engagement in a number of industries including Energy, Manufacturing, Investment Banking and Financial Services. Bob has an MBA in Management and resides in the Houston Texas area.

Mike Gallagher

Senior Managing Director

With over 30 years’ experience, Mike leads our success and growth in the transportation sector, building resilience for clients in shipping, oil and gas, ports, rail and air. Mike’s experience includes co-founding and leading Gallagher Marine Systems (serving the shipping and oil & gas industries). He also has significant preparedness/response experience in the public health sector, and helped lead our response efforts on behalf of USDA to the 2014-15 avian influenza outbreak. Mike has lived in Norway, and together with his wife Susan has hosted exchange students from Norway, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Paraguay.

Brad Gair

Senior Managing Director

Brad Gair has more than 25 years of US and international emergency management and homeland security leadership experience. His credentials span both the public and private sectors. Brad’s prior experience includes serving as the Federal Recovery Officer in New York following 9/11; appointment to be Deputy Commissioner of New York City’s Office of Emergency Management; helped the United Arab Emirates establish a new national emergency management agency; leading the resilience program at NYU Langone.

Valarie Philipp

Associate Managing Director

Valarie is responsible for client management and development in the Southeast US. She has nearly 20 years of experience in emergency management and related work as a structural engineer. She assists state, county, and municipal governments, as well as healthcare, educational, and non-governmental organizations with disaster response and recovery, providing insight into a variety of Federal grant programs.

John Paczkowski

Senior Managing Director

John is a Senior Managing Director leading key strategic growth initiatives, with a focus on assisting practice leaders with achieving growth targets and expanding market share in both public and private sectors.

Paczkowski is a career public sector professional and former Marine Corps officer with leadership experience in emergency management, homeland security, infrastructure protection, public safety and civil authorities’ defense support. Most recently, Paczkowski served as Senior Vice President at a leading international consulting firm. Prior to that role, he directed crisis management, preparedness, disaster recovery and risk management consulting services for local, state and federal agencies.

While serving as Assistant Director for Operations at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Paczkowski led the agency’s emergency operations center post-9/11 terrorist attacks and was later appointed Director of Emergency Management and Security. As such, in partnership with DHS and FEMA, he created several groundbreaking regional emergency management and infrastructure security programs. He also served as the Chief Architect for a risk-based one-billion-dollar security capital investment program and was responsible for securing hundreds of millions of dollars in additional preparedness, disaster recovery and risk mitigation funding. A first responder after Hurricane Katrina, he led an emergency management team that restored public safety communications, incident command and continuity of government in the City of New Orleans.

Paczkowski is a Fellow with the National Academy of Public Administration which is dedicated to the advancement of best practices in the government. There he specializes in addressing issues related to national preparedness and resilience. He is also a member of the Board of Executive Advisors with Auburn University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security where he works with other senior practitioners to assess and advance thought leadership across the homeland security and defense communities. In addition, Paczkowski serves as a Senior Instructor with the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s (CHDS) Homeland Security Executive Leaders Seminar assisting in the delivery of programs for governors, mayors and their respective homeland security teams.