Our Solutions

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.

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.

William Johnson

Managing Director

William Johnson is a Managing Director specializing in response and recovery consulting services. He has provided essential advisory and consulting services to senior executives, policy makers, and strategic level stakeholders following major disasters throughout the Country. He has managed a team of 60 disaster response and recovery consultants in providing services under the FEMA Public Assistance and the FHWA Emergency Relief Programs and has over 25 years’ experience in the engineering, environmental services, construction, and disaster management fields.

Prior to joining Witt O’Brien’s, William served as Deputy COO over multiple agencies and operational departments at the City of Atlanta, reporting to the COO and Mayor. As the head of other major municipal services operations, he managed all public works and engineering functions with a team of over 2300 employees and an operating budget in excess of $800M. As President of private business units, he secured and operated contracts for debris removal and recycling valued in excess of $1.3B. He worked as lead consultant and project manager to the Florida Department of Transportation and led the recovery of an additional $100M for the Agency. He also provided consulting services to the State of New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy from 2012 through 2013.

William has achieved great success in providing emergency preparedness, response, and recovery services to State and Local Governments, including grants management, project development, eligibility determinations, DDIR support, documentation requirements, training, appeals inter-agency negotiations, debris removal and monitoring, policy and procedure development, regulatory compliance review and development, final inspections and closeouts.

Patrick Knapp

Vice President, Response Services

A graduate of the Emergency Management and Disaster Planning program at the University of North Texas, Patrick Knapp recently joined Witt O’Briens transitioning from Direct Energy where he was their North America Resilience Manager. He has served as the Enterprise Crisis Manager for Baker Hughes for ten years and twelve years as a Senior Response Associate with the American Red Cross. In these positions he has coordinated humanitarian aid during conflicts in the Balkans and Northeastern Africa in the late nineties, held leadership roles on more than thirty national level disasters in the United States including 9/11 and serving as the shelter manager for the Astrodome in Houston during hurricane Katrina in 2005. He has a wide variety of experiences such as emergency air evacuations in Egypt and Iraq. He and his wife Sarah have three children Brandon, Aiden and Catie Grace.

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.

Mark Misczak

Senior Managing Director

Mark brings nearly three decades of experience leading recovery from our nation’s largest and most complex disasters. Earlier in his career, Mark served as Deputy Director of FEMA’s Individual Assistance program, Chair of the Emergency Food and Shelter Program Board, and the Director of the Office of Cerro Grande Fire claims. He is a nationally recognized expert in FEMA’s Public Assistance program, HUD’s Community Development Block Grants, housing operations, hazard mitigation and long-term community recovery.

William Johnson

Managing Director

William Johnson is a Managing Director specializing in response and recovery consulting services. He has provided essential advisory and consulting services to senior executives, policy makers, and strategic level stakeholders following major disasters throughout the Country. He has managed a team of 60 disaster response and recovery consultants in providing services under the FEMA Public Assistance and the FHWA Emergency Relief Programs and has over 25 years’ experience in the engineering, environmental services, construction, and disaster management fields.

Prior to joining Witt O’Brien’s, William served as Deputy COO over multiple agencies and operational departments at the City of Atlanta, reporting to the COO and Mayor. As the head of other major municipal services operations, he managed all public works and engineering functions with a team of over 2300 employees and an operating budget in excess of $800M. As President of private business units, he secured and operated contracts for debris removal and recycling valued in excess of $1.3B. He worked as lead consultant and project manager to the Florida Department of Transportation and led the recovery of an additional $100M for the Agency. He also provided consulting services to the State of New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy from 2012 through 2013.

William has achieved great success in providing emergency preparedness, response, and recovery services to State and Local Governments, including grants management, project development, eligibility determinations, DDIR support, documentation requirements, training, appeals inter-agency negotiations, debris removal and monitoring, policy and procedure development, regulatory compliance review and development, final inspections and closeouts.