TIEMS

K. Harald Drager is one of the founders of TIEMS. Since 2002 he is the President of TIEMS and has contributed significantly to the development of the society.

He has a Master's degree in control engineering from the Norwegian Technical University in 1966, and a Master's degree from Purdue University in USA in industrial engineering in 1973.

His specializations are risk, safety and emergency management, chemical hazards and project management.

He is among others TIEMS responsible for "Consensus Building and Forum" in the EU initiative project "Public Safety Communication Forum Europe", which is a forum to facilitate communication and global consensus between all stakeholders on key public safety communication and information management issues.

He has published numerous papers internationally on emergency, disaster and risk management.

He is married and have 5 children, and enjoys cross-country skiing in winter-time (Wasa race (90 km) in 2000 and 1004 km in the winter season 2006), and bicycling and golfing in summer-time.

He is currently Deputy Head of Emergency Management for West Sussex County Council, in the United Kingdom. Within this role he is responsible for the delivery of the organisations Business Continuity programme and Emergency Management Training in particular, as well as many other aspects of Emergency and Risk Management.

During his time in the profession, he has worked across all levels of Government in the UK. He has spent time with the Home Office, Emergency Planning Research Group, where he worked on scientific and technical research projects, undertaken in support of Central Government emergency planning policy, and has also worked with the Government Office for the West Midlands, contributing to the development of a series of live and tabletop exercises to evaluate the regions response to a CRBN incident. Before his current position he also worked for another local authority within their emergency planning unit.

He completed both his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the internationally recognised Centre for Disaster Management, Coventry University gaining a BSc (hons) in Development and Health in Disaster Management, and has subsequently obtained his Master of Science in Disaster Management.

He lives in Chichester, England, and in his free time enjoys outdoor pursuits.

Andreas Clessienne is TIEMS Secretary.

He completed the law school in Mainz, Germany and after that he was postgraduate judicial service trainee in several functions in public institutions.

Since 2004 he is member of the Chamber of Lawyers Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Since 2005 he is partner in the company “Von Bergh Global Medical Consulting”.

He is head of legal department at “Von Bergh Global Medical Consulting” a consulting Company in Germany specialized in the field of emergency and disaster management. Von Bergh Global Medical Consulting is an international medical consulting firm specialized in innovative solutions for healthcare clients.  The company provides medical consulting in all aspects of today's healthcare environment for governmental organizations, hospitals, private practices, and other healthcare providers, as well as industries.

In his position he is responsible for all legal questions and aspects relating to emergency and disaster management and to the company´s customers as well as a consultant for this issues.

He was involved in several research-projects and beside that he is disaster management trainer for the Government of Dubai.

Beside TIEMS he is also engaged in the Forum for Public Safety Communication Europe (PSCE).

He lives in Kriftel in the heart of the Rhine-Main area in Germany. He is proud father of two twin-boys claiming most of his free time.

Charles John Kelly is TIEMS Treasurer

He has over 27 years of field experience in humanitarian assistance programs dealing with droughts, famines, insect infestation, hurricanes, epidemics, floods, war and other emergencies in developing countries. Over this career he has performed field and senior management tasks in over 17 disaster response operations.

Recent professional work has included risk assessment in Tajikistan, disaster risk reduction in the Sahel, dam emergency planning in Nigeria, assessing the environmental impacts during disasters (The Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment Project), disaster management capacity building in government institutions, and post-conflict relief and recovery programs.

He has worked in over 60 countries and published over 45 articles on disaster management, including disasters and mega cities, disaster management systems and disaster-environment linkages.

He is an affiliate of the Benfield Hazard Research Centre, University College London, and he is a member of the International Research Committee on Disasters and the Society of Risk Analysis.

Ranko Britvic is TIEMS Director International Relations.

Ji (Jack) Zhang is TIEMS Director for Communication and Publications.

Mr. Zhang has a Ph.D of management from China Academy of Sciences (CAS), a MBA from Peking University and a BE of Electrical Engineering & a BS of Applied Mathematics from Tsinghua University. 

Dr. Zhang has working experiences in IT industry for more than 16 years. He has worked for well-known IT companies such as  IBM, Lenovo, and Micron Technology Inc (MTI) etc.  His main areas of study focus has been on the government emergency management ICT systems, healthcare information technology (HIT), and datasharing and information integration of the eGovernment systems. Since 2003, he has published more than 20 articles in Emergency Management in China and overseas publications. 

As the founder and President of Beijing Harmony Technologies Company (HARMONY), ZHANG Ji developed the first domestic counter-SARS Government Emergency Management Information System (GEMIS) in China and successfully applied it to fight against SARS in Beijing early 2003. 

Being the undertaker and consulting member of the Emergency Management System (EMS) research project initated by the Emergency Management Office (EMO) of the State Council of China and the consulting member of Beijing EMS Research Group and the Chief architect for the EMS IT platform of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, now Dr. Zhang has been elected the board member of TIEMS as director for Communication and Publications during 2009-2012. He is also a senior member of HIMSS, and OASIS EMTC. He is one of the committee members working on the Emergency Management ICT(EMICT) standard for China and believes that the EMICT industry has been promptly emerging in China and the whole world, and find this very challenging.

Jaroslav Pejcoch is TIEMS Director for Scientific Program.

He is the President and co-founder of T-SOFT Company (Crisis management, Interoperability, Security ). Before T-SOFT he worked at the Electronic Research institute Tesla VÚST as Director of IT Division.

He is the founding member of the AFCEA Czech Chapter and member of the Board of Directors and is member of the Czech National Committee of ISDR, and member of the Presidium of the Czech Association of Crisis Managers.

From 1975 he is teaching at Czech Technical University – Faculty of electronic.

His publication activities are in areas of computer graphics, computer user interfaces, information and communication technologies, information logistic and systems for protection of citizens and environment, interoperability of systems, crisis management, critical infrastructure protection.
He is married, have 4 children and is living in Prague and Telc .His hobbies are music (active piano player), mountaineering and photography.

Hanz Zimmermann is TIEMS Director for Policy and Development

He retired from the United Nations in 2004. His responsibilities included the co-ordination of international humanitarian assistance and the implementation of the mandate of the Operational Coordinator under the "Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations".

From 1994 - 2003 he chaired the Inter-Agency Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications (WGET), coordinating all emergency telecommunications activities of the United Nations system, and he regularly represented the United Nations and the humanitarian community in major international and intergovernmental conferences.

He frequently writes for publications on humanitarian affairs and on regulatory aspects of telecommunications, chaired the editorial board for the "Handbook on Emergency Telecommunications for Developing Countries" published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is the author of the on-line training course on emergency telecommunications of the ITU Development Bureau (2005).

He presently holds appointments as advisor to several academic and commercial entities such as the International Community on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM), as the chairman of the international chapter of the Cellular Emergency Alert Systems Association (CEASA), and as the Disaster Communications Coordinator of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU).

In 2004 the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) of former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari honoured him with an Award for Singular Perseverance and Promotion of the Tampere Convention.

His professional assignments with the United Nations included long-term posts in Lebanon, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Liberia, and he led assessment and evaluation missions to Somalia, Zambia, Pakistan, Serbia and Montenegro, Nepal, and other countries affected by natural disasters or major humanitarian crises.

From 1989 to 1991 he served with the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs, as Special Delegate for the operations in Namibia. He is a former trustee and board member of the International Institute of Communications (IIC), and member of the Pacific Telecommunication Council (PTC) and of other international and regional institutions.

He is a Swiss national now living in France, and his academic background is in political science.

Snjezana Knezic is TIEMS Director for Chapters and SGI's and Membership.

She did undergraduate studies at Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Split in 1982 - 1987, then postgraduate studies, master of philosophy at Faculty of Organisation and Informatics, University of Zagreb in 1988 - 1993 . She did her doctoral thesis at Faculty of Civil Engineering, University Split in 1998.

She is full time professor at Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture at University of Split.

Her research interests are in application of system sciences and information technology, especially decision support systems and geographic information systems in emergency/disaster management and other engineering fields. She has published peer-reviewed papers on emergency/disaster management.

She is a member of ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers), Croatian Society of Civil Engineers, GIS - Forum Croatia and Croatian Mathematical Society

She lives in Split, Croatia with her family.

Stela Petrescu is TIEMS Director for Conferences and Meetings.

Nina I. Frolova is TIEMS Regional Director for Europe.

She is a senior research scientist with Seismological Center of IGE, Russia Academy of Sciences (the former Joint Council on Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Academy of Sciences of the USSR).

She has contributed to many studies on earthquake hazard, earthquake risk, and risk reduction since 1968, including the IDNDR and regional activities sponsored by UNESCO, Council of Europe, and the former UNDRO.

The Soviet of Ministries awarded her, along with others, the USSR prize in 1984 for their work on the seismic loads and earthquake resistance of high dams. In 2005 she was awarded by UNESCO - GARD Medal for distinguished professional leadership and personal commitment to ongoing programs on disaster reduction.

She contributed to the recent development of System "Extremum" and its versions "WebLAT", "Quakeloss", that are being made available for use throughout the world to assess in "emergency" mode the consequences of strong earthquakes and the identification of effective response measures.

She is a responsible scientist for the ESC WG "Earthquake Preparedness and Civil Defence". She is a GADR Directors' Board Member and GARD Vice-President for the Asian Region.

Qu Guosheng is TIEMS Regional Director for Asia.

He is Dr. and Professor of Earth Sciences,  and he is Deputy Director and Chief Engineer of National Earthquake Response Support Service (NERSS), China Earthquake Administration (CEA).

He has a B.Sc. Structural Geology, Department of Geology, Peking University1983, and M. Sc. Structural Geology and Tectonics, Institute of Geology, the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS), 1986 and Ph.D. Structural Geology and Tectonics, Department of Geology, Peking University, 1989.

His current specializations are structural geology, seismic risk assessment, earthquake disaster emergency response and management as well as the application of ICT, global seimo-tectonics and earthquake disaster assessment and management. He supervised more than 10 master and doctoral students.

He is an expert of China International Search and Rescue Team (CISAR), Disaster Mitigation Group of IAP and Comprehensive Disaster Research Group supervised by Ministry of S & T.

He is a Standing Committee Member, Special Committee for Risk Analysis and Crisis Management under China Association for Disaster Prevention (CADP). He is a Voting Member of Society of Petroleum Geology of China.

He has published numerous papers, near 100 domestic of China and internationally on structural geology, seismic risk assessment, earthquake disaster emergency responses. He has got more than 10 times of honors and awards in domestic of China.

He is married and has one daughter, and enjoys field works in mountain areas and play badminton.

James Hagen is TIEMS Regional Director for North America.

He is Director of the Disaster Preparedness and Management Certificate Program at the Graham School of Management, at Xavier University in Chicago. The program  provides education and training for those responsible for helping their organizations prepare, respond, and recover from both manmade and natural disasters.

He is a certified Emergency Response Coordinator, a Certified Public Health Administrator, and is certified by the Department of Homeland Security as a Master Exercise Planner.  He is also Director of the Public and Nonprofit Management program.  He is a Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology, and served as Deputy Executive Director of the DuPage County Health Department from 1999 to 2005. Prior to joining the health department, he was Professor of Public Health at Benedictine University, and before that spent 12 years at Loyola University Medical Center where he served as Associate Professor of Microbiology, Assistant Dean for Research, and Assistant Dean for Basic Sciences.

He is also a licensed Nursing Home Administrator, and has worked in this area to prepare long term care organizations for the special needs of vulnerable populations.

During the federal TOPOFF 2 full-scale exercise in the Chicago area during 2000, he served as a public health Incident Commander.  He was a presenter for the TOPOFF 3 National Biological Seminar, moderator of Advanced Distance Learning Exercise panels, and a mentor for the New Jersey Venue during preparation for that event.

He has worked to train hospitals in several emergency preparedness areas, including communication, isolation and quarantine, and SNS issues.  In 2005 and 2007, he worked as consultant during the Alaska Shield/Northern Edge Military Exercise in Alaska.  He has lectured extensively in the area of emergency preparedness. He also worked in post-Chernobyl, post-Soviet Union Ukraine with the health ministry to study recovery issues and to assess public health needs.

He is a graduate of Michigan State University and obtained his M.Sc. from the University of Montana. He was trained as a research microbiologist at Loyola University Medical Center where he earned a Ph.D.  He also holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Benedictine University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Saint Xavier University.

Jacqueline Olang is TIEMS Regional Director for Africa.

Jacqueline OLANG is a Programme Officer at the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC). She coordinates the activities of the Network which is a consortium of 12[1] national science academies in Africa and 1 regional Academy (the African Academy Sciences. NASAC is the coordinating organization for science academies in Africa and the membership is from all sciences i.e. pure and social sciences.  This makes the network very keen in learning from emergencies and crisis prevention.

She is a Masters of Arts Candidate in Project Planning and Management at the University of Nairobi in Kenya.  She has a Bachelors Degree for Education in Mathematics and Commerce, also from the University of Nairobi.

Her specialization is now project management in any field and has had experience of over 8 years working with scientists from the national academies in Africa. She has also given numerous talks on the challenges of Africa and possibilities of overcoming them at the many international conferences, with references to the African experience in crisis management and prevention. She provides input to a number of European Union funded projects to which she has also had the opportunity to serve as member on the Steering Committees.

She is keen to drive TIEMS (The International Emergency Management Society) in Africa, and hopeful to lobby for her network’s support for involvement in TIEMS activities in Africa.

[1] National Academies in Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Stephen Jenkins is TIEMS Regional Director for Australia, New Zealand & Oceania

Steve is presently relieving as an Inspector of Police with the Queensland Police Service (QPS) where he has over 25 years experience in numerous facets of policing including: general duties, criminal investigations (appointed Detective), forensic crash investigations, search and rescue, training, communications, project management, district management, auditing and professional practices.  He has been appointed an officer in charge of varying sized stations and sections including rural, remote and indigenous communities, major metropolitan stations, criminal investigation branch sections and a district communications centre.  He is presently a Project Manager with the QPS Information and Communications Technology Command.

For the period 2000-2004, Steve was the appointed Executive Officer for the Townsville District Disaster Management Group.  During his tenure in this role he conducted a Hazard Analysis of the Townsville District and drafted the District’s Disaster Management Plan based on the outcomes of that Analysis.  He was involved in providing an operational response to a number of disaster related events including: Tropical Cyclone Tessi (2000); an extreme precipitation event (2002); and the reception of civilians evacuated during civil unrest from the Solomon Islands by the Royal Australian and New Zealand Air Forces.  He was also a member of the initial multi-jurisdictional Community Recovery Committee convened following riots which occurred on PalmIslandduring which the police station, watchhouse, police residences and court house were destroyed by fire after the public release of the cause of death of a local indigenous resident in the island’s police watchhouse.

For eight years (2000-2007), Steve was Officer in Charge/Manager of the Townsville District Police Communications Centre and QPS representative on the Townsville International Airport’s Emergency and Security Committees.  He was also a member of the exercise planning committees, and exercise umpire, for numerous annual joint Townsville Airport and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Base Townsville exercises conducted both on and off the airport.

In 2004, Steve joined The International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS) and in 2005 prepared a paper titled ‘Transportation and the Great Barrier Reef: An Emergency Management Perspective’, which he delivered to the Society’s 12th Annual Conference held at Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands. Steve also delivered a presentation on ‘Disaster Management in Queensland Australia to the 14th Annual Conference in 2007 held at Trogir in Croatia. He was appointed a Board Member of the Society and Regional Director for Australia, New Zealand and Oceania in 2007 for a 3-year period.

Steve has the following formal qualifications: Masters Degrees in Business Administration; Police Management; Community Development (Emergency Management); Project Management; and Technology Management (Risk Management).  He also has a Graduate Diploma in Disaster Management; Bachelor in Social Science (Emergency Management); and Diplomas in Justice Administration; Business Management; Public Safety (Policing); Search and Rescue Coordination; and Sustainability, along with a Certificate IV in Workplace Training (Category II) CNCAB016; and a Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training – BSZ40198.

In recognition of his academic excellence, he was invited to become a member of The Golden Key International Honour Society (Charles Sturt Chapter).  Steve has also attended numerous emergency and disaster management training programs conducted by the Emergency Management Australia Institute.

Giedo Van pellicom is TIEMS Principal Registration Officer.

He is  responsible for all official paperwork, official publications and relation with the Belgium Government where TIEMS has the Registration Office.

He has a University degree in both Occupational Safety & Health (University of Leuven 1992) and Risk Management (University of Leuven 2004).

He also has a degree in Cross Border Disaster Relief Management from the European Red Cross Federation, a Post Graduate as Legal Expert and is also trained ISO 9001 Lead-auditor.

He is the (co-)founder, Director and President (CEO) of different companies that work in the field of occupational safety, emergency management and legal expertise.

He is recognised by different Belgium Courts (Sep 1999) and accepted by the Belgium Ministry of Work (March 2004); as a field expert in the investigation of heavy accidents, emergency management and safety planning and prevention.

His publications are all in the field of emergency management and occupational safety. (3 books and about 25 articles in professional and scientific magazines.)

From 2001 he is giving lectures about safety management and risk control at most Flemish Universities and safety schools.

In his free time he is a voluntary High Rank Red Cross Officer in the Belgian Red Cross and member of the organisation of the ‘Dodentocht’ (see www.dodentocht.be) in his home town city Bornem in Belgium.