Garry L. Briese is the co-founder of The Center for New Media & Resiliency and a Principal in the professional services and consulting company, Briese and Associates.

In April 2008, he was appointed by the Secretary of Department of Homeland Security as the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Regional Administrator for DHS/FEMA Region 8, for Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota & South Dakota. This position is the senior DHS/FEMA official in the Region and he served until January 2009. Notably, the 2008 Democratic National Convention was held in Denver and FEMA Region 8 was the lead agency for Federal consequence management response preparations and response.

Prior to coming to DHS/FEMA, he served as Vice President, Emergency Management & Homeland Security for ICF International, a Fairfax County, Virginia based, NASDAQ-listed professional services corporation.

He was the earliest national advocate for terrorism preparedness for the fire and emergency services and has done extensive research and lecturing in those areas. To further the goal of preparedness and resiliency, he developed multiple major national and international terrorism conferences, such as The First World Conference on Fire and Emergency Services Response to Terrorism in 1993 and the series of conferences on Strengthening the Public Safety Response to Terrorism. He has addressed international conferences on terrorism and WMD in Japan, Israel, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, Sweden, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Garry served as the Executive Director of the 12,000 member International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) from 1985 to 2007. Previously Mr. Briese served as the Executive Director of the Florida College of Emergency Physicians and he has over 36 years' experience in all level of emergency services including local, state, national and international.

He is a well known author and lecturer on leadership and on the future challenges for the fire and emergency services community and has co-authored two first responder emergency medical textbooks as well as an innovative textbook for the basic training of fire fighters.

Garry has served as a career and volunteer firefighter as well as the publically elected chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners of a fire protection district in Orange County, Florida. He is a member of the Advisory Committee to the Board of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and is a member of the Board of Directors of the IAFC Foundation.

Mr. Briese received his B.A. in International Relations from the University of South Florida and his Masters Degree in Public Administration from Nova Southeastern University. He is an adjunct faculty member in the Center for Trauma at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Mr. Briese enjoys hiking, backpacking and is a strong intermediate downhill skier. He is a National Distinguished Eagle Scout.