Kyle King is TIEMS Treasurer.

Kyle is Founder and Managing Director of Capacity Building International (CBI). Kyle has spent 28 years in the emergency services and international security field with 8 of those years being with NATO.

He is Certified in the US Department of Defense as a Chief Fire Officer, and he helped design and build the first international DoD Fire and Emergency Services Certification Program for international students, and he also served as the first Civil Emergency Advisor to support NATO Operations.

Among his other accomplishments are that he worked to contribute to the development of NATO’s Security Force Assistance program and wrote NATO’s capacity building education and training program for Kosovo. Locations where he has worked in missions includes Bosnia, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Ukraine.

Kyle holds a Masters in Diplomacy and Terrorism Studies as BS/BA in Public Administration as well as numerous certifications from US Department of Defense, NATO, and other institutions. Currently Kyle is focused on supporting the Institute for Security Governance and international programs as well as being seconded to the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

He is TIEMS partner in the Webinar series of International models in emergency management.

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Yosuke Okita is TIEMS Director Membership and Chapters.

Dr. Okita has significant experience working in international disaster and emergency management, including some international emergency missions as a member of the Japan Disaster Relief (JDR) team, which is deployed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team.

As a JDR team member, he was deployed to the Algeria Earthquake (2003; rescue team), the Indonesia Tsunami (2004; medical team), the Pakistan Earthquake (2005; medical team), and the Christchurch Earthquake (2011; rescue team). As a UNDAC member, he participated in the missions for the Great East Japan Earthquake (2011), Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines (2013) and the Nepal Earthquake (2015). In the Nepal response, he was one of the first-arriving international assistance team members, and he served as the RDC (Reception Departure Centre) Manager, which was established at the Kathmandu airport.

He received LL.B. from Kyoto University, M.A. in International Relations/Master of Diplomacy from The Australian National University, and PhD in Media and Governance from Keio University in Japan. His PhD thesis is titled “Effects of the classification system in international search and rescue”. He published many academic articles on international urban search and rescue, disaster prevention and recovery, and disaster diplomacy in English and Japanese.

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Gilles Duserre is TIEMS Director for Research and Developement Activities.

Gilles DUSSERRE is full professor at IMT Mines Ales, head of Master of Science Disaster Managament and Environmental Impact (DAMAGE). He holds a Doctorate of Pharmacy (1987-1993), a Master degree "Chemistry of the Environment and Health - University of Marseille" (1995).

He conducted many researches in the field of risk management mainly related to risk analysis, evaluation of the consequences of technological disasters (fire, explosion and dispersion of toxic gases) and natural disasters (forest fires and floods), the efficiency of mitigation means (e.g. use of water curtains) and crisis management. He managed various studies within the framework of national, European and international projects, in partnership with industry, academia and major research organizations. He participated on various projects dedicated to resilience of critical infrastructures.

He was expert in several international missions such as for the French Ministry of the Interior in Malaysia in 1998 relative to the exposure of the population to the forest fire smokes and in South Africa in 2001 in relation to Crisis management.

He’s author and co author of about 50 international publications.

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Cherdsak Virapat is TIEMS Regional Director for Asia

Cherdsak Virapat has been working in the field of end-to-end multi-hazard early warning and mitigation systems for 20 years now. He had been appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of four organizations during the last 16 years (2008-2024). These are Executive Director, International Ocean Institute Headquarters (IOI HQ) in Malta (2008-2014); Director General, Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), Inter-Governmental Organization, Bangkok, Thailand (2014-2019); Executive Director, International Institute for Trade and Development (Public Organization), Ministry of Commerce, Royal Thai Government, Bangkok, Thailand (Regional Institute) established in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2019-2020); Director General, Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP), Inter-Governmental Organization, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2020–2024). He has been associated as a resource person of the International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS) since 2011.

It is highly important to note that TIEMS aims to prepare an inclusive resilient society through building capacity of the individual and community living at high-risk areas for better coping with disasters and achieving sustainable development. Its vision and mission strongly inspire me to work with the organization to promote knowledge-based and adaptive management for community learning, preparedness and response which will save their lives and property as well as to build up their capacities to better cope with impacts of climate change and natural disasters.

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Thomas V. Robertson is TIEMS Regional Director for North America.

He directs North America operations of TIEMS, where he founded the TIEMS USA local chapter. He participated for TIEMS in the European Union Programs ASSET, which developed improved, participatory approaches to pandemic response, and HERACLES, which developed systems and processes to protect cultural heritage sites from the effects of climate change. He has published and presented numerous papers on risk communication during emergencies, disaster risk reduction, virtual simulation in emergency management, pandemic response, climate change resilience, AI implications for emergency management, and applications of advanced technologies in the US, France, Italy, China, Japan, Belgium, Greece, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Northern Cyprus, and Korea. He has been visiting faculty at Écoles des Mines d’Ales Master’s program in Disaster Management and Environmental Impact Studies, and he currently serves as an Expert in Small and Medium Enterprises for the European Innovation Council. He is a Senior Life Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

He is Founder and Principal at Thinking Teams, an international consultancy specializing in harmonizing human and machine intelligence. As a researcher/engineer, he has developed innovations in biological system modeling, pattern recognition, and computer vision, and he is fluent in current deep learning technologies. His practical organizational experience includes leading research labs and aerospace organizations as Chief Scientist, Program Manager, and VP/General Manager. He has also consulted to organizations both inside and outside the technical sector, using his Organizational Alignment Model.

He earned BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, where he did research in bioengineering, communications, artificial intelligence, and remote sensing. He was Member of the Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories, Director of the Advanced Information Sciences Division at The Analytical Sciences Corporation, Director of Engineering and Chief Scientist of Lockheed Martin Advanced Simulation Center, and Vice President and General Manager of Atlantic Aerospace Electronics Corporation. In these positions he performed and managed research and development in telecommunications, signal and image processing, advanced computing, artificial intelligence, computer graphics, and simulation.

Brian Holecek is TIEMS Regional Director for Australia, New Zealand and Oceania

Brian Holecek is an experienced professional in multiple facets in Emergency Management, Business Continuity, Incident Management Training and Facility Management, in the Emergency Response, Health and Facility Management sectors including with strong leadership and influencing capabilities. Since 2019 Brian had the opportunity to work as part of The International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS) in two consortiums based in Europe IMPETUS and FIRE-RES Projects.

Brian started his interest in Business Continuity in his role as State Operations Planning Officer-Combatant Services, South Australian (SA) Country Fire Service, (CFS) where he facilitated the CFS State Coordination Centre Business Continuity Plan in 2008 and other major organisational procedures. Over the years Brian has developed into an experienced professional in multiple facets in Emergency Management, Business Continuity and Facility Management.Brian accreditation and qualifications include: Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) from the International Association of Emergency Managers, holds an Advanced Diploma of Public Safety, a Graduate Certificate in Applied Management and a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. Brian is a volunteer with Business Continuity Institute (BCI) and currently a member of the BCI Australasian Committee. Brian volunteers with the SA Country Fire Service and is one of the Trainer-Assessors that facilitate volunteers and SA government agencies in the Australian Inter-service Incident Management System (AIIMS). Delivers engaging, informative training sessions.

Utilising his knowledge of Best Practice with relation to numerous roles undertaken in Emergency Planning and Business Continuity Management including monitoring impacts/threats of web-based technologies to Organisational Resilience and within Facility Management coordinating all resources that support the facility management of a government department's leased and owned assets. Significant representation on key State-wide committees and working parties including a member of the volunteer organising committee at the Resilience Conference in Adelaide 2013 as Logistic Officer. A speaker at the Australasian BCI Summit 2016. Brian received an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the 2016 Queens Birthday Honour List for “service to emergency response organisations and to youth”

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Roman Tandlich is TIEMS Regional Director for Africa.

Roman Tandlich, has been working in the field of emergency and disaater management since 2011. With background in biotechnology, Dr. Tandlich got involved in the development of low-cost and decentralised sanitation technologies. During the rollout of one such technology, policy and technical skills shortages at local government level. This resulted in the shift of focus of Dr. Tandlich's research towards disaster management approaches towards shift action to address water, sanitation and hygiene challenges in developing countries. This has led to the development of new teaching and research tools to deal with public health, disaster risk reduction and Development. 

Roman is originally from Slovakia where he completed his education up to Masters level. This occurred in 1998 and his background was originally in Biotechnology. He then continued on to complete his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at North Dakota State University in Fargo, USA. After two postdoctoral fellowships, Roman joined the Faculty of Pharmacy at Rhodes University in South Africa in 2008. He has been with the same department since then and has recently been promoted there to the rank of Associate Professor. He has expertise in public health, water and sanitation and Disaster ethics

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Horacio Gilabert is TIEMS Regional Director for Latin Amereica and Caribbean.

Dr. Horacio Gilabert is a Chilean forester and currently a professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago. He has been working for almost 12 years on wildfire prevention planning using quantitative methods and analytics. He has served as an expert for several government agencies and private companies on wildfire risk assessment and prevention planning. Dr. Gilabert has also worked on multi-hazard assessment for urban areas as a wildfire expert and is a member of the academic council of the Center for Global Change from Catholic University of Chile (CCG-UC), an interdisciplinary scientific center at the crossroads of public policy and global change. At CCG-UC, he acts as an expert on land-use change, carbon sequestration in vegetation ecosystems, wildfire risk and vulnerability assessments, carbon emission projections, and public policy for climate change mitigation and adaptation in forests.

Dr. Gilabert also works on demographic carrying capacity models for special territories, such as islands, national parks, seaside cities, and protected areas. He collaborates with specialists in urban studies, natural resources, graphical design, social studies, and software development to provide guidance on territorial planning for decision-makers in these special territories.

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