Developing an Effective Disaster & Recovery Plan

Jim Byrom is currently serving as the Program Management Officer for the deployment of the eBRP Toolkit Suite within the Internal Revenue Service. Jim has 30 years of both public and private sector experience in the development and management of information technology solutions. He has been a vice-president within Fortune 500 companies, served as the Chief Information Officer of a Federal Government contracting company, and served as a Director or independent consultant within companies such as Honeywell, Lowe’s, FedEx, Jacobs Engineering Group, Sverdrup Technology, BellSouth, ITC, and Computing Technologies. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. 

Jim has an extensive background in Disaster Recovery, Program Management, Business Process Design/Management, Organizational Structuring, Knowledge Management, and Change Management. Originally a network engineer, he has designed and built 17 Data Centers, including several Category IVs. Jim holds Masters Degrees in Business Administration and Management of Information Systems; he also holds three professional certificates and three undergraduate degrees (CIS, EE, and Ed). Jim is certified at the mastery level by various organizations, including: DRII, ITIL, ISC2, Cisco, Novell, Microsoft, and several others. 

Jim currently resides in North Georgia, with his wife, Janette; youngest daughter, Journee; two black Labrador Retrievers named Donovan and Murphy; and a great view of the mountains.

Al is a CBCP, a NFPA committee member, a member of the ASIS BCP technical committee, a member of the Committee of Experts for ANSI-ANAB, a former member of the NY City Partnership for Security and Risk Management, Executive Director for Disaster Recovery Institute (DRI) and the co-chair for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation committee to create the new standard for the US Private Sector Preparedness Act (PS-Prep). Over a career that has spanned 25 years he has served as a President and CIO for a major financial institution, National Practice Leader for Operational Resiliency for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Global Business Continuity practice leader for Marsh. 

Al has been a keynote speaker for the American Red Cross, IBM, RIMS, Institutional Investors Forum, Securities Industry Association, Pharmaceutical Treasures Conference, Gartner Group, BCM Malaysia Conference among others. His articles have appeared in Disaster Recovery Journal, Continuity Insights, Contingency Planning & Management, CIO Magazine, CEO Magazine, WSTA Ticker, Information Security and Securities Operation Forum and dozens of other publications in the US and abroad. He is often quoted in publications ranging from healthcare to financial services.

David Sarabacha, principal, Deloitte & Touche LLP, is a leading security and privacy practitioner for business continuity management (BCM). David has over 18 years of experience in the development, implementation and review of emergency response, crisis management, business continuity (BC), disaster recovery (DR) and continuity of operations (COOP) plans. David’s focus is on the development of practical, cost-effective recovery strategies and plans for mission critical operations including not only technology, but also the key people, processes, equipment and vendors needed to continue business. 

David has extensive experience throughout the BCM development process including: risk assessments, business impact analyses, and strategy and plan development as well as exercising plans. He has also developed procedures for maintaining plans once they are exercised successfully to ensure that the information remains current, accurate and audit able. David has provided BCM services to clients in many industries including: financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, life sciences, media, technology, consumer business, public sector, non-profit and utilities. 

David is certified as a Master Business Continuity Professional by the DRI International as well as a Member of the Business Continuity Institute. He has been a featured speaker at conferences throughout the world including: the International Air Transport Association, the National Retail Federation Loss Prevention Conference and Exhibition, the Association for Financial Professionals, and Continuity Insights. He earned both an MBA in Information Systems and bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Illinois.

Has worked in many prominent positions within financial services, government and humanitarian agencies globally. Acknowledged for contributions to national and international initiatives. Hallmarks include strong global relationships within private and public sectors and a distinctive track record in devising and realizing innovative strategies to deliver market performance, humanitarian efforts and public impact. 

Currently working on private sector development and investment in Iraq. Actively serves on Department of Homeland Security's Quadrennial Review Advisory Committee and Private Sector Advisory Committee. Speaks regularly on such topics as "Business Resilience", "Emergency Preparedness", and "Lessons Learned from 9-11" in diverse forums in the US and abroad. Frequent appearances on television and radio, including "Frost Over The World", BBC TV and Radio, and Sky News.