John R. Gibb
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Director
New York State Emergency Management Office
John R. Gibb was appointed Director of the New York State Emergency Management Office (SEMO) by Governor George E. Pataki in January 2006. He had served as Acting Director since December 2005. He previously served at SEMO from 1987 through 2001 and has extensive knowledge and experience in emergency response, local emergency preparedness, emergency planning and emergency worker training.
Prior to his appointment, he served with the New York State Office of Homeland Security and was the Executive Director of the New York State Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Task Force since August 2001. He was responsible for administering the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Grant programs for New York State. The federal grants, which totaled some $800 million through federal fiscal year 2005, provided the State’s public safety community with protective and response equipment for terrorist events as well as funds to support training and exercises.
Mr. Gibb’s efforts with the WMD Task Force included managing statewide threat, vulnerability and capability and needs assessments, the design and deployment of 170 interoperable WMD Response Caches, and the deployment of 70,000 first responder protective kits.
Mr. Gibb has extensive emergency planning experience, having served in various supervisory capacities at the New York State Emergency Management Office from 1988 through 2001, including Assistant Director for Planning, where he led the agency’s planning, radiological emergency preparedness, and technical assessment and evaluation programs. He also has local emergency management experience having previously served as Deputy Director of Emergency Services for Washington County, New York.
Mr. Gibb also has had numerous operational assignments in response to disasters and emergencies including serving as the Deputy State Coordinating Officer for the World Trade Center response, where he coordinated State operations in New York City following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. He also was the Planning Section Chief for New York State’s Year 2000 (Y2K) Response and well as serving in various coordinating roles for the North Country Ice Storm in 1998 and the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996.
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