ACP Corporate Board Members for 2013

Corporate Board Chairman

Mike Gifford
Telephone: 210-474-4543
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mike Gifford, CBCP, is the Senior Manager of Disaster Recovery & Risk for the Capital Group Companies' Information Technology Group (ITG).

Prior to joining the Capital Group Companies in March 2005, Mike was the Director of Audit Assurance and Regulatory Programs for JPMorganChase's Global Technology Infrastructure team. Prior to the merger of Bank One with JPMC in 2004, he was the Director of Disaster Recovery for Bank One's Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) team within Technology and Operations. Mike also worked for State Farm Insurance for 21 years in a variety of leadership positions, including manager of the Systems Disaster Recovery Team, and manager of the Systems Catastrophe Services team.
Mike’s education background includes his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota.

Mike served as the founding President of the Alamo Chapter, San Antonio, TX for 4 years and has now joined the ACP Corporate Board as its Director of Membership Services.

Corporate Board Secretary

Steve Elliot
Telephone: 813-792-8833
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Steve Elliot, CBRM, is President & CEO of Elliot Consulting, LLC (www.elliot-consulting.com), and a long-standing industry veteran. Steve has been responsible for creating and implementing customized all-hazards business continuity and incident response plans, pandemic planning and response strategies, and effective enterprise and technology disaster recovery programs for numerous private enterprise, non-profit, and government agencies around the Unites States and abroad. His expertise is helping organizations develop their strategic plans and operational guidelines which are then used within their business resiliency plans.

Steve is also a nationally-featured presenter at numerous seminars and conferences relating to contingency planning, emergency management, enterprise business disaster recovery, hazardous materials management, pandemic planning, and IT disaster recovery issues. He is President of the ACP’s Greater Tampa Bay Chapter, a member of the Tampa Bay region’s Local Emergency Planning Committee’s Facilities Disaster Planning Team, and the Risk Management Committee for the Greater Tampa YMCA. Steve co-authored the 2008 version of Florida Business Disaster Survival Kit.

Corporate Board Treasurer

Frank Leonetti
Telephone: 609-267-9245
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Frank Leonetti, MBCI, CBCP, has been an ACP member for the past 9 years serving the Liberty Valley Chapter as Program Director for 3 years, President for 3 years, the Treasurer for 2 years and an ACP Corporate Board Director for the past 2 years.  He is Manager of Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery for Oracle's Professional Services for the past 6 years and has been in the overall IT business for the past 22 years.

Frank holds the CBCP and MBCI Certifications and also is a board Director for the BCI-USA.

He has worked on literally 100’s of engagements for both Public and Private Sector companies in the areas of DR planning, testing, Merger and Acquisition Planning, Continuity of Operations and Compliance Validation.

Frank has been a featured and keynote speaker at several national conferences including: DRJ, DRIE, CPM, CIO Forum, InfoWorld, Marcus Evans BC/Security Conference, Continuity Insights, BrightTalks Webinars and several ACP events.  He is also the Chair of the Camden County College Foundation Board and teaches a DR course at their facility.  Frank has written and published several articles and White Papers for CIO Magazine, BC Management, InfoWorld and the Province of British Columbia.

Corporate Board Director of Membership

Michael Carver
Telephone: 214-754-5040
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Michael Carver, MBCP, is a Manager with PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP) in Dallas, Texas. He is part of the PwC Assurance practice, focusing on Business Continuity.

Carver has been a member of North Texas ACP since 2004. He has served the North Texas ACP chapter as President (2011 and 2012), Program Director (2009, 2010), and Small Business Committee member (2007, 2008). In 2009, Carver was awarded the chapter's Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award. At the ACP National Level, Carver has served on the ACP 2011 National Leadership Conference Planning Committee, ACP Stakeholder Relations Committee member (2010, 2011), National Distinguished Service Award (DSA) Selection Committee (2010, 2011), and ACP Corporate By-laws Revision Committee (2010). Carver has led a group of ACP chapters in planning the first regional event for ACP South Central (Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma). Thanks to great connections from other ACP chapter presidents, the inaugural event occurred during the January 2012 International Disaster Conference and Expo in New Orleans.

Carver has worked in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery roles since 1999. Carver worked with various EDS clients including a Fortune 1000 software company, Fortune 200 insurance company, Fortune 100 airline, and the largest government website (based on dollar transactions). After leaving EDS in 2007, Carver worked for Commercial Metals Company to establish their Disaster Recovery Program. Carver joined CoreLogic in 2010 and serves as the Global Business Resiliency Manager within the Business Continuity Program Office. Carver joined PwC in January 2012.

Prior to 1999, Carver worked at EDS in various roles, including as a corporate trainer and one of the first people focusing on Year 2000 remediation work. In his Year 2000 role, he worked extensively with the press, analysts, and internal groups as the Year 2000 process matured. He then moved into the consulting role to deliver the Year 2000 process for internal and external clients globally.

Corporate Board Director of Membership

Tom Clark

Tom Clark is the Director of IT Business Continuity Management services for Liberty Mutual Insurance. His senior leadership role in IT is based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and is responsible for all Data Center’s operational readiness, disaster response, emergency preparedness, business continuity, and crisis management.

He is a Member of the Business Continuity Institute (MBCI), a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP), Certified in Homeland Security Level 3 (CHS-III), Certified Business Resiliency Manager (CBRM), and a published author.

He has over 38 years of senior global IT leadership experience and over 25 years of Business Continuity Management involving IT infrastructure for Fortune 500 companies. Tom has personally worked in 45 different countries on six of the seven continents of the world. 

He has been a featured speaker at national conferences such as CPM, Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), Continuity Insights, “Partners in Emergency Preparedness” in Tacoma, AFCOM Data Center World, DRJ Fall World, the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Congress in Washington DC, and ACP Chapter meetings in both Boston and Seattle.

Tom has been a devoted member of the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP) since 2007 and was elected to the Board of Directors for the ACP Greater Boston Chapter in 2009. He served for two years (2010-2011) on the Chapter Board of Directors and received the MVP of the year recognition award for 2011.

Corporate Board Director of Education

Ed Goldberg
Telephone: 860-665-5422
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dr. Ed Goldberg, MBA, BSEE, CBCP manages Northeast Utilities’ BC&DR Programs in Berlin, CT. Ed served 10 years as IT manager at Millstone Nuclear Power Station.

Ed is a CBCP with 25+ years IT and management experience. He served 4 terms as president of Connecticut ACP and is a popular conference speaker and published author.

Ed has a BSEE and MBA from University of New Haven, an advanced Graduate Certificate in Computer Communication Networks from RPI, and a Doctorate in Management and Organizational Leadership from University of Phoenix.  He has Professional Engineering and amateur radio licenses.

Ed also serves as Core Faculty at Capella University. He mentors PhD learners, teaches and develops coursework. Ed taught MBA and IT coursework at Albertus Magnus College for 11 years.

He has first hand experience designing military computer systems, fire alarm control panels, web offset printing press accessories, and electrofinishing/plating computerized controls. He has a patent for sub-ambient fluid circulation systems used in the printing industry.

Corporate Board Director of Information

Bonnie Canal
Telephone: 504-874-5474
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Bonnie Canal is a recognized leader in community resilience innovations, strategies and is the founder and Managing Partner of The Resiliency Institute, LLC (TRI) a consulting firm that dedicated to the cause of resiliency. Bonnie understands that communities are the foundation of a strong and resilient nation and thus is dedicated to establishing resiliency as the foundation for prosperity and effectiveness.

Bonnie continues her resiliency consulting for businesses and non-profits while traveling the US engaging in the conversation at the community level.  She is a proud native of New Orleans and has worked in the field of Business Continuity for 5 years.   She currently serves at the Chapter President for the Southeast Chapter of the Association of Contingency Planners, Corporate Board Member for the Association of Contingency Planners and is the project manager for the Greater New Orleans Resiliency Project.

Corporate Board Director of Marketing and Public Relations

L. Patrick Knapp
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Patrick began in Business Continuity in 1984 working in City Government in San Francisco. He was a contributor to the City's early emergency interagency response plan. He has consulted for several major airlines in Crisis Communication and Emergency Response at the executive level. In 2005 he became the Business Continuity Manager for Barclays Capital Mortgage Servicing operations.

He joined IBM in 2011 where he serves as Vice President of Business Continuity Management for the financial servicing operation.

Patrick holds both the MBCI and the CBCP certifications. He is active in the ACP Sacramento Chapter as the Public Relations Director. Patrick shares time living between Sacramento, CA and Portland, OR where his office is.

Corporate Board Southern Region Director

Mike Morganti
Telephone: 727-372-7852
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Michael J. Morganti, MBCP, CBCLA was the Client Training Manager for FM Global, Norwood, MA.  He was responsible for managing the delivery customer training presentations and seminars on a range of Property Loss Control and Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery topics to current and prospective FM Global customers.

Mike joined FM Global in 1976 where he served in a number of different positions, among them: Resident Engineer, District Training Coordinator, Operations Supervisor, and Operations Manager. He retired from FM Global July 1, 2005.

He is a Master Business Continuity Professional (MBCP), Certified Business Continuity Lead Auditor (CBCLA), current member of the Board of Directors for the DRI International (DRII), past chairman of the Board of Directors for DRII, past chairman of the DRII Certification Commission, and a past instructor for DRII.  Mike is a current member of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and a voting member of the NFPA 1600 Technical Committee for the standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs. He is the Director of Education for the Greater Tampa Bay Association of Contingency Planners. Mike is a retired member of the National Speakers Association.

Corporate Board Northeast Region Director

George Huff
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

George Huff is Attorney-Advisor for the Space and Facilities Division of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. He serves as a Member of the American Bar Association's Special Committee on Disaster Response and Preparedness.

George's primary additional duty has been supporting the Judiciary Emergency Preparedness Office during more than 60 disaster-related incidents affecting court operations throughout the U.S. He published cover articles on business continuity and pandemic preparedness in journals of Federal and American Bar Associations. George conducts continuity exercises and teaches business continuity in continuing legal education programs.

George is a Member of the Board of Directors of the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board, which assesses and accredits certification bodies that demonstrate competence to audit and certify organizations conforming to management systems standards, including the Private Sector Preparedness Program.

A certified Business Continuity Management Systems Auditor from I-COR, which is ANSI certified, George serves as a U.S. representative on International Organization for Standardization's Technical Committee 223, Working Group 4, and the Committee on Emergency Management and Business Continuity of the National Fire Protection Association.

Corporate Board Director at Large

Cheyene Marling

Cheyene Marling has been an executive recruiter for fifteen years with thirteen of those years specializing in the business continuity field. In 2000 she founded BC Management, Inc. a recruitment and data research firm specializing in the business continuity.

Cheyene has become an integral part of the business continuity community previously serving on the board for the Association of Contingency Planners of Los Angeles and Orange County and currently an active professional on the Editorial Advisory Board for Continuity Insights. She was also the recipient of the inaugural ACP Hall of Fame award in 2006 and most recently she was awarded an Honorary MBCI by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI). 

Corporate Board Director at Large

Mike Thomson
Telephone: 281-298-1109

Mike Thomson is Principal and CEO of the Merlin Group LLC, a private management consulting company based in The Woodlands, TX. His company helps clients develop and integrate their contingency planning, emergency response and crisis management efforts. In January 2013, he retired as manager of client services and business continuity programs and head of the ImpactReady division at ImpactWeather, a StormGeo company in Houston, TX.

A seasoned 30-year veteran in the crisis management field, Mike has managed successful corporate responses to 9/11, the Northeast power outage, the postal anthrax threat and Hurricanes Sandy, Irene, Isabel, Ike and Dolly. A former head of business continuity at a Top 100 law firm, he directed the consulting teams helping to build the business continuity programs at several Fortune 500 corporations including Sysco foods, Devon Energy and Newfield Exploration. A retired colonel, 28-year US Air Force veteran and member of the Energy Security Council (ESC).

Mike has served on the Corporate Board of Directors of the national Association of Contingency Planners (ACP) since 2009, most recently as its Treasurer/CFO and earlier as Chairman/CEO. He is also immediate past ACP chapter president in Houston. Mike also served on ACP's national committee on US business continuity standards and practices from 2009-2012.