RALPH PETTI, MBCI, CBCP, a member of the business continuity industry for overtwenty-five years, is a certified practitioner and President of RP Risk Advisors, LLC, a risk management consulting firm based in Basking Ridge, NJ.
In a volunteer role as Chairman of the “Continuity Cares” program, a Continuity Insights sponsored event, Mr. Petti has been involved in activities focusing on the redevelopment of a post-Katrina New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities. A National Board Member of the Contingency Planning Exchange (CPE) in New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC, Mr. Petti recently served as an Executive Board Member of the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP) for their Connecticut and Pennsylvania chapters. He is also a member of the Executive Board for the Mid-Atlantic Disaster Recovery Association (MADRA) and the adjunct for the Northeast Disaster Recovery Information Exchange Group (NEDRIX) for the NY area. He has also served as a Disaster Recovery lecturer for the American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS) and has spoken at Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) events.
Mr. Petti was the recipient of the ACP “Most Valuable Player Award” for his leadership with the Hartford, CT and Philadelphia, PA chapters, respectively. The honor is awarded to commend a distinction in promoting the practice of Business Continuity and Risk Management planning. In 2010, Mr. Petti was also recognized with an ASIS “Certificate of Appreciation” for assimilating Security practices into business continuity as RP Risk Advisors' solutions focus on the "convergence” of disparate business practices.
Mr. Petti is also a Member of the Business Continuity Institute (MBCI) in London, and is a Certified Business Continuity Planner (CBCP) with the Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII). As an industry veteran who has been involved in all phases of risk management serving in key management roles at Comdisco, EMC, Veritas, SunGard and Iron Mountain, he is currently serving as a leadership team member and speaker for major business continuity, risk management and security-focused industry groups nationally. He is certified with the Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) by The American Red Cross and has completed the National Incident Management System (NIMS 700) certification sponsored by FEMA.
A member of the disaster recovery industry since 1984, he has seen the transition of this industry go from mainframe systems backup and end-user backup through to today’s comprehensive real-time business resiliency service programs for complex, distributed global architectures. Mr. Petti was a participant in the recovery of his clients from the Loma Prieta earthquake in Northern California in 1989, the Manhattan transformer fire (“Black Friday”) of 1990, the Chicago subway tunnel flood of 1992, countless hurricanes, US power blackouts, terrorist events, and the 1993 and 2001 World Trade Center tragedies.
On the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Petti received several citations from Louisiana officials for his efforts in supporting the people and businesses of the Gulf Region after the tragedy of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Mr. Petti has continued his role in the Gulf Region with the “Continuity Cares” program. In 2006, he was invited to Washington, DC to lend his support to encourage the reconstruction of levees. He met with Senator Mary Landreau (D-LA), Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ-11) and other Louisiana politicians.
In 2007, Mr. Petti was published in the Washington Post and the Philadelphia Business Journal. He has also been featured in the New York Law Journal, Disaster Recover Journal, Computerworld and other publications. He was a guest on WWDB-AM radio in Philadelphia in 2007 and SIRIUS Satellite Radio in 2008. He has presented or assisted at DHS, FEMA, CI, CPM, ACP, CPE, DRJ, ASIS, ISSA, NEDRIX and Chamber of Commerce events in several states including Louisiana, Florida, California, Nevada and others. In 2010, Mr. Petti spoke at national events including CI, NEDRIX, CPE, ACP, and ASIS.
Mr. Petti holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with dual concentrations in Business and Political Science from Rutgers College and has also completed graduate course work at Syracuse and NYU. In 2005, he was named by NJ Countryside Magazine as “One of Six New Jerseyans We’re Proud To Know” for his efforts as Chairperson with the American Cancer Society’s “Relay For Life” event, raising almost $1MM locally.
Ralph Petti can be reached at (908) 310-6381 or via email at Ralph.Petti@RPRiskAdvisors.com
ROBERTO O. RAMIREZ is the Managing Director of RP Risk Advisors, LLC. He is also the President of Survival Insights LLC, and a Business Continuity professional with over thirty years of technical and business experience. Mr. Ramirez is an expert in developing and implementing Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and other areas of Enterprise Risk management for a full spectrum of business and industries.
Mr. Ramirez has performed and directed Enterprise-wide Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Management projects for large world corporate enterprises in the Brokerage, Banking, Insurance, Health, Manufacturing and Retail industries addressing business areas, large systems and applications as well as Network Recovery, Telecom Recovery and other areas of technology.
Mr. Ramirez has pioneered Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery methodologies, plans and tools adopted as corporate models by various industries such as: Banking, Brokerage, Insurance and Manufacturing.
Mr. Ramirez has taught at New York University on both Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Management, a lecturer, educator and a contributing author on Business Continuity and industry publications. He is the editor and founder of Survivalinsights.com, an online publication and Newsletter raising awareness in areas of enterprise risk and survival. He has performed training and special presentations for both domestic and international professional organizations such as the Contingency Planning Exchange (CPE), Information Security Systems Associations (ISSA), Greater New York Construction User Council, Strategic Research Institute, International Communications for Management (ICM) Montreal Canada, Japan’s Crisis Management and Preparation Organization (CMPO) and the Nikkei Co.
Mr. Ramirez has been a board member of the Contingency Planning Exchange, Inc. since 1985 and its chairperson for four years.