Dyson College of Arts and Sciences
Issue link: http://dysoncollege.uberflip.com/i/128987
The Honorable Tom Ridge Introduction of the Honorable Tom Ridge, by President of Pace University, Stephen J. Friedman Governor Tom Ridge apparently thought it was too cushy a job to be the governor of a major state. So in 2003, he became the first Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security and he accepted the challenge of absorbing 180,000 employees from 22 agencies and creating something beautiful. To create an agency that has the multiple challenges of facilitating the flow of people and goods across our borders, creating layered security for air, land, and sea ports, developing a unified national response and recovery plan, protecting critical infrastructure, integrating new technology, and improving—this is the easy part—improving information sharing among law enforcement agencies, both within the United States and internationally. An extraordinary challenge to which, I think, he brought an extraordinary response. Today he is president and CEO of Ridge Global, a team of international experts that helps businesses and governments address risk management, global security, emergency preparedness and response, strategic growth, infrastructure protection, technology integration, and crisis management. Again, this is an extraordinary challenge for extraordinary times. He is a very special man indeed. Please join me in welcoming Governor Tom Ridge. Address by Tom Ridge, Former Secretary of Homeland Security, on Resilience Through Public-Private Partnerships Thank you for your very warm reception. Let me say at the outset how much I appreciate Pace University's invitation. I thought Phil Palin's challenge to the academic community was on target, as well as President Friedman's and others who want to take on this mission of trying to build public and private partnerships. Someone on the panel used the word "bilingual" to discuss this challenge. I agree. I mean they (public and private sector) have slightly different cultures, and sometimes they speak with different languages, so anybody that can build a bridge between the two will make an invaluable contribution. I have the opportunity to share some thoughts with this audience, but I kind of feel like I'm preaching to the choir. Let me make some general observations about this very important topic. I want to thank the University for inviting me to do just that. It's a pleasure to join you here today. You know it's the day after the New Hampshire primary. Since we're here to touch on disaster recovery, it strikes me that presidential primaries are much like a natural disaster or a major storm. They often knock people off their feet, they usher in some hot air, and the next morning they reveal the debris that needs to be cleared so that others might keep on going. Now, in these presidential campaigns, there's often a miracle story of someone originally written off, emerging alive, struggling and vowing to fight on. The media tells us power is down, a pole has been uprooted, and now everyone's blaming the president. Now, you can predict what 9