Dr Carl A. Gibson

Experience & Activities

About Dr. Gibson

Dr Gibson has previously held senior appointments within the Australian Government and various state government agencies (including Department of Premier and Cabinet and regulatory authorities).

Emergency and disaster management experience

• Dr Gibson is a former British Army Officer and a former sworn member of the London Metropolitan Police Special Operations Directorate. In these roles he has had wide experience in operational response to a range of natural disasters, civil unrest, public order, and terrorist incidents. He has also held positions in the UK Government in the Department of Health and Social Security and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. In recognition of services to the Crown in the area of emergency services, Dr Gibson was presented to HM Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
• Within Australia, Dr Gibson has held senior leadership positions in the response to a number of major disasters of national significance including multi-jurisdictional control and coordination response.
• He has held incident controller and other leadership positions in State and local disasters, including environmental disasters, bushfires, and floods, as well as a range of security-related operations.
• Dr Gibson has held senior executive positions in the University sector and in international corporates (including in the aviation industry) where his responsibilities included leadership of the organisation’s critical incident response.
• As a consultant, Dr Gibson partners with an international Big 4 firm providing subject matter expertise in risk, emergency and disaster management. He has provided advisory and capability development services to a wide range of government, emergency services, private sector and not-for-profit organisations in Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, North America, and the UK.

International standing

Dr Carl Gibson is an internationally acknowledged expert in the areas of risk, critical incident and emergency management, resilience, and security. In recognition of this, he holds a number of appointments including:

• Member of the Joint Australian and New Zealand Standards Committee for Risk Management (OB007).
• Member of the Joint Australian and New Zealand Standards Committee for Security and Resilience (MB025).
• Member Australian Standards Committee for Emergency Planning (FP17)
• Member International Standards Organization Technical Committee 292, contributing to WGs on emergency management, resilience, and security and TC 262 on risk management.
• Fellow, Institute for integrated Economic Research
• Fellow, Australian Risk Policy Institute.
• Fellow, Institute for Strategic Risk Management.

Qualifications

• PhD; MBA; Post Graduate Diploma in Management; BSc (Hons).
• Multiple certificates in emergency management, intelligence, and insider threat management.
• Certifications in OHS, nuclear safety and nuclear security.

Publications

The author (lead or contributing) of over 130 publications (including over 20 Australian and international Standards publications) including:

• Gibson C.A. (2023). Exercising for Critical Infrastructure: A field guide to assurance, training and preparedness for emergencies, disasters and crises. Scheduled for publication in Q2 2023.
• Gibson C.A. and Brown J. (2022). The Problem with Risk: A Failure of Strategic Proportions. ISRM Global Journal 2022: Security: Past, Present and Future. Institute of Strategic Risk Management, October 2022.
• Gibson C.A. The Failure of Pandemic Management: Lessons Learned from the Victorian Hotel Quarantine Program Disaster. Under publishing review, expected publication date Q3 2023.
• Lead author on a new Standards Australia handbook HB167 on security-related risk, 1^st edition published in 2006, second edition to be published in Q1 2023.
• Gibson C.A. and Gibson K.J.I. (2023) A Critical Incident Management Field Guide: Volume 1 (Concepts) and Volume 2 (Application): Integrating risk, business continuity, emergency and crisis management. EI Press.
• Gibson C.A. and Love G. (2018). The Critical Incident Field Guide to Exercising. Published by Unimutual.

Advisory experience

Carl has an extensive range of complex advisory and capability development experience. He has undertaken previous engagements including:

• Risk management framework development and strategic decision frameworks, and risk assesments for a range of government entities and international corporates, including governance and risk management for multi $ bn projects and radioactive waste transportation.
• Emergency management development for international airlines, nuclear reactors, and for hospitals.
• Risk, security, and strategic up lift programs in electricity, gas, water, and health sectors.
• Crisis and business continuity management for public sector entities, global supply chain logistics, and transport sectors.
• Business case development and safety uplift programs for transport sector businesses.
• Fraud and corruption control and fraud risk assessments for multiple public sector entities.
• Option analysis and risk assessments for decommissioning of subsea infrastructure.