The Role of Sustainability in Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery for Businesses and Communities

Live webinar

The frequency, magnitude, and impact of disasters have been growing at an unprecedented rate, in part due to climate change as well as due to large and vulnerable populations living in high risk areas. To mitigate or reduce the negative impact of disasters on people and economies around the world, synergistic collaborations are needed across governments, businesses, and NGOs. The panel will discuss these challenges and opportunities, with a focus on how business sustainability and public/private partnerships might help communities in disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and more broadly, climate change, as well as businesses.

The panel, co-organized by the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems (CHHS) and the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at Georgia Tech, will feature three distinguished speakers:

Gilles Carbonnier, Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross
Dan Keim, Director of Humanitarian Logistics at the UPS Foundation
Deepmala Mahla, Vice-President of Humanitarian Affairs at CARE
The panel will be moderated by John McIntyre, Professor at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business

Gilles Carbonnier, Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since April 2018. He holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Neuchâtel and has worked in three main fields over the past 30 years: development economics, humanitarian action and international trade.
Since 2007, Dr Carbonnier has been a professor of development economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, where he also served as director of studies and president of the centre for Education and research in Humanitarian Action. His expertise is in international cooperation, the economic dynamics of armed conflict, and the nexus between natural resources and development. His latest book, published by Hurst and Oxford University Press in 2016, is entitled Humanitarian Economics: War, Disaster and the Global Aid Market.
Prior to joining the Graduate Institute, Gilles spent several years with the ICRC: he worked in the field from 1989 to 1991 as head of subdelegation in Ethiopia and Iraq and as a delegate in Sri Lanka and El Salvador, then at headquarters from 1999 to 2006 as an economic adviser. He was on the board of directors for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Switzerland from 2007 to 2012.
Between 1992 and 1996, he was in charge of international trade negotiations (GATT/WTO) and development cooperation programmes for the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.

Dan Keim, Director of Humanitarian Logistics at the UPS Foundation. On behalf of The UPS Foundation, Dan engages with leading humanitarian agencies and ministries of health to enhance public health supply chains and build supply chain capacity for humanitarian efforts. Dan’s efforts include providing expertise on final mile delivery of life-sustaining cold-chain vaccines and medical products in Uganda, in collaboration with GAVI and The Global Fund. Engagements with CARE have included training at Regional Supply Chain workshops and global supply chain governance and strategy analysis. he is engaged with the World Food Programme and the Logistics Emergency Team to strengthen Logistics Capacity Assessments to help enhance supply chain resilience. In addition, he has been involved with a number of US and International efforts working with humanitarian agencies on supply chain efficiency and optimization projects. Over his career at UPS, Dan has held various responsibilities in Airline Operations, Industrial Engineering, Enterprise Retail Sales, Healthcare Strategy, Supply Chain Transportation and most recently in Customer Solutions as Managing Director of Global Solutions, working with UPS’s largest customers to design, and implement sustainable global supply chain business models. 

Deepmala Mahla, Vice-President of Humanitarian Affairs at CARE. She has also served as Regional Director for Asia. Prior to that she has served as Country Director in Iraq and South Sudan with Mercy Corps and in Uganda with Marie Stopes International. She has also held senior leadership positions in Yemen, the UK, Indonesia, and India while working with Oxfam GB, CARE, International Center for Research on Women, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, and UNICEF. Deepmala has worked for two decades designing and implementing humanitarian and development programs in some of the most complex and fragile environments, ranging from the Middle East to Africa to Asia. She is a strong humanitarian voice influencing actively for better of most vulnerable communities and protection of aid workers; with distinct expertise in advocacy and communications. In addition to her first degree in History, Economics and Philosophy, Deepmala holds an MA in Anthropology and PhD in reproductive health of women in rural Rajasthan.

Dr.  John R. McIntyre is founding Director  of the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER),  professor of management (strategy area) with a courtesy appointment in international relations in the Georgia Tech’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. He also is a senior fellow of the East-West Trade Policy Center of the University of Georgiain Athens. Prior to joining Georgia Tech in September 1981, he was research associate for international management at the Dean Rusk Center of the University of Georgia Law School. He has published in journals such as Technology and Society, Public Administration Quarterly, International Management Review… He is the author or coauthor of the following books :  Uncertainty in Business-Government Relations: The Dynamics of International Trade Policy,  The Political Economy of International Technology Transfer… He is the recipient of the State of Georgia Governor’s 2009 International Award in international business education in 2009.