Sarah Kessler

About Sarah Kessler

Sarah Kessler is an accomplished leader who has strategically managed national and global crises for Fortune 100 companies, the U.S. Department of State, and state and local governments over the past 10 years. Recently, Sarah led a Fortune 52 company’s response to both the civil tensions of 2020 and the most active hurricane season on record. She is a Certified Emergency Manager with the International Association of Emergency Managers and has her Master’s Degree in International Relations.Major career accomplishments include: responding to health crises such as COVID-19 and the 2014 Ebola outbreak; civil unrest events including Arab Spring and the 2020 US civil tensions; dozens of natural disasters from hurricanes and floods to earthquakes and tsunamis; and active shooter events in El Paso, Dayton, Nairobi, and Paris. Mrs. Kessler helps organizations create emergency preparedness plans in order to best respond to emergencies and allow continuity of operations during times of man made or natural disasters. Mrs. Kessler also helps organizations prepare to respond well to emergencies by creating emergency preparedness plans such as continuity of operations, civil unrest, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. In addition to planning, Sarah has created and led hundreds of trainings and exercises that test plans or responses from Lagos to Buenos Aires. Sarah desires to continue to learn, train, lead, mentor, and motivate enterprises to incorporate crisis management into organizational effectiveness strategy.

Experience

1. Senior Director, Crisis Management

   FIS

   Aug 2021 — Present

   Lead the teams responsible for protecting corporate assets from significant business interruptions by optimizing risk management and building operational resilience for employees and contractors in 65 countries around the globe. Identify, structure, develop, exercise and maintain the Crisis Management life safety program. Lead senior, internal, cross-functional teams through man-made or natural disaster incidents. Partner with Site Leaders, Office Response Teams and Corporate Security and Safety to ensure alignment and consistency at nearly 100 offices around the globe. Manage metrics and reporting for the Crisis Management program to show trending analysis of all incidents that impact the footprint. Conducts key stakeholder exercises, trainings, presentations and annual reviews of emergency plans.

Education

• University of Dayton

  BA, International Relations

  2002 — 2005

• Northwestern University

  Certificate- International Security Managers Association, Senior Executive Leadership Program

  2018 — 2018

• Georgetown University

  Certificate- International Security Managers Association Leadership Program, Leadership and Security

  2014 — 2015

• Seton Hall University

  MA, International Relations

  2007 — 2009