“We discuss risk as a concept beyond just the financial exposure… From supporting the community’s planned events to planning for the unknown, our job is to both be ready today and to look ahead.”
No one better defines the adage “Find what you love to do and then figure out how to make a living at it” better than Bijan. While he held a successful career in financial services, he also volunteered as a member of the Marin (California) County search and rescue team. Following the events of 9/11, more government funding became available to help local jurisdictions prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. This additional funding for emergency management created an opportunity for Bijan to take his business experience, knowledge of incident management and move full-time into a field that was maturing. Today, he serves as the Assistant Deputy Directory for the Department of Emergency Management in San Francisco and has written a paper, “Strategic Planning for Emergency Managers.”
“Applying my business skills and emergency management experience to disaster planning has helped me succeed. I enjoy working with so many different agencies and managing the complex interactions. In the financial sector and especially in emergency management, I like bringing order to chaos.” And that order provides resilience to the many people who live and work in San Francisco.