Chief Al H Gillespie served the fire service for almost 40 years including 15 years as the Fire Chief of three large city fire departments. He also served as the Interim Executive Chief of East County Fire and Rescue. Chief Gillespie served as the President of the International Association of Chiefs (IAFC) 2011-12 and, as all past IAFC Presidents, serves on the President’s Council. During his tenure as President he was instrumental in helping the fire service and all public safety, through Congress, acquire the D-Block bandwidth. Chief Gillespie serves as the Principal of Executive Fire Consultants working with a major multi-national communications company and on firefighter health and safety issues.

Richard Mirgon one of the founding members of the Public Safety Alliance which was
responsible for the legislation that created FirstNet. He has over 30 years of public safety
experience with the last 20 years in the public safety technology field. After retiring from
government service, he has been providing consulting service related to FirstNet and public safety technology. He is a Past President for the Association of Public Safety Officials International (APCO) and is currently the co-owner of Next Paradigm Consulting, LLC and Richard Mirgon Consulting LLC and Public Safety 360, LLC.

Karl W. Wilmes served as the Chief of Police for the City of Federal Heights, Colorado from January 2015 until his retirement in January 2018. During his career in law enforcement, while leading three agencies, he developed a culture of police and community involvement and organizational accountability.

Prior to his appointment as Chief of Police, at the City of Federal Heights, Karl served as the Homeland Security Director for Colorado (OPSFS) and Deputy Director for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Serving as Deputy Director for the CBI, Karl was responsible to provide direction and management oversight for the CBI business units and all state criminal justice information systems.

Karl continues to remain active in law enforcement advising clients on public safety wireless communication, CJIS (data sharing), biometrics, strategic planning, investigations, and training. Professionally, Karl is a member of numerous organizations. He serves on the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) national CJIS committee. He remains an active member at IACP and is a member of the Police Executive Research Forum. During his career he participated on numerous national and statewide criminal justice boards. Locally, he is a past president of the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police and currently a member.

Karl has a Master’s degree in Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. He is a graduate of the Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Senior Executives in State and Local Government leadership program, the 187th session of the FBI National Academy and Northwestern University’s School of Police Staff and Command.

Chuck Dowd, Retired Assistant Police Chief Charles F. Dowd spent Chief Charles Dowd spent 35 years with the NYPD in a host of assignments including patrol, detectives, narcotics division, and communications. He was in charge of the the NYC 911 system and police radio communications for 12 years covering such events as September 11th, the northeast blackout, and hurricane Sandy. He was the NYPD’s lead on the development of the NYC 311 system and the effort to create FirstNet. He served on the FirstNet board of directors as an inaugural member.

Chief Chris Moore is a principal at Brooks Bawden Moore, LLC. He is a veteran law enforcement executive with over 34 years of public safety experience. His expertise spans many facets of public safety including field operations management, emergency communications/911 operations, internal affairs investigations, and media relations/crisis communications. Over the course of his public safety career, he has served as a police officer, firefighter, and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).

 In 2013, after rising thorough every rank of the San Jose Police Department, Moore retired as Chief of Police of the 10th largest city in the United States (over 1,000,000 population).

 In 1999, Chief Moore was selected as a White House Fellow and served as Counsel to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. In 2004, he was honored as a Fulbright Fellow and studied police accountability/discipline at New Scotland Yard and the London School of Economics.

As a representative of the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA), Chief Moore served as Chair of the Public Safety Alliance (PSA), a group of nine national public safety organizations, created to advocate for legislation to reallocate the 700 MHz D Block spectrum to public safety and for the creation of a nationwide public safety broadband network (NPSBN). This successful nationwide grass roots effort entailed significant consensus building and relationship management at all levels of government.  He also served as the MCCA representative to the FBI CJIS Advisory Policy Board (APB) where he served as Chairman of the Information Sharing Subcommittee. Moore is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the California Police Chiefs Association (CPCA).

Chief Moore received his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Public Administration degree from San Jose State University. Moore also received an A.S. degree in Fire Science from Indian Valley College.

Moore holds a Juris Doctor degree from Lincoln Law School of San Jose where he was voted by his fellow graduates as Outstanding Graduate. He is an active member of the State Bar of California.

Chief Moore is a graduate of the FBI National Executive Institute at Quantico, Virginia. He is also a graduate of the California POST Law Enforcement Command College where he was honored by his peers to receive the Hank Koehn Award as the outstanding graduate and to serve as their graduation speaker.

 Moore is the recipient of numerous awards and citations for specific law enforcement casework including the SJPD Hazardous Duty Award for the confrontation and arrest of an armed homicide suspect at the scene of an active shooter event at a crowded bar.

Chief Richard Carrizzo is an internationally recognized leader in public safety with over 43 years of experience in fire and emergency services.  Appointed to the rank of Fire Chief in 1995, Chief Carrizzo has been having positive impacts to public safety over his entire career.  In early 2023 Chief Carrizzo was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the First Responder Network Authority, after serving the previous 5-years on the Board, including as Vice-Chairman. Additionally, he served as President for the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) during the 2020-21 term and remains active as a Past President with the IAFC. 

Chief Carrizzo is still active in local, state, and national public safety professional organizations since his retirement in 2025 with Southern Platte Fire Protection District (MO).

Regional collaboration is very important, and he served on the Mid-America Regional Council’s (MARC) Public Safety Communications Board as one of two metro fire chief representatives coordinating and setting policy for the entire 9-1-1 system in the nine counties and 120 cities within the metropolitan, bi-state region of Kansas City. In 2002, he was appointed to serve as a fire representative on the Regional Homeland Security Coordinating Committee (RHSCC) within MARC and sat on RHSCC’s Executive Policy Committee to set policy for the operations and future of the coordinating body until his retirement.

Chief Carrizzo also has an extensive private sector background serving as board member and as Chairman of the Board for four companies.  

Chief Carrizzo holds a Master of Business Administration degree, a bachelor’s degree in business administration, an associate degree in applied science in Fire Science and is a graduate of National Fire Academy (NFA) Executive Fire Officer Program. He is also a graduate of the Executive Leaders Program at the Naval Postgraduate School for Homeland Defense and Security.