Ira Tannenbaum is the Director of Public/Private Initiatives for the New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM). Serving as the primary liaison between the City and businesses and private sector organizations, Ira coordinates the integration of private sector concerns, interests, and resources to support New York City’s emergency planning, preparedness, response, and recovery activities. Ira harmonizes the exchange of information between the City and the private sector, and works to include the private sector in the City’s emergency plans by overseeing the Private Sector Emergency Support Function, which incorporates private sector capabilities into OEM operations. He is also responsible for OEM's Partners in Preparedness program, which helps organizations better prepare their employees, services, and facilities for disasters; and OEM’s business preparedness education initiative. Ira has been an active EMT in a local volunteer ambulance service for the past 17 years, and has served as an adjunct professor of Emergency Management at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.