Ralph Petti has been a member of the Contingency Planning Exchange (CPE) for nearly twenty years and is currently serving as the Director of Membership for the New York and Washington, DC. Chapters. In previous roles on the Executive Board for CPE, he was responsible for Marketing and Vendor Liaison.

A member of the business continuity industry for over twenty-four years, he is a certified practitioner and President of RP Risk Advisors, LLC, a risk management consulting firm based in Basking Ridge, NJ.

In a volunteer role as the Chairperson of the “Continuity Cares” program, a Continuity Insights sponsored event, Mr. Petti is currently involved in certain activities focusing on the redevelopment of a post-Katrina New Orleans and other cities. Mr. Petti recently had also served as an Executive Board Member of the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP) for their Connecticut and Pennsylvania chapters.

In 2006 and 2007, Mr. Petti received the ACP “Most Valuable Player Award” for his leadership with the Hartford, CT and Philadelphia, PA chapters, respectively. The honor is awarded to commend a distinction in promoting the practice of Business Continuity and Risk Management planning. In 2006, Mr. Petti was also recognized with an ASIS “Certificate of Appreciation” for assimilating Security practices into business continuity as his consulting solutions traditionally focus on a “convergence” of disparate business focuses.

Mr. Petti is also a Member of the Business Continuity Institute (MBCI) in London. As an industry veteran who has been involved in all phases of risk management serving in key management roles at Comdisco, EMC, Veritas, SunGard and Iron Mountain, he is currently serving as a leadership team member and speaker for major business continuity, risk management and security-focused industry groups nationally. He is also VOAD Certified (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster) by The American Red Cross.   

A member of the disaster recovery industry since 1984, he has seen the transition of this industry go from mainframe systems backup and end-user backup through to today’s comprehensive real-time business resiliency service programs for complex, distributed global architectures. Mr. Petti was also a participant in the recovery of his clients from the Loma Preita earthquake in Northern California in 1989, the lower Manhattan transformer fire (“Black Friday”) of 1990, the Chicago subway tunnel flood of 1992, countless hurricanes including Hurricane Hugo, Hurricane Floyd and Hurricane Andrew, several major northeastern US blackout and terrorist events to the 1993 and 2001 World Trade Center tragedies.  

On the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Petti received several citations from Louisiana officials for his efforts in supporting the people and businesses of the Gulf Region after the tragedy of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Mr. Petti will continue his role in the Gulf Region with the “Continuity Cares” program. He had also been invited to Washington, DC to lend his perspective to support a reconstruction of levees. In 2006, he met with Senator Mary Landreau (D-LA),  Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and U.S. Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ-11).  

As an active member of the New England Disaster Recovery Information Exchange Group (NEDRIX) and The American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS), Mr. Petti was also published The Washington Post and The Philadelphia Business Journal in 2007. He has also been featured in The New York Law Journal,   Disaster Recovery Journal, Computerworld and other publications. In addition, he was also a guest on WWDB-AM radio in Philadelphia in 2007 and has presented or assisted at DHS, CI, CPM, ACP, CPE, DRJ, ASIS, ISSA, US State Department and local and statewide Chamber of Commerce events.

Mr. Petti holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with dual concentrations in Business and Political Science from Rutgers College and has also completed graduate course-work at Syracuse and NYU. In 2005, he was named by NJ Countryside Magazine as “One of Six New Jerseyans We’re Proud To Know” for his efforts as Chairperson with The American Cancer Society’s “Relay For Life” event – raising almost $1MM locally.

Ralph Petti can be reached at (908) 310-6381 or via email at Ralph.Petti@RPRiskAdvisors.com