Bryan Strawser

Bryan Strawser is Founder, Principal, and Chief Executive at Bryghtpath LLC, a strategic advisory firm he founded in 2014. Bryan has more than twenty-five years of experience in the areas of crisis management, business continuity, crisis communications, and global security. At Bryghtpath, Bryan leads a team of experts that offer strategic counsel and support to the world’s leading brands, public sector agencies, and nonprofit organizations to strategically navigate uncertainty and disruption. Bryan previously served as Chief Security Officer & Senior Director of Global Security at the University of Phoenix and as Senior Director, Global Crisis Management, Business Continuity, and Intelligence at Target, where he built and led the retailer’s global resilience program. Bryan has served on a number of technical committees at the American Society for Industrial Security, including committees for the Workplace Violence Prevention and Active Assailant – Prevention, Intervention, and Response Standard (2020) and the Certified Protection Professional Study Manual (2020). Bryan previously served as Board Member and Chair of the Private Sector Committee for the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) from 2011 – 2013 and as the Vice Chairman of the Disaster Recovery and Preparedness Committee for the Retail Industry Leaders Association. In these roles, Bryan worked closely with FEMA to develop the Private Sector Representative position in FEMA’s Office of the Private Sector and with leaders across state and federal government, including the US Department of Homeland Security and the White House, to build stronger connections between the public and private sectors. He was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2019 and elected as a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House, London) in 2016. Bryan was a Senior Fellow at Auburn University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security from 2017 – 2021 and a Humphrey Policy Fellow at the University of Minnesota from 2016-2017. Bryan holds a BS in Criminal Justice Administration, an MBA from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, and a MA in International Relations & Contemporary War from King’s College, London. He is presently a doctoral student in Management and Public Service at Hamline University. Bryan holds multiple professional certifications in business continuity, emergency management, information security, project management, and physical security.