Chartwell Inc., a leading provider of utility industry research and thought leadership in support of key customer journeys, today named veteran emergency preparedness executive Carlos D. Torres to lead Chartwell’s Organizational Resiliency Executive Council (OREC). The Council is a key component of Chartwell’s Utility Resilience Institute (CURI), chartered in late 2024.

Through in-depth research, group problem-solving, working groups and impactful networking events, OREC helps energy utilities identify solutions and develop benchmarks and best practices for key issues impacting organizational resiliency including emergency management, business continuity, crisis communications, cybersecurity, and other critical challenges.

Chartwell CEO I.S. Dunklin stated that OREC aims to assist the industry in adapting to the changing threat environment in an effective and cost-efficient manner. "We are excited to welcome Carlos Torres as the leader of this important initiative. His expertise will help coordinate and spread best practices for the industry’s efforts to become more resilient against threats and more responsive to customer needs before, during and after disruptive events.”

Torres brings more than 40 years of leadership experience addressing critical infrastructure emergency management, crisis management, risk management, business continuity, climate change adaptation, physical/cyber security, organizational change management and planning. His expertise includes planning and operating under the Incident Command System as well as communications/coordination in response to emergencies and events affecting utilities’ customers and other key stakeholders.

“We are now living in this new reality where utilities are seeing multiple large-scale events more frequently, with greater impact, and coming from multiple vectors,” stated Torres. “Resilient infrastructure will not be able to handle it alone and that’s where organizational resilience needs to be at the forefront to allow an organization to prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate their impact. That’s where strong leadership and coordination, at all levels, good processes and structured training and exercising will ensure an organization is ready to tackle whatever they are hit with, be it a routine storm event or a black-swan event, whether natural or man-made.”

Torres’ career includes over 32 years at Consolidated Edison of New York. As the company’s vice president of emergency preparedness and business resilience, he oversaw the institution of emergency management principles in all its operations and was the lead liaison with federal, state and local agencies. 

In 2017, he was appointed by the Governor of Puerto Rico to lead the restoration of power to the Island following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, where he worked closely with federal and Commonwealth agencies, Army Corp of Engineers, the utility industry (EEI, APPA and NRECA) as well as numerous contractors during the restoration efforts. Since his efforts in Puerto Rico, Torres has worked as an independent consultant working with consulting firms supporting utilities as well as regulators on various projects and initiatives.

Torres currently serves as a board member of the All-Hazards Consortium, a non-profit organization focused on enhancing resilience in the public and private sectors. He also serves as a board member and senior advisor to Disaster Tech Inc., a public benefit corporation and Nvidia Accelerator startup driving disaster management technology to help emergency managers save lives, time and money. 

Executives interested in being added to the invitation list for Chartwell’s upcoming Industry Roundtable Discussion on Organizational Resiliency can contact Carlos Torres:

Carlos D. Torres: [email protected]