Matt Lawrence: Author, consultant, speaker & media personality, is president of Paratus International LLC; a firm dedicated to providing disaster preparedness, continuity of business and security planning for the public and private sectors.

Lawrence has been an invited speaker before members of Congress, conducted preparedness seminars at conferences sponsored by state and federal agencies and provided endorsements for various new life saving technologies marketed today.

His down-to-earth interview style has allowed him to share his insight in multiple regional and national television markets.  He’s been featured on WOR-NY, FOX, CBS and NBC; as well as The Weather Channel series, “It Could Happen Tomorrow-Tampa Bay”.

A Florida native, Lawrence first witnessed the plight of Cuban refugees as a child in the early 1960s.  Thirty years later, life would lead him to fly search and rescue missions with both Brothers to the Rescue and a similar group, Freedom Flight International where he served as both Director of Special Projects and Chief Mission Specialist.

Matt's co-author and editor, Thomas Van Hare is the former Chairman of Freedom Flight International and was previously operations director, mission director and command pilot for Brothers to the Rescue.

Van Hare has served with three Administrations in Washington. During the Reagan administration, he was with the United States Agency for International Development. Subsequently, he served President George H.W. Bush (Bush 41), as Special Assistant to then Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage and later to then Assistant Secretaries Dr. Harry Rowen and Ambassador James Lilly.

In 2004, Thomas Van Hare was requested to return to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and work with the Coalition Provisional Authority. Thereafter, he served as Director, Organizational Assessment, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Today, Van Hare is executive director of a company involved in the global development and direct commercial sales of sophisticated military aircraft.