Mark Cooper has over 30 years of emergency management and other government services at the local, state, national, and international levels. 

Prior to becoming a member of 5 Score Partners, Mark served as the Chief of Staff for Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards for seven years beginning in February of 2017 where he supported the Governor and help lead the State during historic emergency responses to the COVID-19 virus and five major hurricanes and everything in between.  

Before joining the Edwards’ administration, Mark was Senior Director of Global Emergency Management at Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas for almost six years where he led global emergency preparedness, response, and recovery operations as well as business continuity and emergency support for communities during a crisis.  He also served on the cabinet of Governor Bobby Jindal as the Director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and the Homeland Security Advisor for the State of Louisiana from 2008-2011. This included leading recovery efforts for Hurricane Katrina and major responses to events such as the BP Oil Spill, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and several tornadoes and flooding events.  

Prior to his time at GOHSEP, Cooper spent almost 20 years with the County of Los Angeles, CA, including serving as Deputy Fire Chief for the Los Angeles County Fire Department and other executive leadership positions with the Los Angeles County Police, Department of Beaches and Harbors, and the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. During his time with Los Angeles County, his emergency management experience began including the Los Angeles Riots, Northridge Earthquake, and numerous wildfires, and 9-1-1. While with Walmart, he led global emergency management and became a leader in public/private partnerships including speaking and teaching opportunities at Harvard University, the U.S. Naval Post Graduate Program in Monterey, CA, and the National Governors Association.  He also led the Company’s responses to Hurricane Sandy and well as other major crises and events during his tenure. 

Mark also was a founding member, speaker, and served on the United Nations ARISE Executive Board for global resiliency and completed two terms on the FEMA National Advisory Council to the Administrator. He is a graduate of the Executive Leadership Program at the U.S. Naval Post Graduate School/Center for Homeland Security and Defense in Monterey, California. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance and a master’s degree in Public Administration, both from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. 

A Louisiana native, Bill is a highly knowledgeable and experienced member of the CrowderGulf Team. He has decades of experience in Disaster Recovery and is considered a Subject Matter Expert (SME) regarding Federal Programs, State and Federal Government Intergovernmental Affairs involved in Disaster Preparedness, Response, Recovery and Mitigation, to include Federal Grant Programs for FEMA, HUD, USDA, USACOE, Dept. of Homeland Security and U.S. Armed Forces. He retired as a presidentially appointed Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO) with FEMA after 8 years, serving in both the Obama and Trump Administrations. 

Prior to joining FEMA, Bill retired as an Air Force Colonel with 28 years of total service. Bill’s experience includes over 25 federally declared disasters in 9 different states. These include Hurricane Harvey, Texas & Baton Rouge Flood Recovery, the Moore Tornado in Oklahoma, and Katrina/Rita Long Term Recovery as well as serving as the Response Director for FEMA Region 6.

While in the Air Force, Bill was assigned as Joint Director of Military Support for the Louisiana National Guard to support domestic operations for Homeland security and Disaster support to civil authorities, including the Responses to Hurricanes Katrina/Rita, Gustav/Ike and the BP Oil Spill. Prior to that he also served as the full-time Squadron Commander for Aircraft Maintenance of the F-15 aircraft while stationed at NAS Joint Reserve Base New Orleans. Highlights of service include conducting operations for Noble Eagle post 9/11 and deploying to the Middle East twice for ongoing operations.

Bill holds degrees from the Emergency Management Institute Executive Academy (Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Naval Post Graduate School, University of Hawaii, Texas A&M), the University of Maryland, (MD Masters of Science in Management), the USAF Air War College and Louisiana State University (B.A. Journalism). Bill is also a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) by the International Association of Emergency Managers.

Chris Guilbeaux spent 23 years in the Louisiana Army National Guard retiring in 2002 as a Senior Operations Sergeant. While in the Guard, Chris received over 800 hours of Emergency Management, Hazardous Materials and Weapons of Mass Destruction Training. 

In June 2002, Chris joined the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospital’s (DHH) Bioterrorism Program and worked there for 17 months in the design of teams and training of personnel for the express purpose of responding to any Bio Terrorism incident in Louisiana or the Nation. In November 2003, Chris was appointed by the newly elected Sheriff of St. Martin Parish as the Deputy Chief of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. He also served as the 911 Director for St. Martin Parish. His duties included serving as the Chief of Operations (COO) for the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s office where he provided leadership and guidance for deputies in Patrol, Detectives, Narcotics, Juvenile and Court Room Security.

In May 2006, Chris took on a new role in the civilian sector as a Hazardous Materials Technician and Project Manager for B & B Fire and Safety Services Inc. In July 2008, Chris was chosen to serve as the Operations Chief for GOHSEP where he led the branches of Operations, Planning and Logistics ensuring that the State was in a constant state of readiness. That readiness was put to the test a short month later in August 2008, with Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. The Operations Section continued to be challenged in 2009 with the H1N1 flu emergency, in 2010 with the British Petroleum (BP) Oil Spill and in early 2011, with the Mississippi / Atchafalaya River Flooding. In July 2013, Chris was named the Asst. Deputy Director of the Preparedness, Response, and Interoperability Division, and in November 2018, he was appointed as the Asst. Deputy Director of Emergency Management and retired from that position in January 2023.  

Chris is the Owner / Operator of his consulting firm (Decon Solutions) and is currently serving as the Executive Director of LEPA. Chris has served on the boards of LEPA, LERC and LERN for the past 15 years. 

Mark Riley brings more than 40 years of experience in all aspects of recovery from emergency response through long term recovery, and strategic planning. After 33 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, Active and Reserve, Riley retired as a Colonel in 2007 and went on to hold executive level management positions in State and Federal Government and the private sector.
 

Riley arrived at the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) after Hurricane Katrina and built an organization of more than 300 state employees and contractors for the oversight of more than 34,000 projects $19 billion in Stafford Act funding for 14 Federally declared disasters. As Chief of Staff at GOHSEP and Director of Recovery Division, Riley led the State’s emergency management and homeland security response and policy response to hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike and ten other Federally declared disasters. Riley served on the FEMA Public Assistance Advisory Council for three years representing the states in FEMA Region VI.

Riley took on another leadership role in the Louisiana state government after a major flooding disaster in Louisiana in 2016. Assuming the role of Chief of Staff for the Louisiana Office of Community Development (OCD) in 2017, Riley assisted in the development and implementation of $1.7 billion in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

After Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico, Riley was designated as the Senior Executive Advisor to the Central Office of Recovery, Reconstruction, and Resilience (COR3), the agency established by the Governor of Puerto Rico to manage the recovery from the storms. In this role, Riley helped develop and draft the Economic and Disaster Recovery Plan submitted to Congress in August 2018. Riley led efforts to report to Congress on Puerto Rico’s progress in the recovery and advised the Governor’s Authorized Representative on technical issues related to the FEMA Public Assistance (PA) Grant Program and Hazard Mitigation (HM) Grant Program, as well as issues related to the HUD CDBG-DR Grant Program. Recently, Riley served as a member of Task Force 1-6 (January 6, 2021 U.S. Capital Riots), formed by the Speaker of the House to review security issues after the U.S. Capitol breach, and he authored the Task Force’s report to Congress.

Riley’s government service is complemented by experience in the private sector. In addition to a Juris Doctorate from Louisiana State University, Riley also earned a Master of Law degree from Georgetown University with a specialty in tax law. Riley was a partner with the Baton Rouge law firm of Taylor, Porter, Brooks, and Phillips for approximately ten years focusing his practice on tax and business law issues. Subsequently, Riley was the co-founder and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Phoenix Environmental Services, Inc., an environmental remediation firm performing services in the industrial sector and served as such until its successful sale.

Throughout his military career, Riley served in command billets at the Company, Battalion, and Division levels. He was recalled to active duty on several occasions, the last being after the events of September 11, 2001, in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle. He was awarded the Defense Meritorious Service Medal for drafting the implementation plan for the standup of the U.S. Northern Command, the Joint Command established by the Department of Defense after 9/11 responsible for providing military support to civilian authorities and protecting the territory and national interests of the United States. 

Col (Ret.) Earl “Pat” Santos Jr. completed a 25-year career serving in various command and staff positions in the Louisiana Army National Guard and 16 years in State government primarily at the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP). It was in GOHSEP serving as the Deputy Director of Plans, Training and Operations where he along with his staff rebuilt the agency after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He brought together Federal, State and Local Government agencies and the Private sector to establish a viable State Emergency Operations Plan that is still in use today. Santos worked closely with parish, state, and federal officials to plan successful operational responses to Hurricanes Gustav, Ike, the BP oil spill, statewide wildfires, H1N1 pandemic and numerous other man-made emergencies.  

As recently as 2017, Santos was serving as the recovery liaison in the Office of the Governor, helping Louisiana’s chief executives maintain day-to-day communication with stakeholders at all levels to monitor and support implementation of the state’s Restore Louisiana HUD program. The Louisiana RESTORE program today is considered one of the most successful HUD CDBG funded recovery programs in their history. Rounding out his experience in government service is his consulting work in the private sector advising clients like Walmart and Amazon and working with the States of New York (Hurricane Irene 2011) and Virgina (Hurricane Michael 2018) facilitating their after-action reviews and corrective actions. 

For his outstanding contributions to the emergency preparedness and disaster response field and military service, Santos has received many distinguished awards and decorations, including the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, and the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Service Medal. He also received the 1992 Rotary Club Honored Citizen Award and the Louisiana Emergency Preparedness Association (LEPA) Presidents Award for outstanding service. He served on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Advisory Committee from 2013 to 2015. In addition to a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Arts in Organizational Management, Santos has completed Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative Program and the Naval Postgraduate School’s Executive Leadership Program.