Alistair Nicholas has more than 25 years’ experience in crisis management communications, crisis planning, and crisis training covering Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, China and the United States. Alistair has written crisis communications manuals and crisis management plans for major multinational corporations and government agencies and provided crisis training programs to them. He has counselled many organisations during their responses to crises, including acting as an official spokesperson for organisations during live crisis situations.

Alistair has worked on crises ranging from accidental deaths and injuries through to pharmaceutical and consumer product market recalls, fraud and embezzlement, and government corruption cases. He has provided communication counsel and support during media inquiries, coronial inquests, court trials, and government inquiries.

Alistair’s career of more than 30 years also includes senior roles in government, politics, diplomacy, and the media.

Alistair holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Science from the University of New South Wales and a Certificate in Executive Leadership from Cornell University. He is based in Sydney, Australia.

Mark concentrates his practice on the aviation and transportation industries, including litigation, regulatory administrative and enforcement matters, investigations, airport and aircraft security and employment issues.

Mark has handled numerous safety, enforcement and regulatory matters before the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and other administrative agencies, whether arising from an accident or incident or other material compliance matter, including issues involving the Departments of State, Justice, the Treasury and Homeland Security, and the Transportation Security Administration.

Over the course of a career spanning more than four decades, Mark has tried dozens of jury and non-jury cases, ranging in length from one day to several months, and argued before state and federal appellate courts at all levels. He represented Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. in the landmark Supreme Court case Boyle v. United Technologies, which established the government contractor defense, and in Mounsey v. Allied-Signal, a “friendly fire” litigation, winning the manufacturer’s dismissal from the case after the government invoked the state secrets doctrine to avoid responding to third-party subpoenas.

Mark has counseled and represented numerous airlines, including:

• Alaska Airlines
• Arrow Air
• Colgan Air
• Empire Airlines
• Mesa Airlines
• National Airlines
• SkyWest Airlines
• Southwest Airlines
• Spirit Airlines
• Trans State Airlines
• US Airways
• Virgin America

He also advises and represents aviation service providers, including airports, fuelers, ground handlers, fixed base operators, maintenance and overhaul companies, catering companies, security companies, and airframe and other aerospace manufacturers.

Mark is outside general counsel to the Aviation Emergency Response Organization (AERO), which focuses on informing, educating, sharing and providing a forum for emergency response professionals from all aspects of the aviation industry worldwide, as well as the UAS Insurance Association, comprised of the leading aviation insurers providing insurance coverage to the rapidly growing drone industry.

Insights

Darlina Muhammad is well known worldwide for her outstanding contribution as Caregiver Manager for three tragedies, most recently Malaysia Airlines flights MH17 and MH370, where she led hundreds of caregivers in Beijing, Amsterdam and Kota Kinabalu. Darlina worked for Malaysia Airlines for 18 years where she trained cabin crew, cadet pilots, engineering trainees, external/third party training as well as staff in general. She was also an associate trainer with the Emergency Response team. In addition, Darlina headed Events for the Company under Corporate Communications, did Market Research (Qualitative), Business Administration, Risk Management & Business Continuity.

Darlina completed a BA (Hons) English Studies in University of Kent, Canterbury, UK and started her career with lecturing English and Drama to International Baccalaureate students for two years before venturing into the hospitality and media industry. Darlina was also a news presenter for several years on Traxx.fm.

Mario is a dedicated and passionate corporate public relations professional with more than 20 years of experience as Director of Corporate Communications, media spokesperson, crisis communications specialist, media relations strategist, and social media producer. Mario has held management/leadership positions with a global disaster organization, the United Way of Houston, and the Cenikor Foundation.

Mario has created and implemented international communications campaigns and secured national and international media coverage. He has successfully booked interviews with ABC News, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNN International, London Times, commercial aviation trade publications in Europe and the Middle East. Mario has also positioned corporate staff as subject matter experts and booked national and international interviews related to the recovery efforts of Air France Flight 447, US Air Flight 1549 and crisis management challenges for the government of Japan after the earthquake and tsunami.

During his tenure with The United Way of Houston, Mario was a member of the Executive Management team. He analyzed the potential impact of a critical situation involving the 2001 Enron financial crisis (a major United Way corporate donor) and questionable donations to the organization. He implemented a crisis communications plan and managed a “feeding frenzy” of potentially negative national news coverage and minimized the impact to The United Way. Result: no negative news coverage with The United Ways’ involvement during the Enron crisis.

Mario‘s previous experience includes positions as a television news and radio reporter in the southeast United States. He has received awards from the Public Relations Society of America, Texas Public Relations Association, a Suncoast Television Emmy nominee, and he is FEMA Certified National Incident Management System Public Information Officer (IS-0072.a) and a member of the Public Information Officer (PIO) Network Houston/Galveston Region.

Insights

Hennie is a highly experienced resource, infrastructure, and senior-level network support systems specialist with a demonstrated history in the Aviation, Management Consulting, Project Management and Information Technology Industries.

He has worked on multiple fatality accidents and serious incidents, focusing on Family Assistance Support Operations, Data Management and Contact Centre Operations.

As the “Keeper of Keys”, Hennie develops and maintains all information and IT resources within GoCrisis, focusing on the security of all information and GDPR requirements. He also manages and maintains all GoCrisis social media pages and the branding and design of all related media. In addition, he serves as the first point of contact for all website enquiries and is the technical lead for all webinars and virtual training to ensure stability and a positive customer experience.

Hennie oversees the GoCrisis GoResponder Program, which includes training requirements, work assignments, and scheduling of all 1200+ GoResponders, pre-, during, and post-emergency response deployments. During activations, he serves as the Contact Centre Director, monitoring call volumes, system resources, and the quality of service provided by all GoCrisis Contact Centre Agents across all communication platforms.

Hennie carries formal qualifications in numerous disciplines with regard to the Information Technology industries, as well as in Travel and Tourism.