Earth Ex Spring 2026

What Is Earth Ex Live?

Earth Ex Live is a scenario-based online exercise that brings together senior experts from the emergency management, electricity, gas, water, and energy sectors to examine how large-scale infrastructure crises unfold, and how they can be managed.

The Context

Growing geopolitical tensions and visible attacks on critical infrastructure highlight how interconnected and vulnerable essential systems have become. Earth Ex Live places participants inside this evolving threat environment.

The Scenario

The exercise begins with coordinated physical attacks on electric grid assets, including substations and transmission lines across multiple countries. These are followed by simultaneous cyberattacks targeting water, natural gas, communications, and additional grid systems, triggering cascading impacts across sectors.

How It Works

Each expert responds to the same scenario from their sector’s perspective, outlining actions, priorities, dependencies, and coordination challenges. Together, these responses reveal the full, cross-sector picture of crisis response.

What You Will Gain

Insight into cross-sector dependencies and cascading failures
Practical perspectives from senior infrastructure experts
Actionable lessons for resilience planning and response

Meet Our Speakers

Dr. Randal Collins, Director of Emergency Management, City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii

Dr. Randal A. Collins is the Director of Emergency Management for the City and County of Honolulu, where he leads resilience efforts for one of the nation’s most complex urban environments. With over 30 years of leadership in emergency management and public safety, Dr. Collins brings deep operational experience across government, nonprofit, and private sectors. He previously served as Emergency Management Senior Director for NEOM, the futuristic smart city in Saudi Arabia, where he led crisis response design and was recognized as an Excellence Ambassador. Dr. Collins also serves as President Incident Management Teams Association, a national nonprofit advancing disaster response capabilities. Earlier roles include National Director of Animal Rescue for American Humane, leadership at Southern California Edison and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, and emergency management positions in Indianapolis and El Segundo. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, he served globally for 12 years as a Staff Sergeant and Scout-Sniper Platoon Sergeant. He holds a Doctor of Education and Executive Master of Leadership from the University of Southern California and a BS in Criminal Justice from the University of Indianapolis. Dr. Collins is a Certified Emergency Manager and teaches emergency management at USC as an Associate Adjunct Professor. In 2025, he was selected as Vice-President of the U.S. Emergency and Disaster Management Congress. A published author and global speaker, Dr. Collins is committed to advancing emergency management through innovation, policy, and leadership development.

Colby Free, Vice President of Federal and Strategic Solutions, Airspace Link, USA

Colby Free is the Vice President of Federal and Strategic Solutions of Airspace Link. Colby is responsible for supporting Airspace Link in leading AirHub product solutions tailored to support organizations establish full operational control of UAS in low altitude airspace across all jurisdictions and stakeholder organizations. Colby guides a fast-paced product management team and product implementation team providing product support, project and program management for strategic large scales implementations. Colby has a unique and diverse background offering 25+ years of experience as an industry leader supporting multiple award-winning innovative enterprise UAS and geospatial initiatives and solutions in the private and public sectors including Defense, Federal, State and Local customers. Colby also led a P&L of Federal business as Managing Partner with over 100 personnel and delivering tens of millions of dollars of projects for Defense and Civilian accounts, establishing strategic contract vehicles, supporting large programs and sustainably multiplying business growth. Colby applied collaborative organizational innovation strategies married with proven business processes to deliver a project and program portfolios filled with solutions spanning broad use cases that have transformed large organizations and programs with innovative solutions using a combination of cloud, geospatial, UAS, machine learning and web technologies.

Kimberly Denbow, Vice President, Security and Operations, American Gas Association (AGA), USA

Kimberly Denbow is the Vice President of Security & Operations at the American Gas Association (AGA) and the Executive Director of the Downstream Natural Gas Information Sharing & Analysis Center (DNG-ISAC). Over the course of her 28 years with AGA, she has led multiple AGA Safety, Operations, Engineering, & Security committees. At present, she leads the AGA Board Safety & Security Committee, the AGA Cybersecurity Strategy & Regulatory Action Committee, and the Underground Storage Committee. She helped build AGA’s cyber and physical security program; stood up the DNG-ISAC; developed AGA’s Emergency Preparedness Program; and supports pipeline resilience and reliability initiatives. Kimberly has testified before Congress on multiple occasions on matters related to cybersecurity and the value of the government/industry partnerships. She also serves as the industry liaison to numerous natural gas physical and cybersecurity programs of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, and Department of Energy. Kimberly holds a Bachelor of Science in marine biology from the University of Florida and a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Curtis Ivins, CEO and Co-Founder Preparedness Consulting Services, LLC (PCS), USA

Curt is head of PCS, LLC after retiring from a full career in the U.S. Army as a senior Military Intelligence officer. His extensive professional and educational background, and multiple Masters including both Strategic Intelligence and Emergency Management, enables his leadership of PCS – founded with a focus and passion for the safety, security, and Resiliency of communities in a high-risk & complex threat environment. PCS has excelled in a focus on lifeline Critical Infrastructure Security-Centric All-Hazards Resiliency nationwide. Curt leads a highly effective and experienced team, including following extensive community and grid disaster response efforts such as after the devastation of Hurricane Helene, and as active participants in and supporters of public & private emergency management and grid security-advocate organizations globally.

Randy White, Principal Manager, Physical Security and Asset Protection, Southern California Edison (SCE), USA

Randy is the Principal Manager, Physical Security and Asset Protection at Southern California Edison (SCE). He has 30 years of experience in risk mitigation, intelligence operations, and security executive leadership. Randy brings broad experience to ensure the protection of people and assets, and ensures an operational focus drives security planning and response.

Christopher M. Pilong Sr. Director – Operations Planning, PJM, USA

Christopher Pilong, Sr. Director – Operations Planning, is responsible for the Transmission Operations Department, Generation Department and Outage Analysis Technologies Department. These departments perform near-term transmission outage analysis and approvals, generation outage analysis and approvals, annual Black Start Unit commitments, as well as gas-electric coordination, near-term load forecasting, solar forecasting and wind forecasting. The teams also perform seasonal reliability assessments and coordinate directly with the Market Services Division and System Planning Division. Previously, Pilong worked as the director of the Dispatch Department and was responsible for the oversight of the dispatchers who operate and maintain the reliability of PJM’s portion of the Eastern Interconnection. The team operates the grid in accordance with NERC and PJM policies. In addition, the team oversees the Real-Time Energy and Reserve markets. Pilong also worked as the manager of the Reliability Engineering Department at PJM performing day-ahead transmission outage analysis, as well as real-time coordination of grid activities with neighboring RTOs and ISOs. Pilong has a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Lehigh University and a Master of Business Administration from Villanova University.

Ranger Dorn, Exercise Director, EIS Council, USA

Ranger Dorn is the Exercise Director for the EIS Council and has helped with the development and delivery of EARTH EX as well as Black Sky Exercises since 2017. He is a founding member and Managing Partner with Utility Response Training Associates, LLC, providing training and exercises to utilities as well as private and public organizations throughout the US. Ranger served on Regional and National Incident Management Teams from 1997 to 2016, in the positions of Operations Section Chief, Deputy Incident Commander, and Incident Commander, responding to several incidents of national significance. Ranger is a Master Exercise Practitioner – MEP and has developed and delivered exercises from Tabletop to Full Scale nationwide, including evaluating a state response for a National Level Exercise. He has provided ICS training and course development to organizations throughout the US for FEMA, EMI, the National Sheriffs Association, the National Domestic Preparedness Coalition Inc, the US Coast Guard, several large electric, gas, and water utilities, as well as state and local government agencies. Ranger holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration as well as a BS in Fire Protection Administration.

Amb. Dr. Ronen Hoffman, President, EIS Council, USA

Dr. Ronen Hoffman is an Accomplished academic, public figure, manager, diplomat, and entrepreneur with extensive expertise in organizational leadership, think-tanks management, community relations, leadership and resilience development, education, international relations, and public policy. Notable positions include serving as Ambassador of Israel to Canada, Member of Knesset and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Co-Founder and Founding General Director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Director of the Herzliya Conference, Personal Aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Advisor to the Minister of Defense, and Coordinator of the Israeli delegation to peace negotiations with Syria. Founder of Kimama Educational Programs (Kimama Camps) and developer of the ELI (Exploration, Leadership & Innovation) program at Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Chris Beck, Chief Scientist and Vice President for Policy, EIS Council, USA

Dr. Beck has led critical infrastructure resilience strategy at EIS Council since 2011, focusing on mitigating long-duration, Black Sky power outages. A nationally recognized expert in critical infrastructure protection, cybersecurity, emerging threats, and homeland security policy, he previously served as Subcommittee Staff Director and Senior Advisor for Science & Technology at the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security (2005–2011). Before his government roles, he worked in the office of Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez and held academic positions as a postdoctoral fellow and adjunct professor at Northeastern University. Dr. Beck holds a PhD in Physics from Tufts University and a B.S. in Physics from Montana State University, and he served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

Lihi Rotem Ganani, CMO, Ginom, Spain

Lihi Rotem Ganani is leading global initiatives that strengthen resilience through digital engagement, innovation, and community-building. She oversees marketing, branding, and driving collaboration across sectors. Based in Madrid, Lihi previously worked at IE Business School, where she developed innovation programs connecting corporates, startups, and students. Earlier in her career, she practiced law in Israel and served as a judicial clerk in the District Court. She holds degrees in Business, Law, and Digital Transformation and Innovation Leadership.

Avner Hilu, CPO, Ginom, Israel

Avner is a product and delivery professional specializing in complex software platforms across technology-driven industries. As CPO, Avner drives Ginom’s product strategy and execution, ensuring powerful capabilities are delivered through intuitive, user-focused design.

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