Leadership

Richard R. Carrizzo – President, Public Safety Broadband Technology Association

Chief Richard Carrizzo is an internationally recognized leader in public safety with over 43 years of experience in fire and emergency services.  Appointed to the rank of Fire Chief in 1995, Chief Carrizzo has been having positive impacts to public safety over his entire career.  In early 2023 Chief Carrizzo was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the First Responder Network Authority, after serving the previous 5-years on the Board, including as Vice-Chairman. Additionally, he served as President for the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) during the 2020-21 term and remains active as a Past President with the IAFC. 

Chief Carrizzo is still active in local, state, and national public safety professional organizations since his retirement in 2025 with Southern Platte Fire Protection District (MO).

Regional collaboration is very important, and he served on the Mid-America Regional Council’s (MARC) Public Safety Communications Board as one of two metro fire chief representatives coordinating and setting policy for the entire 9-1-1 system in the nine counties and 120 cities within the metropolitan, bi-state region of Kansas City. In 2002, he was appointed to serve as a fire representative on the Regional Homeland Security Coordinating Committee (RHSCC) within MARC and sat on RHSCC’s Executive Policy Committee to set policy for the operations and future of the coordinating body until his retirement.

Chief Carrizzo also has an extensive private sector background serving as board member and as Chairman of the Board for four companies.  

Chief Carrizzo holds a Master of Business Administration degree, a bachelor’s degree in business administration, an associate degree in applied science in Fire Science and is a graduate of National Fire Academy (NFA) Executive Fire Officer Program. He is also a graduate of the Executive Leaders Program at the Naval Postgraduate School for Homeland Defense and Security.

Richard A. Mirgon – Vice President, Treasurer, Public Safety Broadband Technology Association

Richard Mirgon, a founding member of the Public Safety Alliance, which was responsible for the reallocation for the “D block” broadband spectrum and the legislation that created FirstNet. Richard has over 30 years of public safety experience with the last 20 years in the public safety technology field. After retiring from government service in 2009 he has been providing consulting service to the private sector, as well as state and local government. He is a Past President for the Association of Public Safety Officials International (APCO). He is currently the co-owner of Next Paradigm Consulting, LLC and Richard Mirgon Consulting LLC with his wife Shari.

Richard has participated in several national and statewide activities to include the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee, SAFECOM Executive Committee, and the Commercial Mobile Alerting Services Committee. In December of 1999 he was appointed by Governor Guinn to the State Emergency Response Commission and served as Co-Chair from March 2001 until March of 2006. Additionally, he served as Co-Chair of the WMD/Homeland Security Steering Committee from 1999 thru the fall of 2003.

Richard holds a BA in Political Science and Public Administration.

Al H Gillespie – Past President, Public Safety Broadband Technology Association

Chief Al H Gillespie served the fire service for almost 40 years, including 15 years as the Fire Chief of three large city fire departments. He also served as the Interim Executive Chief of East County Fire and Rescue. Chief Gillespie served as the President of the International Association of Chiefs (IAFC) 2011-12 and, as all past IAFC Presidents, serves on the President’s Council. During his tenure as President, he was instrumental in helping the fire service and all public safety, through Congress, acquire the D-Block bandwidth. Chief Gillespie serves as the Principal of Executive Fire Consultants working with a major multi-national communications company and on firefighter health and safety issues.

Al was a key participant with the Public Safety Alliance representing the fire service on a number of key issue in Washington D.C. during his term as President and Board Member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

Al has a bachelor’s degree in fire services administration from Eastern Oregon University and has a Fellowship for Harvard University. He is a Graduate of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officers Program and has been an instructor in the program.

John Paul Jones – Executive Director, Public Safety Broadband Technology Association

Chief John Paul Jones served in the fire service for 34 years including over 12 years as Fire Chief. As Fire Chief of the Kansas City Kansas Fire Department, Chief Jones was responsible for all department operational and administrative divisions (Administration, Fire Operations, EMS, Training, Special Operations, Logistics, Community Risk Reduction, Dispatch Communications, Fire Investigation, Fiscal Analysis, Apparatus Maintenance/Supply) and their performance involving, fire suppression response, fire-based EMS service delivery and all aspects of risk management.

Chief Jones’ initiatives played a vital role in ushering in a new era/use of technology, including mobile-data communications and administrative records management systems development. Chief Jones served as Co-Chair of the Policy Committee for the Kansas City Regional Homeland Security Coordinating Committee for the Kansas City region (Mid-America Regional Council, 9 counties, 119 municipalities) for many years. The RHSCC policy committee was tasked with administrative coordination and distribution of Homeland Security funds disbursement and collaborative/interoperable training efforts, Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) sustainment programs, Special Operations, Search & Rescue Task Forces, and other policy initiatives such as his co-authoring of the Regional Active Shooter Protocol for the Kansas City Region. Chief Jones continued to provide professional administrative services (post retirement) in regard to fire service and EMS expertise for several departments and fire service organizations for Fire and EMS deployment model development and communication’s plans after retiring from the KCKFD in 2018. He is a member of numerous state and national associations and professional organizations. Throughout his career experiences, Chief Jones has served in multiple roles through executive leadership in both administrative and operational management and as a professional consultant, has played a key role as a liaison and advocate for public safety communication’s interests, initiatives and innovations.

Chief Jones served as President of the Missouri Valley Division of the IAFC, covering 8 states and served on the historic working group committee regarding future governance of the IAFC in an effort to increase collaboration and communication between all Divisions and Sections. In addition, he served in multiple capacities for the Kansas State Fire Chiefs including legislative activities and has been instrumental in authoring legislation on their behalf. Chief Jones was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Kansas Fire Service Training Commission where he served in that role for over 5 years.

Chief Jones’ educational background includes a Master of Science in Fire Administration and Emergency Management from Oklahoma State University and a Bachelor of Science from Kansas State University (along with numerous other Fire Service, EMS and Emergency Management certifications, courses and curriculum and has served as a fire service educator throughout his career).