DISASTER RECOVERY EXPERTS

Charles Rabamad

CEO

Charles Rabamad is a disaster recovery executive with more than 35 years of experience in disaster response, recovery, planning, mitigation, water resources, and critical infrastructure. During his 25 years with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), he held senior leadership positions overseeing state and federally declared disasters throughout California. Governor Jerry Brown appointed Charles three times as Assistant Director for Recovery and once as Special Advisor to the Director, placing him among the State’s highest-level disaster recovery officials. His career also includes leadership and advisory roles with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), and the private sector.

Charles directed statewide programs involving FEMA Public Assistance, Individual Assistance, Hazard Mitigation, Technical Assistance, and the California Disaster Assistance Act. He has served as the Governor’s Authorized Representative, State Coordinating Officer, and State Public Assistance Officer for numerous disasters and has overseen more than $6 billion in approved disaster funding. His experience includes major earthquakes, wildfires, floods, storms, landslides, debris flows, and infrastructure emergencies, including the South Napa Earthquake, Valley and Butte Fires, Oroville Dam Spillway incident, 2017 California Wildfires, Thomas Fire and Montecito debris flows, and Camp, Woolsey, and Hill Fires.

His expertise includes disaster housing, debris removal, environmental and historic preservation compliance, infrastructure recovery, project and program management, federal and state procurement, and project closeout. Through his work with DWR, Charles provided executive guidance concerning disaster response, cost recovery, procurement, regulatory compliance, and coordination with Cal OES and FEMA. His infrastructure experience includes dams, levees, flood-control systems, utility restoration, and major water infrastructure projects, including the Folsom Dam Auxiliary Spillway and Dam Raise projects and the Oroville Dam Spillway recovery. Charles also helped develop California’s Disaster Recovery Framework (CDRF) and project closeout procedures and contributed to the development of FEMA’s Grants Manager and Grants Portal systems. He has testified before the California Legislature and other governmental bodies on behalf of Cal OES and DWR.

As Chief Executive Officer of DRE, Charles provides executive leadership and strategic guidance to public agencies navigating complex disaster recovery, infrastructure recovery, and grant management matters. He also provides expert opinions and testimony concerning disaster response and recovery management, public assistance programs, utility restoration, and government procurement policies. Charles holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil and Structural Engineering Technology.