Madhu Beriwal, president of IEM, says the recent disasters in Japan, where a major earthquake led to a tsunami and then a nuclear crisis, demonstrate the interconnections between systems in the modern world and the need to plan for “mega-disasters.” IEM worked with the Japanese government and academics on catastrophic planning; the last session was held in the company’s office in Baton Rouge about a year ago. Beriwal says Japanese officials seemed to believe they were prepared for a disaster. “It’s being compared to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II,” she says. “They found themselves stressed beyond any measure that they might have thought of.”
IEM is a consulting firm specializing in security as well as disaster and emergency management; it has locations and satellite offices in 18 states and Washington, D.C. Beriwal started the firm in Baton Rouge in 1985 and completed a headquarters move to North Carolina last year. The Baton Rouge office remains the company’s largest, with about 75 or so employees, and will be the second-largest by the end of the year. IEM experienced double-digit growth last year while opening two new offices in Colorado and Kentucky, Beriwal says. —David Jacobs
