Nationally Connected
Regionally Focused
Uniquely Resilient

Welcome to ChicagoFIRST

A Crisis is No Time to Exchange Business Cards

ChicagoFIRST is a nonprofit association that provides critical firms a collaborative forum to address private sector resilience and emergency management planning and response with relevant local, regional, and national public sector agencies.

Full time staff provide situational awareness, working groups, exercises, and roundtable discussions for members to explore best practices; test their cyber, business continuity and physical security emergency response plans; and effectively align and integrate their preparedness and crisis response with the public sector. In these trusted venues, members identify challenges and engage in collaborative solution-based discussions addressing risk management, emergency preparedness, response, and resilience.

Through longstanding relationships with the public sector, ChicagoFIRST takes a leadership role at the local, state and federal levels, representing resiliency issues of importance to members.

Formed in 2003, private firms constitute ChicagoFIRST’s membership, govern its operations, fund its activities, and manage its staff. ChicagoFIRST’s staff addresses risk management issues affecting each firm by acting as an extension of each member’s team.

Our Services

Worpress

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Web Design

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Ecommerce

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Brand Now

SEO

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Our Team

Michael Carano

(Executive Director)

Michael Carano, Executive Director, ChicagoFIRST Mr. Michael Carano is the Executive Director of ChicagoFIRST, a non-profit association of mid-western private sector firms that coordinates critical…

Testimonials

  • ChicagoFIRST has truly made a positive difference to the collective emergency preparedness and business continuity of Chicago’s financial community.  It has become a model for many other cities throughout the country.  We are especially grateful that the City of Chicago has an impressive reputation for working together with its business community, the State of Illinois and federal government agencies, and other key organizations through the ChicagoFIRST partnership structure.  This approach is extremely effective and helpful in supporting the broader Federal Reserve objective of maintaining a stable financial system.

    Gordon Werkema, First Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
  • ChicagoFIRST is a dynamic, cutting edge organization and a model for how regional public/private partnerships can enhance the resiliency of financial institutions. ChicagoFIRST was founded because of the foresight of the Chicago financial services community, and it succeeds because of the cooperation and encouragement of the public sector, especially the City of Chicago and State of Illinois.

    Rahm Emanuel, 5th Congressional District (D-IL)
  • The timely and accurate information streams that I receive through ChicagoFIRST more than justify membership. When the airplane landed in the Hudson River in New York City in January 2009, I learned about it before my colleagues in New York did.

    Michael Wallace, Vice President, BMO Harris Bank

Key Strategic Partners