Jerome Hauer

Jerome Hauer was the chief executive officer of a consulting firm, The Hauer Group LLC. He also worked as a member of the Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals board of directors; Dr. Hauer as commissioner of Homeland Security and Emergency Services for the state government of New York until December 2014.

Hauer was the acting assistant secretary for the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness (OPHP) within the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). He was appointed by HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson on May 5, 2002 and served until replaced on April 28, 2004. In this role, Mr. Hauer was responsible for coordinating the country’s medical and public health preparedness and response to emergencies, including acts of biological, chemical and nuclear terrorism.

He was formerly the director of Office of Emergency Management under New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani from 1996 to 2000. Additionally, he was previously an employee of Kroll Inc. which studied biological terrorism attacks.

Hauer was the director of the Indiana Department of Emergency Management from 1989 to 1993 during the gubernatorial administration of Evan Bayh. Hauer joined IBM in 1993 to manage programs for Hazardous Materials Response and Crisis Management and Fire Safety. For his production of related training videos he received the International Film and TV Critics of New York Bronze award in 1996. In the early 1990s he received a master's degree in emergency medical services from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (now known as the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health) and later became a member of the Johns Hopkins Working Group on Civilian Bio Defense. He wrote several articles on possible bio terrorist attacks. On April 10, 1998 Hauer attended a "roundtable on genetic engineering and biological weapons" under President Bill Clinton.Dr. Hauer holds a Ph.D. from the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Cranfield University.

On September 11, 2001, Jerome Hauer was a national security advisor with the Department of Health and Human Services, a managing director with Kroll Associates, and a guest on national television, because of his background in counter-terror and his specialized knowledge of biological warfare.

Relationship with Rudolph W. Giuliani

Hauer was the first director of Mayor Giuliani's Office of Emergency Management. He directed the agency since 1996, when Giuliani shifted responsibility for the city's emergency preparedness from the police department to the new agency – headed by Hauer. Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Hauer began their relationship in January 1996 when Mr. Hauer was hired to lead the new Office of Emergency Management, created to coordinate the city’s response to crises. Hauer was known for his pioneering work on autotranfusion in cardiac surgery and trauma. In 1978 Hauer developed the first unit to reinfuse blood lost following cardiac surgery, reducing the risk of hepatitis. That work reduced before morbitiy and motality in these patients. He was issued a patent for his device. Before he became a Giuliani commissioner he had previously run emergency management programs for the State of Indiana and IBM.

9/11-related events

Jerome Hauer is best known for being the director of the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) when he made the decision to build a $13 million crisis center on the 23rd floor at 7 World Trade Center. This crisis center was unveiled in June 1999, and became the subject of tension between the agency and the police department, whose own command center at 1 Police Plaza had until then been the focus of emergency preparedness operations.

As the first director of the new crisis center, "one of Hauer’s first tasks was to find a home for an emergency command center to replace the inadequate facilities at police headquarters," according to the Times. The site selected, was immediately controversial because it was part of the World Trade Center complex (although not in one of the Twin Towers), which had already been the location of a truck bomb attack in 1993. City officials, though, including Mr. Hauer, have long defended their decision, even after the command center had to be evacuated during the 2001 terror attack. The Emergency Operation Center was widely hailed as the finest such facility in the nation, receiving visitors from around the world and serving as a model for others. A memo revealed by Chris Wallace on Fox news showed that Hauer wanted to put the command center in Brooklyn but was forced by Guilliani to put the facility within walking distance of city hall.

The center was destroyed when the 47-story tower collapsed at about 5:25 p.m. on 9-11.