Photo courtesy of IBM Crisis Response Team

Issue: Autumn 2005

Alumni Profile - Brent Woodworth

Coming to the Rescue

When a major disaster strikes, Brent Woodworth ’76 often finds out just after the White House and the Pentagon have been notified. As manager of IBM’s Crisis Response Team, he has responded to 70 major global disasters in 49 countries since 1993. “IBM has had a solid presence in many countries for over 70 years, and our country managers have excellent contacts with local government channels,” he says.

It was late in the afternoon last Christmas when Woodworth’s pager emitted its high-pitched beep at his home in Southern California. He had received an e-mail from the US Geological Survey, alerting him that a large undersea earthquake had occurred two hours earlier in the Indian Ocean. Even before the force of the killer tsunami wave had died out on the coast of Africa, Woodworth was on the phone with IBM’s country managers in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Woodworth and his team delivered IBM ThinkPad PCs, servers and other information technology to non-government organizations and government agencies in the heavily stricken areas. IBM also developed a customized suite of software applications. One kept an inventory of supplies coming in; another tracked victims in the devastated villages.

“There were many difficult and heartwarming moments in working on the tsunami relief effort,” Woodworth recalls. “Among them were the faces of the children in one of many relief camps where we brought in trauma counselors to help both parents and children deal with the losses suffered. The children always greeted us with warm smiles and couldn’t wait to shake your hand or to take a picture.”

Woodworth (back row, in blue) stands with children in Peru following the country’s 2001 earthquake. Photo courtesy of IBM Crisis Response Team

A 29-year veteran of IBM, Woodworth helped found the IBM Crisis Response Team in 1993 after his operating unit was consolidated.

“I decided to take the opportunity to meet with some of our executives ... to discuss an idea I had concerning critical incident response and recovery services for our IBM commercial clients,” Woodworth says. “Senior management supported my concept, and the IBM Crisis Response Team was born.”

Woodworth admits the work sometimes takes a toll on himself and his team.

“We have very strong feelings, but find ourselves in a position of being counted on to help others who are more directly impacted by a tragic event,” he says. “At those times, we put our emotions in check and try to maintain a delicate balance of keeping our sensitivity while maintaining our level of effectiveness and professionalism.”

But there’s no question that the one-time marketing guru has found his calling.

“For many years I have firmly believed that major corporations have a moral and social obligation to support the communities where our employees and customers live and work,” he says. “I am very lucky to work for a company that shares my strong belief in good corporate community relations and pro-active humanitarian relief on a global basis.”

– Jaye Scholl and Meaghan Agnew