Annie Searle
Annie Searle is Principal of Annie Searle & Associates LLC (ASA), an independent consulting and research firm serving businesses and organizations that are part of the nation’s critical infrastructure. ASA’s Institute for Risk and Innovation helps drive policy change in areas ranging from financial regulation to emergency management practices and readiness against threats like pandemic flu.
Prior to founding ASA, Annie spent ten years with Washington Mutual Bank, where she served as senior vice president for Enterprise Risk Services and chief technology architect. Her other responsibilities there included business continuity, information security architecture and assurance, and enterprise technology risk management, as well as change management and regulatory and audit assurance for the Technology Group. During her tenure, Annie was chair of WaMu’s Crisis Management Team, a member of the Public Policy Management Committee, and the executive sponsor of the WaMu technology innovation program.
Nationally, Annie represented WaMu as a member of the BITS Advisory Council for The Financial Services Roundtable, a Washington, DC-based industry consortium. She was a 2006 delegate to the Roundtable’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Mega-Catastrophes, focusing on earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, pandemics and terrorism. She is the author of “U.S. Financial Sector Prepares for Pandemic Flu,” published in 2007, as well as the 2008 article, “Pandemic Readiness in the U.S. Financial Services Sector: When Failure is Not an Option,” both of which were published by the British Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning.
Annie chaired the keynote panel for the 2007 Fall Critical Infrastructure Protection Congress entitled “Pandemic Readiness: Interweaving the Plans” that included the heads of five critical sectors and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security private-sector head. She was a team member for the Treasury Department’s 2007 three week fall pandemic exercise. She is a member of the Pacific Northwest Regional Disaster Resilience Advisory Council and founder/co-chair of WashingtonFIRST, the state’s financial sector coalition. Annie is also a private-sector representative for the Puget Sound Regional Catastrophic Planning Team.
Prior to joining Washington Mutual in 1999, Searle served for 15 years as president and CEO of Delphi Computers & Peripherals. For her work at Delphi, Searle won the 1992 Northwest Entrepreneur of the Year award from Inc. magazine and Ernst & Young and the Matrix Table Woman of Achievement award in 1994
Annie holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in literature from the University of Iowa. She is a member of the advocacy and fundraising board committees of the Seattle Public Library Foundation and a former board member of the University of Washington Information School; NPower Seattle; Washington Works; and the Washington Commission for the Humanities. Her professional affiliations include membership in the Risk Management Association, the Global Association of Risk Partners (GARP), and Seattle Women Business Owners. She is a lifetime member of the American Institute of Entrepreneurs.