The ICCRA North America Chapter Board is a volunteer-led group of experienced practitioners drawn from across the critical control room community in America and Canada.

Board members contribute their time, expertise, and regional knowledge to guide the direction of the North America Chapter – ensuring it remains grounded in the realities of the operating environment, responsive to the needs of its members, and connected to the wider global network.

Representing a range of sectors, disciplines, and national contexts, the Chapter Board provides local leadership and governance in support of ICCRA’s mission to connect professionals, share best practice, and advance excellence in critical control room operations.

Their involvement reflects a straightforward conviction: that practitioners, not institutions, should lead the conversation about what good looks like in a critical control room.

Christopher Carver is a public safety and leadership professional with more than 30 years of experience working alongside some of the world’s most respected organisations and teams on complex, high-impact challenges.

His career spans leadership roles across emergency response, public safety technology, and organisational transformation – from responding to major incidents in America’s largest city, to delivering multi-billion-dollar technology programmes, to supporting a faith-based community through the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also played a key role in launching and growing a new public safety software product line, achieving significant year-on-year growth during the pandemic.

Christopher has trained and mentored new 9-1-1 professionals, coached and supported sales teams, and regularly speaks at conferences on leadership, inclusion, and improving public safety outcomes. He is a passionate advocate for authenticity and inclusion, openly sharing his experience of coming out in a firehouse in 1997 and the lessons it continues to shape in his leadership approach.

A consistent theme throughout his work is a deep belief in the power of people to solve problems collaboratively. Christopher is driven by the conviction that by listening, supporting, and engaging – particularly with voices that are too often unheard – meaningful and lasting improvement is possible for communities, organisations, and society as a whole.

Professionally, Christopher serves as Director of Market Development at Octave, where he connects sales, partnerships, technology development, and strategy with the needs of the public safety community. 

Lieutenant Chris Pillar is a 30-year veteran of the Columbus Ohio Division of Fire, where he serves as the Fire Communications Liaison Officer.  In that role he provides oversight of one of the busiest Fire Communications offices in the United States and supports a team of over 60 personnel.  Prior to being assigned to communications, he served as a firefighter, paramedic, and company officer in some of Columbus’s busiest and most storied firehouses.  Before his time in the fire service Chris served in combat in the United States Army as member of Desert Shield/Storm.

Chris has been involved in the ICCRA North America Chapter since its inception, first as treasurer and most recently as first vice president.  His interests include biking, cooking and fly fishing.  This year he will compete his Bachelor’s degree in Public Safety Leadership and Management from Frankin University.

He resides in Westerville, Ohio with his wife, two kids and rescue dog Katie. 

• 2nd Vice President: Jim Cheatham (City of Alpharetta, GA)
• Secretary: Nick Mathis (Vuwall)
• Treasurer: John Geib (Bucks County PA)

Advisory Board

• Mandy Bishop (Forward Momentum Consulting) 
• Bonnie Maney (Mission Critical Partners) 
• Elise Bellick (Viiz Communications) 
• Chris Oldham (Intertalk Systems, Inc.) 
• Shea Gerula (Axon)
• Grant Forsman (Canada)