Michael Courton is CEO and Principal Consultant of The Courton Group, a management consulting firm which specializes in Operational Risk Management Consulting. Michael Courton consults on a variety of risk management, information security, policy & procedure development, plan development, solution implementation, and testing of emergency response, business continuity plans and information security issues.

Mr. Courton has over 22 years in the information systems field with twenty of those years focusing on business continuity planning, disaster recovery testing, crisis management, and information security management. Prior to becoming a consultant and starting his own company Mr. Courton worked for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and Depository Trust Clearing Corporation.

Mr. Courton a member of The Project Management Institute, the Information Systems Security Association, and sits on the Public/Private Partnership committee of the International Association of Emergency Managers. Mr. Courton served on the Executive Committee of the New York Contingency Planning Exchange from 1988 to 1997 and was Chairman of that organization from 1991 to 1993. Mr. Courton is a former member of the Board of Trailblazer Camps, Inc. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

Mr. Courton earned his Bachelors degree in Computer Science from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania with major work in Management Science. He is NYC OEM CERT trained and a member of the CB-2 CERT Team. He is currently pursuing additional certifications in the fields of emergency management, business continuity, and project management.

Mr. Courton is a contributing author to the successful book “Disaster Recovery Testing – exercising your contingency plans”. Is a regular speaker at conferences such as SHARE, and was one of two discussion leaders in the country that taught a course on business continuity planning for the AICPA.