Management Team
David Kamien, CEO
David Kamien is the CEO and co-founder of Mind-Alliance Systems, the pioneer in information sharing management software. Mind-Alliance’s software enables customers to plan, analyze, and improve the flow of information throughout an organization’s operational environment. David leads the Mind-Alliance mission to enable collaborative risk management and operational performance improvement. He has overall responsibility for Mind-Alliance’s vision, market direction, product strategy, and operations. David is driving the early growth of Mind-Alliance Systems as an enterprise software provider by signing up government and enterprise customers that share his passion for enhancing security, community resilience, and business continuity through planning and managing the flow of information across organizations.
Prior to founding Mind-Alliance, David worked as a sales professional for Marsh USA. From 2000-2004, he drove over $100m in sales as a strategy and business development consultant to Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Siemens, Motorola and other clients offering homeland security solutions. From 1995–2000, David’s career focused on telecom and media regulatory policy, as well as Internet applications. David advised the Israeli Ministry of Communications and Antitrust Authority, and worked with telecom operators and Internet startups in Israel and Europe.
David served in the Israeli Defense Forces as an infantry officer in the Golani Brigade and as a liaison officer to United Nations forces. David has a Law Degree from the Academic College of Law in Ramat Gan and a bachelor's degree from Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the editor of The McGraw-Hill Homeland Security Handbook, currently being prepared for a second edition, and the author of a book on Information Sharing Planning, to be published by Taylor & Francis in 2012. Born in New York, David lived in Israel for 20 years and returned to the U.S. in August 2001. He resides in New Jersey with his wife and two children.
Jean-François Cloutier, CTO
Jean-François (JF) Cloutier is the CTO and co-founder of Mind-Alliance Systems, LLC. Mr. Cloutier is the designer and principal developer of the Channels Information Sharing Planning (ISP) software and the author of the Information Sharing Method.
Mr. Cloutier has 25 years of experience in software as a manager, architect, developer, educator, and consultant, both in North America and in Europe for Citigroup, Euroclear, Hydro-Québec, and AIG. He is a contributor to The McGraw-Hill Handbook of Homeland Security.
From 1996 to 2003, as co-founder and managing director of a New York startup, Mr. Cloutier directed the development of InfoObject, the first commercial ontology-driven information integrator. At Citigroup in the early 1990s, he acted as object technology expert and led to completion one of the largest commercial applications of object technologies to date. In the 1980s he introduced students and educators to AI concepts and languages and was a speaker at national and international conferences. Mr. Cloutier holds a M.Sc. in computer science from McGill University.
Howard Steinberg, Consulting Director
Howard Steinberg has had over 30 years of management experience in public health services and all-hazards disaster preparedness planning, including HAZMAT operations, continuity of government planning, and other aspects of homeland security, at both the county and the state-wide levels. While serving as the Director of Human Services for the Town of Morristown, NJ, he created and chaired the county’s first bioterrorism task force.
Mr. Steinberg was the first county health official in New Jersey to engage in bioterrorism preparedness planning and to engage the private business sector in that effort. He has supervised public health officials and worked to identify and address various public concerns such as health care, environmental protection, and substance abuse. As the Division Head for the County of Morris, NJ, Mr. Steinberg provided strategic vision and direction for bioterrorism response planning by partnering and interfacing with leaders of the business community and state and federal officials. He worked to assess community health status and risks, identify priorities, and develop strategies for providing cost-saving yet effective public health services.
Mr. Steinberg has played integral roles in the construction of new health clinics and the development of neighborhood primary care centers and innovative health screening networks. He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including NJSHD’s Innovation Model Program Award, NJDEP’s Commitment to Environmental Excellence Award, and the Afro-American Communities’ Humanitarian Award. Mr. Steinberg holds a BA in History from Monmouth College.
Robert McCreight, Ph.D., Senior Consultant
After serving the United States government at the State Department and other federal agencies over a 35 year career, Dr. McCreight retired in 2004 and served as a consultant for major homeland security and national defense contractors. His professional career includes work as an intelligence analyst. treaty negotiator, arms control delegate to the UN, counter-terrorism advisor, and political-military affairs analyst. During his service at State Department he was a Soviet military analyst and specialized in the assessment of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Later in his professional career he performed assignments where he either managed or coordinated international post-disaster relief and humanitarian operations, developed peacekeeping policy, promoted global science and technology cooperation projects and helped design treaty verification systems. During his federal career he designed, developed and coordinated well over 76 cabinet level strategic exercises and similarly directed the operation of several dozen military exercises involving theoretical force-on-force scenarios.
He spent 27 years of combined active and reserve military service concurrently with his civilian work in U.S. Army Special Operations and has devoted 12 years to teaching graduate school as an adjunct at Georgetown, George Mason and George Washington Universities in subjects as diverse as disaster and emergency management, strategic intelligence, nonproliferation policy, homeland security policies, terrorism analysis, intelligence analysis and assessing WMD threats. He has also written and published over 15 articles on chemical weapons use, disaster management, disaster recovery, post-strike attribution, biological weapons threats to homeland security, WMD scenario development and collegiate educational strategies for developing the professional crisis manager.
Cal Downs, Ph.D., Consultant
Former President of Communication Management, has 30 years practical experience as a consultant and trainer, in addition to holding professorships in organizational communication at the University of Maryland, Northwestern University, and the University of Kansas. His work on communication assessments has earned him an international reputation. Author of Communication Audits, Professional Interviewing, The Organizational Communicator, and many articles in professional journals, he continually conducts research on communication in organizations.
Mr. Downs is an active participant in the Academy of Management and International Communication Association. For many years he was a regular trainer in management commuincation at the University of Michigan Executive Training center and the Engineering Management Course at UCLA. He has also conducted numerous seminars on change and intercultural communication for the Agency for International Development.
Mind-Alliance Systems - Israel Office
Noam Kohn, VP, Business Development & Strategy
Noam Kohn is a retired officer (Lt. Col) of Israeli intelligence services. He served in various managerial positions in the Israel Security Agency’s Special Operations Division from 1999 -2010. As Head of Operational Security he provided professional operational and information security project guidance both within the organization and for cross-organizational projects. He was instrumental in defining guidelines for information sharing and integrating IT solutions in security operations. His innovative performance assessment methods and quality assurance procedures aided in improving inter-organizational cooperation among government offices and other security and intelligence agencies.
Mr. Kohn’s tenure in operational security was preceded by five years as the Head of an Operational Intelligence Unit, managing a team of 20 people conducting complex projects and assignments. He was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Director of the Israel Security Agency for his management and integration of a state-of-the-art integrative information sharing system.
Mr. Kohn served for sixteen years in the Israeli Defense Forces as a Field Officer and Team Commander of a Special Intelligence Unit, retiring with the rank of Major, and six years as an Intelligence Officer in Airborne Intelligence for the Israel Air Force. Mr. Kohn is an Israeli citizen, fluent in both Hebrew and English. He received his MBA from Ben Gurion University and his BA in Political Sciences and Middle Eastern History from Haifa University.
Yuval Kimhi, Senior Consultant & Project Manager
Col. (Ret.) Yuval Kimhi is a senior Homeland Security consultant, offering expertise in the fields of emergency and disaster response planning and management, multi-agency and multi-disciplinary operational response and risk communication.
Col.(Ret) Yuval Kimhi is the former Head of the Emergency and Planning Department of the Israeli National Police (INP). In that capacity, Yuval was responsible for managing and executing all emergency operational doctrine for the Israeli National Police covering mass casualty incidents, manmade disasters, C.B.R.N.E. attacks, HAZMAT and civil military coordination.
Prior to joining the Israel National Police, Col.(Ret.) Yuval Kimhi served as Head of the Doctrine & Development Department at the Home Front Command, Israel Defense Forces. In that role,Yuval managed and coordinated doctrine and development; lead strategic planning for the Home Front Command; advised government committees on a wide range of relevant topics in Homeland Security; developed legislation across organization boundaries; lead teams aimed at developing concepts for building Home Front Command preparedness in the face of the evolving threat environment.
Col.(Ret.) Kimhi holds a BA in Logistics and Economics from Bar-Ilan University and an MA in Political Science and National Security from Haifa University.
Board of Advisors
Currently, our board of advisors includes:
Richard Birney, leads the Willow Lake Investment and Advisory Group. His passion is to help young companies create sound business models and growth strategies. Richard was formerly VP Corporate Development at IBM, with responsibility for strategic investments and growth initiatives. Among his many accomplishments for IBM, Richard managed over $500 million in investments around the world and developed a fund investing strategy that delivered a high (>30%) internal rate of return.
Chiny Driscoll, an experienced Sales and Professional Services executive, with an impressive track record selling multi-million dollar software solutions to government agencies and major corporations. Ms. Driscoll is an executive with Netezza/IBM and formerly held senior sales management positions with the public sector practice of TIBCO Software.
Stuart Friedman, Department of Commerce appointee to National Defense Executive Reserve (1964-1988, originally administered by the Office of Emergency Preparedness, then FEMA); crisis management industry expert appointed to NATO Civil Emergency Planning Directorate (1988-2006); President, Birch & Davis Health Management Corporation (1985-2000), acquired (2000) by ACS (now Xerox).
David Steiner, Member of the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of NY and NJ, and Chairman of Steiner Equities Group, LLC, which develops industrial and office parks and commercial facilities in NJ and 14 other states.