Appointment of Vice President of Enterprise Risk Management and
Chief Security Officer
May 26, 2021
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Lawrence Zacarese as vice president of enterprise risk management and chief security officer. This is a new position that for the first time treats the assessment and mitigation of risk as an enterprise function across all of Stony Brook University and Stony Brook Medicine. This role will provide leadership, expertise, and strategic guidance to the Stony Brook community on emergency management and business continuity, environmental health and safety, risk management, and public safety. It will work to integrate other areas to ensure the safeguarding of our people, our property, and the environment, while reducing the institution’s vulnerability to conditions adversely affecting its missions of education, research, and healthcare.
Vice President Zacarese will report to Senior Vice President of Administration Kathy Byington, and will begin in this role on May 31, 2021.
Many of you already know Larry as our interim chief of police and assistant vice president for campus safety and senior operations director for institutional resiliency and business continuity. Even more know him as an expert, competent, and indefatigable leader of our university’s COVID planning team — a group that has helped us safely and successfully navigate the course of the pandemic. As the institution continues to recover and reach for new heights, now is the appropriate time to introduce a more holistic and integrated approach to managing risk.
Larry rose to the top of a pool of candidates who emerged from a competitive national search that included experienced risk management experts from both the higher education and business sectors. He is an attorney admitted to practice in New York who earned his JD from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center. He has a master’s degree in public administration from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, and holds numerous safety and emergency industry certifications. He is a true public servant who brings policy expertise, effective government partner relationships, and deep emergency and planning experience to the work of assessing and mitigating risk.
I’m so delighted that he will lead this important function at Stony Brook.
As part of the transition, Assistant Chief of Investigations and Administration Neil Farrell will assume the role of interim chief of police and assistant vice president for campus safety, and will report to Larry in his new capacity.
Please join me in thanking the search committee — Suzanne Shane, Rich Reeder, Judi Brown-Clark, Carol Gomes, and Judy Greiman — for their effective work and in congratulating Larry Zacarese as he assumes his new role.
Maurie McInnis
President