About · Ottawa, Canada
The person behind Preparedness Labs.
Soldier. Scholar. Teacher. Founder.
Jeff Donaldson spent 28 years as a Canadian Army officer. He earned a PhD in Public Policy, focused on risk, resilience, and emergency management. He now teaches disaster and emergency management at Royal Roads University.
He started Preparedness Labs to give founder-led businesses the same practical resilience big organizations get.
Jeff Donaldson, PhD · Founder, Preparedness Labs
The Short Version
A long career, in plain terms.
The short version of three decades of work.
Jeff served 28 years as a Canadian Army officer. His work ran from field operations to headquarters planning. It taught him a simple truth. The organizations that come through disruption best are the ones that prepared before it happened.
He holds a PhD in Public Policy, focused on risk, resilience, and emergency management. He is a professor of Disaster and Emergency Management at Royal Roads University, where he teaches the people who will run tomorrow's responses.
He hosts Mastering Risk, a daily show and podcast about risk, resilience, and running a business that lasts. He sits on the board of the International Social Capital Association. He lives and works in Ottawa.
Why He Started Preparedness Labs
March 2020 showed him who was not ready.
Almost everyone.
When the pandemic hit, Jeff watched organizations of every size scramble. Most had no plan. Many did not know where to start. The ones with risk departments and consultants got through it better. Most small and mid-sized businesses were on their own.
That bothered him. Practical resilience should not be reserved for enterprises with risk departments. The methods are not secret. They are just rarely translated for the businesses that need them most.
Preparedness Labs exists to do that translation. Real risk practice, sized for real businesses, at prices a founder can say yes to.
His Approach
Non-apocalyptic. Evidence-based. Practical.
No doom. No 200-page binder. Just preparation that fits your business.
Non-apocalyptic
Jeff does not sell fear. Disruption is normal. Businesses fail because small problems become major failures when nobody prepared, not because the world is ending.
Evidence-based
His methods come from what actually happens in disruptions and what actually works in response. Three decades of practice, not theory from a textbook.
Practical
You do not redesign your business to fit a framework. The system fits the business you already run.
Your Next Step
Start with the free brief.
Risk intelligence for your business, every 72 hours. Read it in minutes.