Karie Lardon is the Sr. Director Preparedness & Risk Management at Southwest Airlines. She began her career at Southwest Airlines in 1995 holding positions in Operations, Corporate Services and Purchasing before she assisted with rebuilding the Emergency Response function in 2001. 

Karie’s primary responsibilities are developing and maintaining comprehensive emergency response and business continuity plans to support Southwest’s preparedness efforts.  These plans include aircraft incidents and accidents, weather disruptions, natural disasters, terrorism, pandemics, facility emergencies, and mass shooting events, as well as communication and executive contingency plans. 

Karie oversees annual training and exercises for more than 7000 Employees on 37 Teams. 

Karie ensures plan cohesiveness and adherence to laws by managing tools, resources, and projects that provide the infrastructure to support the Emergency Response and Business Continuity Programs.  During her tenure, she and her Team have implemented an automated notification system, online collaboration tool, business recovery planning tool, and training videos to educate the Employees of Southwest Airlines while responding to 100+ events over the past few years.

In her current role, Karie also oversees Enterprise Risk Management and ensures Southwest has mitigation strategies in place to respond to known and emerging risks.  During activations, Karie acts as the Response Director providing strategic guidance to senior executives in the Headquarters Emergency Command Center and in the field.  Karie chairs the Southwest Airlines Business Continuity, Emergency Response and Risk Committees consisting of senior executives and also serves on the Board of Directors for the Aviation Emergency Response Organization and chairs the Airlines for America Emergency Preparedness Committee.