Commissioner José A. Santiago joined the Chicago Fire Department (CFD) in 1979, and on February 16, 2012, Mayor Emanuel appointed Santiago as the Fire Commissioner of the CFD. Commissioner Santiago manages over 5,000 sworn members and an annual budget of over $$567.7M. He has made the CFD a leader in the fire service industry by implementing several best practices, including sweeping changes to the CFD’s incident command policies. These and other safety reforms established the CFD as an innovator in high-rise life safety. Previous to his position as Fire Commissioner, Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed Santiago as Executive Director of the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) on March 4, 2010. With an annual budget of approximately $91M and approximately 1,400 City of Chicago and contract employees, Executive Director Santiago had the critical responsibility of overseeing the multiple disciplines that comprise the OEMC, which include the dispatch of all police, fire and emergency medical services and non-emergency services, the management of a 24-hour City Operations Center that coordinates routine emergency and traffic services; the oversight, development, and execution of all City of Chicago disaster and homeland security planning and operations, and, the oversight and maintenance of the City of Chicago’s video surveillance network. The OEMC operates from a $217M facility and provides services for 2.8 million people. Santiago also served in the United States Marine Corp for over 31 years, both in active duty and the Reserves. He worked his way through the ranks from Private to Commanding Officer of H & S Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division. As the Commanding Officer, he was responsible for the training, directing and supervision of 253 Marines. He served in Operations Frequent Wind (RVN), Desert Shield and Desert Storm (SWA). He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Southern Illinois University.