Elmarie Marais

Barbara Webster is Executive Vice President at GoCrisis, overseeing North America, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Barbara is a renowned Crisis, Family Assistance, and Business Continuity expert. She was most recently the Senior Director of Emergency Response and Business Continuity at Spirit Airlines for nine years before joining GoCrisis. She has over 27 years of experience in the field of emergency management, which began in the oil & gas sector in Canada. Prior to her career at Spirit Airlines in Florida, she successfully developed and led WestJet Airlines’ Emergency Response and Family Assistance programs for nine years in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

She has extensive domestic and international response experience which includes a fatal hotel explosion in Playa del Carmen Mexico and aviation accidents in Tripoli, Libya and Dillingham, Alaska. She has also responded to numerous aircraft-related incidents, a tall ship sinking off the coast of Brazil with high school students, three mass shootings, and multiple hurricanes requiring full facility evacuations. Barbara also led Spirit’s partnership with Operation Puerto Rico Care-Lift, where she coordinated over 160 tons of relief supplies to Puerto Rico during the 2017/18 Hurricane Season.

Barbara is a citizen of both the United States and Canada, and is currently based out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She is one of the Founding Board Members and former Chair of AERO, the Aviation Emergency Response Organization, and has provided guidance to air carriers and airports around the world.