Matt Custer has more than 38 years experience in the communications and utility fields. His primary role in EPP is to use best practices to facilitate, coordinate and manage internal and external communications during an emergency. He also serves as a process improvement expert, to identify, analyze and improve organizational processes as they relate to emergency preparedness.
Prior to co-founding Emergency Preparedness Partnerships, Matt spent 23 years in the electric utility business successfully planning for and managing a variety of business crises and emergencies. He worked for Conectiv, a Fortune 500 electric and gas utility based in Wilmington, Delaware. Matt is also a process improvement facilitator for Maritz Learning, part of Maritz, Inc., an international firm specializing in marketing research and performance improvement.
As manager of public relations, he led the development of corporate communications resources and processes to restore the company’s credibility after the energy crises of the 1970’s. He established new methods and procedures to more successfully meet both internal and external communications needs during severe storms and outages. And he was responsible for coordinating the company’s communications responsibilities during nuclear emergency exercises. Matt has also assisted with writing emergency scenarios, administering emergency operations exercises and providing observation/evaluation feedback.
Matt was later called upon to help Conectiv Energy meet a critical process re-engineering challenge, and served with Conectiv’s customer service unit as a special representative during a public relations crisis caused by the release of erroneous electric and gas bills to thousands of customers.
Prior to joining Atlantic Electric/Conectiv, Matt was the Director of Public Relations for the American Lung Association where he worked with multiple state and city agencies to design and implement the first multi-state air quality index reporting system in the Northeast.
Matt has a B.A. from West Chester University, PA and an M.A. in Public Communications from Syracuse University. He has been an adjunct professor at the Richard Stockton College of NJ and a special instructor for the Rutgers University Continuing Education Department. He is active in the New Jersey Emergency Preparedness Association, American Society for Industrial Security, the New Jersey Utilities Association, and the American Society for Quality and the International Association of Facilitators.
