Gregg Favre

Executive Director
St. Louis Area Regional Response System

Location: St. Louis, MO
Founded: 2003
Industry: Government, Public Safety, Emergency Management

As the executive director of the St. Louis Area Regional Response System, Gregg Favre knows that if he has to control day-to-day processes and problems, he has failed to hire the right people.

“Instead of trying to micromanage each detail, meet ing or deliverable, it is my job to set the organizational intent,” he said. “From there, I work to hire the right people to fill key positions and empower them to lead through to the understood end goal.”

This is why Favre routinely asks his employees to lead meetings and initiatives that he is involved in because they may be more knowledgeable in a particular area or focus. “In this way, we are building a team of leaders who can watch out for one another and lend their experience to problems, rather than a team of one leader and a bunch of followers marching blindly on orders,” he said.

Service is a part of who Favre is, according to his staff. He is a 25-year veteran of public safety organizations, a military intelligence officer and a leading authority on national security thinking and innovation. He was recruited to the St. Louis Area Regional Response sys tem in early 2020, leaving the private sector to breathe new life into an organization with an important and complex mission.

In public safety and emergency management, Favre said the problems his team tackles can vary hour by hour. “It is a profession where you will be a part of great successes as well as devastating loss,” he said. “As a leader in these roles, the biggest lesson I have learned is that my trust in my team — and their trust in me — is paramount.”

This trust helps him lead a multi-state public safety planning, training, response and grants management organization. The St. Louis Area Regional Response System is responsible for the protection of more than five million residents and visitors across the St. Louis Metropolitan area.

“Public safety is a perpetually evolving profession and as the world grows more complex and interdependent, we have seen a rise in the challenges and threats that need to be managed,” said Favre. “Cities continue to ask increasingly more from their police officers, firefighters, medics and emergency managers. These new demands offer new opportunities to engage with the communities we serve.”

For his continued commitment to public service while continuing to be a key leader, Favre has been named a Titan.