Gary J. Yates

Gary J. Yates

President & CEO

During his 40+ year career in emergency management, criminal justice, consulting and corporate leadership, Mr. Yates has amassed extensive experience in program development & management, federal and state grant administration, compliance and quality assurance, inspections, and strategic & tactical planning. Since 2009, as President and CEO of The Integrity Group, Mr. Yates has served as Project Executive for many state and local governmental and non-profit entities involved in disaster preparation, response and recovery efforts. These projects have resulted in the pursuit, management and final reconciliation/closeout of over $4.8 billion in federal and other grants. His efforts have also included the management and oversight of three major statewide wind mitigation and home inspection programs, involving hundreds of certified inspectors and thousands of residences throughout Florida. He also provides guidance to the statewide Recovery Ready solution which provides a full evaluation and recommendations to make local entities fully prepared to deal with the massive challenges felt in a declared disaster.

Mr. Yates also leads and participates in the development and update of major Emergency Management Plans for state and local clients. This includes a major effort to develop a Long-term Recovery Plan for Bay County, Florida in the aftermath of Category Five Hurricane Michael.

His federal and state law enforcement leadership experience also included disaster recovery efforts, development and implementation of new programs and systems, and a strong focus on internal and external inspections, investigations, and overall quality assurance systems. In that role, he worked with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Florida Sheriffs’ Association and the Florida Police Chiefs’ Association in the pursuit, administration and monitoring of Local Law Enforcement Grants exceeding $250 million annually.

Mr. Yates also provides oversight to the statewide Detail Prime School Safety system, which offers full range of management for off-duty employment of certified law enforcement officers. The system currently includes over 200 sworn officers working in local school districts as School Resource Officers.

He also assists in the management of the firm’s Compliance Assurance solutions to provide professional monitoring and quality control for entities responsible for the provision of a wide range of governmental services. This includes management of teams acting as Independent Reviewers of service providers which have come under the scrutiny of criminal justice officials, Inspector Generals and governmental leadership which have identified operational or legal concerns.

Prior to founding The Integrity Group, Mr. Yates served as a Vice President in Criminal Justice Technologies for the General Dynamics Corporation in Fairfax, Virginia.

In this role, he oversaw the development and managed the implementation of Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) offender monitoring technology solutions for state and local criminal justice clients. This technology combined body-worn GPS tracking devices attached (via court order) to a convicted offender with the time and location of reported crime incidents to identify and/or exclude suspects. The system also pioneered the use of electronic “exclusion” zones to alert monitoring agencies should an offender violate that zone.

With this innovative solution, his team achieved recurring revenues totaling multiple millions within a two year period with overall excellent customer service and achievement of program performance measures. He built and maintained strong and positive working relationships with government officials at the federal, state, and local levels for introduction of various company-offered technologies. This included a major role in coordination of business development and legislative/funding activities, testifying before the U.S. Congress and several state legislatures concerning offender monitoring (including sex offenders) for the purpose of impacting (reducing) criminal recidivism.

Prior to entering the private sector, Mr. Yates served in several technical and leadership roles during his 27 years of service with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Following his initial technical role as a forensic technologist, his leadership roles at FDLE included Chief of Staff to the Commissioner, Inspector General, Director of Research & Planning, Chief of Intelligence, and Deputy Director of Administration. Among his major contributions in those roles were the following:

  • Consulted with agency leadership, criminal justice leaders and legislators on various major criminal justice initiatives. This role included authorship or co- authorship of major papers and proposals on the following public safety topics: Anti- Violent Crime Initiatives; Development of the Statewide Drug Strategy; Implementation of Community Policing; Institution of the Florida Computer Crime Center; Improvements in Forensic Science efforts, including the DNA technology solutions; School Violence Prevention and Response; Casino Gambling Impacts; Immigration Planning; Disaster Response policies; Crimes Against the Elderly; Gang Violence Prevention and Information Sharing; and Sex Offender Management Legislation.
  • Led the FDLE Executive Team examining organization improvement efforts, including input from other state agencies, local police and prosecutors as well as members of the organization.
  • As Chief of Intelligence served in numerous disaster events and deployments statewide. Developed Mass Immigration Plans and other tactical plans for disaster recovery.
  • Served as Agency Accreditation Officer, helping FDLE become the first State Law Enforcement Agency in the nation to be accredited.
  • Led and performed formal inspection and audit reports statewide, resulting in findings, recommendations; corrective action plans; and follow-up activities.

Prior to his service at FDLE, he worked for three years with the FBI’s Identification Division and Crime Laboratory, performing fingerprint casework, examining criminal evidence submitted from state and local criminal justice agencies. He also assisted in the development and implementation of the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).