John Oates

Chief (Ret.)
President and CEO, International Public Safety Data Institute (IPSDI)

Chief (Ret.) John Oates is the President and CEO of the International Public Safety Data Institute (IPSDI), the fire service's leader in data and analytics. As CEO, he is responsible for growth, adoption, and continuous improvement of the National Fire Operations Reporting System (NFORS) Analytics, Exposure Tracker, and FireCARES programs.

Prior to his appointment as IPSDI CEO in November of 2021, he served as Chief of the East Hartford Fire Department in Connecticut for 13 years. Prior to that, Chief Oates served in West Hartford, Connecticut, for 20 years, reaching the rank of Battalion Chief. He has been an advocate for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF)'s Everyone Goes Home Program since the inception of the 16 National Life Safety initiatives. He serves the First Responder Center for Excellence as a member of the Behavioral Health Advisory Committee. He is a member of the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) 3000 Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response Technical Committee as well as the NFPA 610 Safety at Motorsports Venues Technical Committee, where he served as Chairman from 2005 to 2016.

Chief Oates has a BS from Franklin Pierce University, an MS from Oklahoma State University, is a graduate from the National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer (EFO) program, and holds numerous other professional certifications.