Gerald Simon

Fire services professional Gerald Simon boasts career accomplishments that have earned him numerous awards and accolades. The Carl Holmes Executive Development Institute (EDI) presented him with its Fire Chief of the Year/James Shearn Award, and the League of California Cities bestowed its Distinguished Service Award on him. Another honor earned by Gerald Simon was the Santa Clara County Black Firefighters Association Appreciation Award.

Although primarily known in his role as Fire Chief for a number of cities, including Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well as Union City, Santa Clara, and Oakland, California, Gerald Simon also holds many professional affiliations. Some of his past associations include membership in organizations such as the California Emergency Medical Services Authority’s Governance Committee, the California Fire Chiefs Association’s Diversity Committee, and the Emergency Medical Care Commission of Santa Clara County.

In his capacity as Fire Chief, Gerald Simon successfully operated fire departments with hundreds of employees running on multi-million-dollar budgets. In addition to his managerial responsibilities, he introduced several initiatives in areas such as disaster preparedness, advanced life support, and emergency medical technician training programs.

On an International Association of Fire Chiefs and National Fire Protection Association fellowship, Gerald Simon graduated from a program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Gerald Simon’s high ranking in the fire services community poised him to take part in several international delegations to countries such as Great Britain, Russia, and China. Some of these appointments included programs for increasing diversity in the workplace, dealing with critical-incident stress management, reducing fire deaths, and closely observing the fire code.

An alumnus of Santa Clara University, Gerald Simon obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science. Still in Santa Clara, Mr. Simon subsequently entered Mission College’s program in Fire Science, where he began training for his career.