A retired police captain with an extensive professional career in military and police special operations, Chief Gene Saunders, Founder and CEO of Project Lifesaver, is redefining lifesaving services. Upholding the mission to “bring loved ones home,” Saunders has changed the scenario of protecting people’s lives with Project Lifesaver. It is a program composed of components specifically designed to protect individuals who are at risk. Under Saunders’s outstanding leadership, this program evolved from a localized one to a globally recognized, effective, and proven method.
His expertise in the military and police service operations has shaped Saunders’s leadership as a thought leader at Project Lifesaver. The CEO Views recognizes his contribution to making the program a success and honors him with the “Thought Leadership Award 2025”. As a proud recipient of this honor, Chief Gene Saunders shares with us the story of his leadership journey at the program.
An Endeavor of Search and Rescue
Saunders’s entrepreneurial journey is a testament to his professional expertise and commitment to technological integration to transform life-saving operations. He entered the Police profession in 1968 with the Chesapeake, Virginia, Police Department. Saunders served the agency for 33 years and retired as a Captain in 2001. During his tenure with the agency, he commanded the Special Operations (SWAT) Team for 23 years, and part of their duties were search and rescue.
This sparked his interest in developing technology-based procedures to locate missing people and bring them back to their loved ones. After several failed searches for missing Alzheimer’s patients, he decided to try another approach. “I adopted the radio tracking systems used to locate wildlife and adapted them to be able to track and locate people,” adds Saunders. Leveraging this technology, he further developed effective procedures and methods to maximize its usage in saving people’s lives.
Project Lifesaver: A Journey of Expansion
Project Saver was founded in 1999 in Chesapeake, Virginia, at the onset of a dramatic increase in cognitive conditions. It is a community-based, non-profit, public safety organization. Project Lifesaver aims to provide law enforcement, rescue services, and caregivers with a program specifically designed to protect and locate individuals with cognitive disorders who have a life-threatening behavior of wandering.
Since its inception, the company has evolved and expanded to all 50 states in the US, 9 provinces in Canada, Puerto Rico, and Washington D.C., with over 1,841 participating agencies. Its members have accounted for over 5,000 successful rescues. Apart from expansion, the organization has significantly improved the technology, training, and equipment to ensure better service delivery.
Celebrating the Honor
As the winner of the Thought Leadership Award, Saunders embraces this honor as a recognition of his success in recovering missing persons with cognitive disorders. It is a validation of his approach as the most efficient one in accomplishing the crucial task. For Saunders, thought leadership brings about true innovation.
Thought Leadership in Project Lifesaver
The true essence of thought leadership involves excelling in a specific area of interest and emerging as a pioneer in that area. With Project Lifesaver, Saunders has changed the picture of search and rescue by improving and developing the locating technology and becoming a global leader in this aspect.
Under his visionary guidance, the organization has been recognized as a World Leader on two separate occasions. Through media, videos, and social media platforms, Saunders has spread the message and provided many public speaking engagements on the subject. The organization itself stands as a testament to thought leadership, becoming a Gold Standard in its field.
An Insightful Leadership Journey
Chief Gene Saunders’s leadership is attributed to his tapestry of professional experience. Throughout his professional journey as a military and police professional, he has served multiple roles that have shaped him as an exceptional leader in the search and rescue realm. Saunders served in the National and State Guard, commanding Aviation and Ranger Units as a Major, directed and managed several large-scale tactical operations involving criminal manhunts, hostage situations, and other special incidents, founded and commanded the Chesapeake PD SWAT Team for 23 years, and several more.
Saunders is also a certified Master Flight Officer for Helicopter Operations and Master Mission Specialist for Search & Rescue (SAR) Fixed Wing Operations. As a member of the Airborne Law Enforcement Association, the National Association of Search and Rescue (NASAR), and the Virginia Search and Rescue (SAR) Council, he has gained experience in law enforcement and search and rescue. This provided him with the insight and ability to navigate the fields and apply the knowledge he gained and the technology he developed to many agencies.
Leading Innovation
Project Lifesaver keeps innovation at the forefront of its operations. As a solution provider, Saunders embraces innovation through technological integration to craft its locating solution. Its locating technology is at the core of the program and is specially designed to protect people at risk. The program combines state-of-the-art locating technologies, innovative search and rescue procedures, and community policing courses, reducing the recovery time of agencies to 30 minutes on average. Relying on radio technology and a specially trained rescue team, Saunders has embedded innovation into the program’s operations.
Manifesting in the Future and Being the Beacon of Knowledge
In a few years from now, Saunders’s best manifestation of himself from his current position would be continuous improvement. “I plan to continue as long as possible, improving what we do and how we do it,” says Saunders.
In his advice for emerging thought leaders, he encourages them to develop their ideas and use the resources available to them to get the message out and never quit.
You drive innovation by developing an idea and proving through testing and reality that it works and is beneficial to apply.
