Chief Gene Saunders

Winner of the 2022 Men of Influence Award

Chief Gene Saunders is best known for founding non-profit organization Project Lifesaver International, preceded by a successful career in both the military and law enforcement.

After serving in the military reserves, Mr. Saunders got a taste for police work when his reserves unit was redesignated as a military police unit. In 1968, he decided to take a job in the Chesapeake Police Department and throughout his career spanning three decades, Mr. Saunders held every command in the police department, retiring in 2001 as a Captain. He was also Command of the SWAT team for 23 years and Chief of Search and Rescue for the Chesapeake Virginia Sheriff’s Office.

In 1999 – two years prior to his retirement in the police force – Mr. Saunders founded his non-profit organization, Project Lifesaver International, after noticing the link between cognitive conditions, like Alzheimer’s and Autism, and the life-threatening act of wandering. The company provides law enforcement officers, fire and rescue, and caregivers with a program which is designed to protect, locate, and rescue individuals who are deemed at risk.

Now in all 50 States in America, the District of Columbia and six provinces in Canada, Project Lifesaver has over 1,526 agencies, has an incredible 100 percent success rate and has completed thousands of rescues.

Mr. Saunders is a member of the International Police Association, International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Sheriffs’ Association, Florida Sheriffs Association and Florida Police Chiefs Association. He holds a certificate of police administration from the Southern Police Institute at the University of Louisville in Kentucky and since 1978, he’s also been a Federal Aviation Administration licensed drone pilot.