The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appointed Daryl L. Osby to the position of county forester and fire warden of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Osby will fill the position held for the past 22 years by retiring Chief P. Michael Freeman. Osby also becomes the first African-American chief in the department’s 88-year history.

Osby’s promotion to the top job comes less than three years after being promoted to chief deputy in April 2008. Since then, he has served second in command to the fire chief as chief deputy of emergency operations and most recently as chief deputy of business operations.

His executive level experience also includes leadership, development and management of the special-operations bureau, including the department’s ocean lifeguards, air operations, fire-suppression camps and technical-rescue services. Osby has also worked in several emergency management positions throughout his career and has often served as the top commander during many headlining incidents, including the Commerce train derailment, the 2003 California Fire Siege, the 2005 Topanga Fire, the 2007 Catalina Island Fire and the 2008 wildland fires. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Osby was deployed to Louisiana for 18 days to assist the City of New Orleans in developing a continuity plan for their city government and managing recovery efforts.

Osby holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Organizational Leadership from Azusa Pacific University. In 2009, he completed Harvard University’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program and, in 2006, its National Preparedness Leadership Program. He is also a graduate of the Carl Holmes Executive Development Institute and Loyola Marymount University’s Martin Gang Institute for Intergroup Relations.