The Burke group:
They are consultants, they will be 'consulted' for contingency planning for 'cataclysmic' events and scenario run work throughs. One of thousands of nebulous contingency plans the company will keep in a bottom draw.
Just because the company employs them doesn't make it 'real'.
Clutching at straws one feels.
(They were also used for the inception of Open Skies as a ruler as to how communities within the company would feel.)