In May 2017 I reach 20 years working in the security industry, 18 of those recruiting within the corporate security & resilience field. I have placed candidates in senior level and niche roles across 40+ countries and 5 continents in a wide range of industry sectors including oil & gas, mining, pharmaceutical, tobacco, FMCG, food, engineering, technology, telecoms and financial services. In 2013 I joined Barclay Simpson, the world leader in Corporate Governance recruitment, to develop their global corporate security recruitment function. Our consultants, based in offices in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and New York work with clients throughout the globe and we place permanent and interim positions within internal and IT audit, risk, security & resilience, compliance, legal, and treasury across all economic sectors. Alongside my work at Barclay Simpson I launched Intelligent Access International in January 2017, connecting CSOs to proven security service providers internationally to save time and money. Why pay for a consultancy to fly halfway around the world, or pay a large mark-up when the project is sub-contracted anyway, when you can utilise a reliable local firm who can fulfil your requirements? Whether it be site security surveys in Turkey, executive protection services in Cote D’Ivoire, threat intelligence in Saudi Arabia, brand protection support in Malaysia, security training in Mexico, crisis management support in Russia or forensic investigations in Ghana; IAI are here to help you identify the best resource for you to use in a specific country.

Charles Page is Palladium’s Director of Global Safety and Security, having worked with the company, in both project and corporate roles, over the past six years.  Palladium provides project management to clients from 75 offices, worldwide, specialising in humanitarian and sustainability projects.  Prior to Palladium, Charles served as a Brigadier in the British Army, operating in multiple countries and across a range of disciplines.  At the conference, he will talk through Palladium’s Crisis Management mechanism, providing useful advice based on recent experiences.

Charles is Chief Security Officer at Ontic, a software provider that corporate and government security professionals use to proactively manage threats, mitigate risks, and make businesses stronger. In his role, he leads and oversees the global security and intelligence operations and strategy for Ontic and its clients, delivering innovative and effective solutions that leverage data, technology, and industry standards. Charles is passionate about transforming and enhancing the security profession and advancing its value and impact. He serves on the Board of Directors at the International Protective Security Board, a non-profit organization that promotes excellence and collaboration in the field. Charles also supports the U.S. Department of State’s mission to assist corporations as a member of the OSAC. He is a certified information operations and joint C4I professional, and is a published author and speaker on security topics.

Crawford is Group Head of Security & Investigations at British American Tobacco, a consumer goods and tobacco company ranked number one in the FTSE 100 with operations in over 180 countries across the globe and over 50,000 employees.

As the most senior security professional in BAT, Crawford is responsible for BAT’s security, investigations and resilience programmes.

Aside from his national and international policing background, Crawford has multi-sector experience in previous senior roles in the pharmaceutical, food and charitable sectors in security, investigations and compliance over a period of 20 years.

Crawford’s business knowledge and pragmatism are complemented by a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) and a Master’s in Information Security (with distinction).

In addition to having fulfilled a number of Trustee and non-Executive roles in the Charitable sector he is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, a Chartered Security Professional, founding member of the Association of Corporate Investigators (ACi), and a Freeman of the City of London.

Staff Officer d.R. in the Cyber and Information Domain Service of the Bundeswehr and prior to that in the Special Operations Division.

2016, participation in the Security Policy Course for Senior Officials at the Federal Academy for Security Policy.
Lectureships for strategic steering of Corporate Security Organizations at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and the European Business School.

2007-2020, Member of the Board of the Allianz für Sicherheit in der Wirtschaft NRW e.V. (2014-2018 Chairman of the Board), 2019-2020 Member of the Board of the European Energy – Information Sharing & Analysis Centre (EE-ISAC). Member of the Advisory Committee of the Bundeswehr University Munich for the accompanying research project IT-Security in critical infrastructures, Member of the federal working group Cybersecurity of the Economic Council Germany e.V., in the CSO Roundtable of ASIS International, in the International Security Management Association, the European Institute of Corporate Security Management and others.

Publisher of the book „Risiko Blackout – Krisenvorsorge für Wirtschaft, Behörden und Kommunen“. Since 2007, publisher of the Online Security Portal www.sicherheitsmelder.de of the Richard-Boorberg-Publishing Company

Cybersecurity Leader Award, 2019
Outstanding Security Performance Award 2015 und 2019
CSO50 Award 2018 und 2019
Security Innovation Award 2018
The Most Influential People in Security 2016

Jack has served in senior positions in both the public and private sectors and has decades of experience managing risks in geopolitics, counterintelligence, insider threat, corporate security, and cybersecurity. He is an expert in security program design and management, and in analyzing and advising on complex risk matters at the senior executive level. 

Maria Victoria joins WFP in October 2017 as a Senior Security Officer and staffing coordinator and takes up her duties as Director of the Security Division in October 2019.
Following a restructuring of the Security function, Maria Victoria continues serving the programme on the same role as Deputy Director of the Security Division.
Prior to WFP, she serves at the United Nations Department of Safety and Security, New York, Colombia and Senegal and has extensive security experience in various UN agencies (such as UNDP, UNODC and UNHCR). From her private sector experience, she brings expertise and knowledge on international negotiations on trade and health, having worked at Weber Shandwick as strategic advisor. Her diplomatic career starts with the coordination of the Rio Group at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the Americas desk where she coordinates the diplomatic relations with the United States. Subsequently, she moves to Geneva to join the Permanent Mission of Bolivia related to International Organisations. Maria Victoria holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs and Public Administration from the Catholic University of Louvain-la Neuve in Belgium, and a post-graduate degree in criminology from University of Lausanne in Switzerland.

Mark is a vastly experienced global risk management professional. He has worked across multiple security disciplines, both corporate and commercial.

Following a whole military career, he spent 14 years’ operating internationally in the oil & gas sector.

Today, Mark runs a niche risk business for corporations and individuals focusing on East and West Africa.

Earlier this year, he conducted 7 evacuations from Sudan in a hectic 16-day window following the outbreak of civil war in Khartoum on 15-Apr 2023.

His talk at the conference is ‘Escape from Sudan’.

After 25 years’ service as an officer in the Royal Marines, Mark made the transition into Corporate Security in 2006. He has been the Director of Global Security at Smiths Group, Cadbury, Philip Morris International and PwC before taking up their present position as Group Security Director at CRH.

Specialties: Security of People, property, information and reputation. All levels of investigation (including fraud and corruption), risk assessment and mitigation, contingency planning, crisis management, business intelligence and business continuity.

Michael Bender is an Intelligence Analyst for Macquarie USA. He possesses a PhD in International Relations and Politics from Florida International University with a background in global security issues, the geopolitics of the Middle East and South Asia, and emerging (political, security) threats to O&G markets. Michael is a member of the OSAC: Energy Sector Committee (ESC) steering committee member and has 10+ years of experience in the analysing, writing, and educating on issues related to geopolitics and international security. Prior to working for Macquarie, Michael held positions in academia, political risk analysis and as a researcher at a DC-based, policy think-tank.

Mike Croll is a Senior Lecturer in Security, Intelligence, and Resilience at Buckinghamshire New University, near London. Having spent much of his career leading global security operations for the UK’s Diplomatic Service, the European Union, the United Nations and for Facebook, he is more of a pracademic than an academic. He is also the author of the 2023 book, THE RISE OF SECURITY: And Why We Always Want More.

As Head of Global Intelligence & Security Programs, Ned oversees all aspects of security for Transocean, a world leader in ultra-deep water and harsh environment offshore drilling. Closely supporting senior leadership, Ned is tasked with proactively mitigating geopolitical and security risks to operations worldwide. Prior to Transocean, as Geopolitical Risk Manager at American Airlines, Ned designed and implemented the geopolitical risk and security intelligence program. Ned has also served in a variety of leadership positions within the US State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC).

Ned previously worked at Royal Dutch Shell, the Inter-American Development Bank, the US Congress, and Morgan Stanley. Ned received his B.A. in Political Science from McGill University in Montreal and his M.A. in International Affairs from American University in Washington, DC. He also studied at the Universidad de Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain. His graduate coursework focused on European energy security and Islamic extremist terrorism in Europe. He is fluent in Spanish and proficient in French.

Lady Olga Maitland, Chairman of the Board at Algeria British Business Council; President, Defence and Security Forum; Board Advisor

Lady Olga Maitland has wide experience in all major Governance, risk Management and Compliance issues in general and global Fraud and Corruption problems in particular. She is a special adviser to a number of dignitaries and a widely sought after speaker at all Major Conferences on several Corporate Governance issues. Lady Olga is a former British MP for the Conservative party. Prior to her political career she was a reporter for the Fleet Street News Agency, a columnist in the London.

Patrick Kane is Senior Director Security for Atlas Air, a US airline conducting cargo and public/private passenger operations worldwide.  Patrick is heavily focused on developing and implementing mitigation measures to support a highly mobile global workforce and multiple travelers, to include pre-travel risk assessments, coordinating secure transportation and journey management, assessing hotel and transportation options.

Patrick currently serves as the Chair of the ASIS International Santa Barbara Ventura Chapter #21 and is the President of the Corporate Executive Protection Leadership Council (CEPLC).  He recently spearheaded the creation of a Travel Risk Working Group within ASIS International. Patrick is also the past Chair and Chair Emeritus of the OSAC Aviation Security Working Group.  He has over 20 years of experience working in private sector corporate security; most of that time focused on international operations and has personal experience on the ground in more than 70 countries.

Since 1996 Patrick has been a Certified Protection Professional (CPP) in good standing under the auspices of ASIS International.  He received an International Executive MBA from Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, Spain in 2004. Prior to entering the private sector, Patrick served as an infantry officer in the US Marine Corps.  He welcomes questions, comments and suggestions and he can be reached at patrick.kane@atlasair.com or patrick.kane.cpp@gmail.com .

An award-winning risk and innovation leader, Robert has an Officer background in the Royal Navy prior to establishing a career within the Risk & Security industry supporting FTSE 50 organisations with Risk Strategy development, GSOC solution development and implementation, and more recently (2023) the creation of an award-winning Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance platform for a global insurance company based in Asia.

Appointed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as its first Director of Aviation Security in 2013 and led the transition of operational aviation security functions from the Department for Transport (DfT) to the CAA on 1st April 2014.  He previously served as Director of Security & Business Continuity for the Home Office for 5 years.  Prior to this, Peter had served for 32 years in the Royal Air Force from which he retired as an Air Commodore in April 2007.  His last appointments were as Provost Marshal for the RAF and Commandant General of the Royal Air Force Regiment.  Peter was recently was appointed Honorary Air Commodore of 2624 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force based at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

Dr Sally Leivesley is interested in all catastrophic risks to people, infrastructure cyber security and to the stability of organisations and governments – see www. Newrisk.com, Sally@newrisk.com.

She is a former Scientific Advisor for all-out nuclear attack protection of the public, infrastructure and government and was trained by the British Home Office during the Cold War.

She commenced her career in Australia working across petrochemicals, oil and gas and mining infrastructure and worked on resilience of power generation and distribution, railways mainline and underground, bulk shipping, banking and other areas of critical industry. She has spoken at many international events on energy security including EIS industry meeting in the Capitol Building Washington and to the Baker Institute on catastrophic supply chain risks.

In Australia she was the first civilian director of a disaster recovery unit and held government appointments for reforms of emergency services and health and safety.

She has been contracted on nuclear power plant incidents – TMI, Chernobyl and Fukushima and as an international media commentator for BBC World Service and other news outlets. She has commentated on the 2023 Chinese spy balloon over USA nuclear missile site, uranium package at London Heathrow airport, cyber; terrorism; aviation losses; nuclear reactor disasters; South China Sea; Polonium-210 and Novichok poisonings, Beslan siege; Iran; DPRK; Covid-19, unexplained incidents such as MH370 and chemical incidents.

In cyber and physical security she has worked closely with governments and emergency services in the design and execution of large field exercises, table tops and board level exercises. In recent years she has chaired international scientific meetings on risks of emerging nuclear weapons, Covid-19, infrastructure resilience and hazardous near-earth objects. She has worked on a small panel of advisers for the UK government supported publications on cyber security in the built environment and served in the community of interest of the Information Assurance Advisory Council.

Dr Leivesley holds memberships with the Register of Security Engineers and Specialists, the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators, and the Royal United Services institute for Defence Studies.

Sara is Senior Vice President of Global Intelligence for AlertMedia, a global emergency communication, threat intelligence, and travel risk management provider serving more than 3,000 customers in 130 countries. As the head of AlertMedia’s global intelligence organization, Sara’s primary responsibility is directing its team of in-house intelligence analysts to identify and inform customers of global and local threats occurring near their people, locations, assets, and suppliers, curating and verifying information from thousands of sources. 

Will joined S&P Global in June 2016 and is the Senior Director for Global Security & Crisis Management, based in Dubai.

In 2002, Will began his career as a British Army officer in a Reconnaissance Regiment, including multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as stints in East Africa and the elsewhere in the Middle East.

Prior to S&P, Will spent 4 years as the Business Development Director (APAC) for Drum Cussac (now Crisis 24), providing risk management solutions for organizations, working both on and offshore.

Will is a graduate from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Newcastle University and Manchester Business School and in 2023 completed an MBA at Quantic School of Business & Technology. He is the President of VALOR – an S&P Employee Resource Group for veterans and has been a Board Member of the Asia Crisis Security Group since 2020.