Rio 2016: Securitydirector in Brazil
Rio de Janeiro is indisputably one of the world’s most beautiful cities and arguably one of its most dangerous. Wedged between a mountain range and the Atlantic Ocean, Rio’s indescribable beauty is accompanied by enormous logistical and security challenges related to its topography, history, and urban development. Securitydirector, LLC has geared up to help you plan for the Rio Olympics with an industry-leading team of senior consultants and security experts. Our country team is led by three individuals with extensive, hands-on, risk mitigation experience in Brazil (see attached biographies) accumulated in over 40 years of working with multinational companies in Brazil to help solve operational, political, and security challenges. This multi-lingual team also relies on a proven network of personal and business contacts within the law enforcement, intelligence, and national security communities, and has wide ranging experience in crisis management, special events security (including Olympics), due diligence investigations, intelligence gathering and analysis, and unique familiarity with the City of Rio (one team member lived in Rio for 25 years).
Preparations for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics
Estimates of the amount of investment required to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio range from US$16 billion to US$30 billion for each event. For the next five years the city will be carrying out numerous infrastructure improvement projects that will most certainly make day-to-day life and business somewhat more complicated. Streets and highways will undergo major improvements. Hotels and restaurants will be upgraded. Public transportation facilities will require modernization and new investment. Law enforcement will be adding manpower, and the private security sector will experience significant reshuffling. Companies planning participation in the events will be facing considerable obstacles and confusion during the years leading up to them. Possibly adding to the the bureaucracy and logistics challenges naturally associated with such massive events, will be Brazil’s tendency to eschew planning and seek improvised solutions to problems. The approach often creates a particularly challenging environment for planners and executives of multinational organizations not intimately familiar with local dynamics. Whether Brazil will occasionally revert to this kind of behavior is not known at present, but given past experience it seems at least to be something companies should consider in their contingency plans as they gear up for the two major world events.
Service Highlights
Security Planning & Coordination Services: Team leaders will coordinate all support services with senior management of sponsoring organizations and other entities with commercial and operational interests in Brazil and across the region. From employee training and risk analyses, to vendors & partners screening and brand protection, senior team members will coordinate intelligence inflow and reports, and direct field personnel in Rio to ensure that clients receive actionable intelligence on a timely basis.
Field Management Services: Experienced field personnel will gather intelligence, review traditional and social media, interface with government agencies, and provide feedback to your company both locally and at parent as necessary to your planning activities for the events. The Field Management Team will help companies in the following areas:
- Intelligence and Early Warning: The team will constantly process information from open as well as proprietary sources to provide clients with information necessary to properly structure their procedures and policies as they prepare for the two events.
- Due Diligence and Background Investigations: Knowing with whom you are working will be even more important in the highly competitive business environment that will lead up to the events. The team offers its indisputable expertise in this area to ensure the integrity of your company’s investments.
- Threat Assessment & Risk Analysis: The business and political environment leading up to the events will be highly dynamic. In 2010 Brazil will elect a new president who will govern for the 4 years leading up to the Olympics and the World Cup. Anticipating policy changes will be part of the business risk environment as will the usual array of security threats that accompany rapid development and a new range of business opportunities. The team will monitor threats and risks and report them on an on-going basis as well as in a final report just prior to the either event.
- Crisis & Emergency Planning: Driven by the deep familiarity with the local terrain, our client support extends from rapid extraction of key personnel to large-scale evacuation programs.
- Executive Protection: The Brazil team counts on a well-trained cadre of security personnel who have conducted head-of-state security operations in Brazil. This group stands ready to ensure that visiting executives can count on discreet but effective security to conduct their business without incident.
- Site Surveys & Vulnerability Analysis: Our team in Brazil is intimately familiar with Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and the various areas where installations and facilities can be vulnerable to incident.
- Logistic Security Planning and Support: Rio’s unique topography and infrastructure development projects leading up to the events are expected to cause logistical difficulties that will require advance knowledge and appropriate planning to avoid delays, losses, and incidents as companies execute their plans.
- Awareness & Security Briefings: During the lead-up to the event and during the events, companies will be bringing people to Brazil who are not familiar with the local environment and need to be briefed on such matters as “no go” zones, local cultural idiosyncrasies, and how to become quickly aware of danger in an unfamiliar environment. The Brazil team has provided numerous briefings to visitors and locals to help them develop a methodology for recognizing and avoiding personal danger.
The Team:
JAMES “JIM” WYGAND currently lives and has worked in Brazil for the past 40 years in risk analysis and management. He has worked as a consultant and advisor to major multinational companies and governments conducting analyses, due diligence, and providing briefings and seminars on security and risk issues in South America. He has also been involved in several successful kidnap and extortion negotiations. Jim began his long and varied career in Brazil with the US Agency for International Development. He is the author of several monographs and reports on business risks and political developments in Brazil and has spoken on economic and security issues in seminars in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. He is a former Fulbright Scholar and a professional economist having earned his MA in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He successfully founded and was president of 3 subsidiaries of international companies in Brazil, achieving market domination in each. He has a wide range of experience in financial, strategic, investment, and commercial risks as well as in security matters and crisis management. He is intimately familiar with Rio de Janeiro where he lived for 25 years and where he worked through USAID with the urban planning authority of Rio de Janeiro. He has visited over 200 “favelas” during his urban planning work. He is also the author of two books, one on personal crisis management and the other on personal security in urban environments.
IAN BANNISTER has broad experience of the risk consultancy business following almost 6 years as head of the corporate investigations department of Control Risks Brazil. At Control Risks he had responsibility for overall management of all investigations work and also case-managed numerous individual cases in the areas of due diligence, extortion, fraud, asset tracing, cargo theft and general problem-solving. Most of this work was carried out in Brazil or Argentina. He also handled a range of crisis management work and assorted security consultancy operations. After Control Risks, Ian moved to be head of HSBC Brazil´s combined fraud and security department for 2.5 years where he had overall responsibility for all fraud, security and investigations issues. He left HSBC in late 2007 to return to the risk consultancy business. Prior to Control Risks, Ian worked for 15 years in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Diplomatic Service). He served overseas postings in Brazil and Uganda, and had a range of home postings in London that included coverage of terrorist issues, Southern Africa, Central America, and counter narcotics. Ian was brought up and educated in England, and has an M.A. in history from Oxford University.
FILIPPO MARINO has 20 years of international experience in the areas of security and crime prevention. With a professional career spanning across the full spectrum of the Risk Mitigation industry, Marino has managed and/or supervised activities ranging from international risk analysis and executive protection programs, to crisis management and open source intelligence operations for multinational corporations around the globe. His experience in major event security includes threat assessment, crisis planning, and protective services for sponsors and organizers of Olympic Games, major (US) athletic leagues, and international entertainment events. Early in his career, Marino served as an officer of the prestigious 131st Regiment of the Italian Army, and as an instructor for a law enforcement task force against organized crime in Italy. He holds a Magna Cum Laude B. A. degree in Behavioral Sciences, and has obtained multiple certifications in security and protection services.