How to Attend: The seminar is complimentary. Please register for it by Tuesday, March 28, 2023, to secure your place. RSVP via Eventbrite (click HERE) if you are interested in attending it.
For its Wednesday, March 29, 2023, Discussion Group seminar, CIM’s Management and Economics Society is pleased to welcome:
Neil Watson, PhD
Consultant and Educator
Joseph (Joe) Mercer, MBA, LLB
Principal, Building Crafts College
Alan Franklin, JD, LLB, LLM
Managing Director, Global Business Risk Management
Academic Advisor, Athabasca University Faculty of Business
who will deliver an online presentation entitled:
Security and Liability – How to Reduce Risk When Deployed Overseas
Abstract: Mining companies often deploy staff to areas that are unstable and even chaotic. Whatever the case, there will always be a need to use locally recruited people to whom, as an employer, some form of duty of care is demanded. A complex situation is made all the more fragile by the fact that in such regions, state legal and security frameworks are not just weak but, in many cases, obstructive and even corrupt. Managers must therefore tread a careful path – especially, as at some point, their actions may well be judged in a western court and to western standards. Our seminar will outline some of the pitfalls faced by those working under these unique conditions and suggest ways of minimizing the many threats (including downstream litigation) that arise from such deployments.
About our presenters:
BIO: Neil Watson has worked with the policing and security field for over thirty years. In 2004 he completed his PhD, the focus of which was how human rights legislation influences international security cooperation. Along with Alan Franklin, he created an online teaching course for Edumine (Mine Security and Risk Analysis), lecturing on this subject at Birkbeck College.
An expert in security protocols, he has real-life experience with these issues, having been deployed to the field with the task of protecting personnel and site infrastructure in a way that is both effective and legally robust. In 2009 he was part of a review team tasked with completing a report on the effectiveness of the in-house risk management system used to protect notable British buildings both within the UK and abroad (Royal Palaces as well as several embassies). This required on-site deployment and much cooperation with relevant institutions before suitable measures could be suggested.
Widely traveled, he has also liaised with NGOs in Tunisia, Turkey, and the Congo about risk management (2016), as well as organizing the safe deployment of governmental assets overseas. Between 2018 and 2022, he managed cross-border communications for Scotland Yard’s Protection Command, working with several foreign bodies (both governmental and other) to ensure the safety of British officials and other notable personages when working abroad.
BIO: Joe Mercer is the Principal of the Building Crafts College in London, UK. He is a former senior police officer with experience in managing critical incidents, contingency planning, and emergency response.
Having later qualified as a company secretary Joe worked for a number of years on international construction and resort development projects in South East Asia. He was the sole western manager in the country during two military coups and has handled labour disputes, land rights protests, and site invasions by Russian gangs. He has devised counter-insurgency protocols and travel security plans for senior staff. He has also been consulted by insurance companies, entertainment businesses, and trade bodies on governance and discipline codes. He established a risk management unit in the fitness to practise directorate of a major professional regulator and has recently established a strategic risk register for a City of London livery company.
Joe has extensive knowledge of professional standards issues in developing world contexts.
Joe talks about the need to provide risk management tools to assist staff working away from their home countries and how to establish frameworks to guide employee behaviour on overseas missions.
Joe holds an MBA from the University of Leicester, an LLB from the University of London, and is a Chartered Secretary and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
BIO: Alan Franklin is the Managing Director of Global Business Risk Management (Vancouver and Toronto, Canada). He teaches courses at Athabasca University on international business risk management and due diligence to executives as well as at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Cambodia. At the Diplo Foundation (Malta University), he teaches courses to diplomats around the world.
Alan co-authored a “mine security and risk analysis” course with Dr Neil Watson, which has run online at Edumine for many years.
His work with over 300 companies in Canada (mainly in the extractive sector) has allowed him to develop insights into issues of risk analysis and management on a practical level that are not well known nor discussed in the literature or at conferences. His unique insights have empowered him to provide consulting services to corporations, lawyers, accountants, banks, and insurance companies. He also works closely with the World Bank, Transparency International, and the Canadian Institute for Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum.
Please join us!
Wednesday, March 29, 2023, at 3:30pm ET (12:30pm PT)
How to Attend: The seminar is complimentary. Please register for it by Tuesday, March 28, 2023, to secure your place. RSVP via Eventbrite (click HERE) if you are interested in attending it.
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