20.5.2016: CBRA had the pleasure to interview Mr. Roger Warwick, who has over 40 years of hands on experience in the European and global security industry.

Hi Roger, and thanks for joining a CBRA interview. Can you first tell a bit about yourself, and your professional background?

I have been active in corporate security for over forty years with a background in both fraud investigations and security consulting.  I studied economic crime investigative techniques at Jesus College, Cambridge annual workshops from 1990 to 1995 and certified CPP – protecting people, property and information – in 1999. I am British but for most of my career I have been based in Italy providing services to international corporations with business interests in Italy and Italian organisations operating in other countries.   I am a frequent speaker at international security conferences on security and investigations topics.

We first met around 2005 in a CEN, European Committee for Standardization, supply chain security expert group – under CEN/BT/WG161, Protection and Security of the Citizen. I think you joined as the representative of UNI, the Italian Organization for Standardization – do you recall the good old days?

I certainly do. We were discussing a European response to the US C-TPAT and similar supply chain security programs in an attempt to find a unifying, user friendly system, for the secure international flow of goods – beyond the Customs driven EU AEO program.  Following that I did more work regarding standards and qualified with RabQsa, now trading as Exemplar Global, as a Lead Auditor for security management systems, including ISO28000 and then as a certified Skill Examiner. By the way I audited, for ISO 28000, the DP World port in Peru. In 2013, on behalf of the Italian Government I developed a Critical Infrastructure Organisational Resilience standard that was later published by UNI.

You are also active in international security organizations and associations, including ASIS International. Can you tell bit more about them?

ASIS is a worldwide association of security professionals, first launched in the US in 1955. It has today over 38,000 members around the globe of which 3,000 in Europe.  I put in a lot of work with the ASIS to get the association on the quality management standards track. I am a member of the Standards and Guidelines Commission which has already developed a number of security and organisational resilience standards, which are ISO compliant, including PSC1, Management System for Quality of Private Security Company Operations, which has been adopted by ICoCA, the International Code of Conduct Association for private security operations. We will soon begin to work on a Security Awareness -standard. My role in ASIS in Europe, is to the Chair of the EC Liaison Sub Committee, our aim being the promotion and consolidation of the voice of the security profession and security professionals within the EU.

Your main day job is with Pyramid International and with the TEMI Group, is that correct? Can you tell more about these companies, and the services you offer to your clients?

I am the CEO of Pyramid International ( www.pyramid.it ) which has been based in Italy for over 30 years. It is a corporate security and investigations organisation, which caters mainly for multinational corporations. We have grown to become the security point of reference for corporations trading in southern Europe. In 2008 I formed, together with long term colleagues and friends, each operating in their own jurisdiction around the world, Temi Group ( www.temigroup.com ), which has grown to be what we call the World’s furthest reaching security partnership.  Recently we set up TGI, the Temi Group International Verein in Geneva, of which I am proud to be the Chairman.  Our individual companies are each members of TGI and each is specialised in various security sectors and geographical areas.  Pyramid International, together with Temi Group partners, is the coordinator of our Travel Risk Management services which are now active across the world, in particular Africa and Asia.  We provide both management assistance and protective services.  Our motto is “Safety for staff abroad means peace of mind for management at home.” We are founder members of ICoCA and have rapidly become a market leader for European companies; our customers are amongst Europe’s largest engineering corporations.  They are well aware of the importance of duty of care and operating with organisations, such as ours, that not only are experienced and competent but are also certified and appropriately insured.

Well, good catching up with you Roger, and thanks a lot for the interview. Maybe we could start looking for opportunities regarding joint projects in the future, what do you think?

Thank you Juha very much for the opportunity.  That would be great.  Although we have moved on from protecting goods in the supply chain to the protection of people travelling and working abroad there are many affinities and I am sure that there are many projects we could work on together, in our usual productive manner!

Web resources:

CPP: https://www.asisonline.org

Exemplar Global: www.exemplarglobal.org

UNI Critical Infrastructure Organisational Resilience standard: http://catalogo.uni.com

ICoCA, the International Code of Conduct Association for private security operations: http://icoca.ch/

Pyramid International: www.pyramid.it

Temi Group: www.temigroup.com