Bharat Raigangar
Board Advisor, 1CxO - Digital Transformation CyberRisk, ESG & Resilience
Bharat is a highly accomplished Cybersecurist & Fraud Management leader with over 28 years of experience, having held leadership roles in multinational ventures in the Technology and BFSI sectors.
As a strategic advisor and CxO, he has deep expertise in deploying business cybersecurity, risk, fraud and compliance frameworks.
Bharat has a proven track record of managing large-scale missions to monitor threats, incidents, and responses on digital frameworks. He has developed technical, management, and administrative solutions to mitigate risks and ensure business continuity. He is also an expert in governance, audit, and assurance, having designed, implemented, and monitored control frameworks to ensure compliance with various regulations.
In addition to his professional expertise, Bharat has led procurement, vendor and contract management, M&A, and third-party assurance services. He is also an SME in fraud management ESG Compliance and business resilience management as well have associated with developing the Start-up echo system and M&A
Bharat holds several industry certifications, including CRISC, CGEIT, CFE, CISM, CISA, CICA, CFAP, CIA, COBIT, ITIL, and ISO 2x000, and is a BCM Practitioner.
In his spare time, Bharat enjoys listening to retro tunes and classic melodies, plays cricket & golf and embraces the one-with-nature mindset.
Ben Kite
Senior Adviser on Defence, Intelligence and Cyber
Ben Kite was commissioned into the British Army’s Intelligence Corps in 1990, retiring in April 2022 as a Major General. During his thirty-two year career he worked on intelligence, Security and Cyber issues both in the UK as well on deployments to Germany, the United States, Belize, Bosnia, Kosovo, South Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan. His last role was as Director Intelligence Interoperability in Defence Intelligence where he led the creation and implementation of Defence’s first Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance strategy and managed International Intelligence engagement and interoperability with the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Army. Ben is currently working as a senior Defence, Intelligence and Security adviser for Kearney. He studies military history in his spare time and has published three books on the Second World War and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Dee Arp
Cheif Operating Officer, Nebosh
NEBOSH’s Chief Operating Officer, Dee Arp is a Chartered Safety and Health Practitioner of IOSH and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors. Dee moved into occupational health and safety nearly 30 years ago whilst working at RoSPA. After becoming a qualified health and safety practitioner; she taught on a wide range of courses and worked with several boards to implement safety governance. As NEBOSH’s Chief Operating Officer Dee has responsibility for providing leadership on all matters relating to qualification development and assessment and compliance matters, including learning partner accreditation.
Major. Essa Almutawa
Head of Monitoring & Inspection Department, Dubai Civil Defence H.Q
Director of the Monitoring and Inspection Department up to the present day, starting from 2020, Major Essa is currently working towards earning his Ph.D. from the University of Gloucestershire in the UK with a focus on Leveraging Emotional Intelligence to Enhance Organizational Productivity. His educational background includes a Master's degree in Crisis and Disaster Management and Master research in Management from university of central Lancashire and a bachelor’s degree in public relations in the United Arab Emirates.
Major Essa also completed several notable training programs such as Exercising Leadership from Harvard University and Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty & Stress at Yale University, along with numerous other training courses.
Among his most significant accomplishments is the innovative proposal, he put forth establishing an epidemiological investigation team to address the challenges of COVID-19. This initiative played a pivotal role in Dubai's attainment of the top spot globally in the Global Entrepreneurship Index for Safest Cities
John Cowling
District Security Manager – Middle East & CIS, Caterpillar Inc.
Following a successful career in private consulting and government employment in Australia, John arrived in the region in 2005 and since then has travelled to over 20 countries undertaking client focussed consulting at the levels of strategic, tactical and operational. Highlights have included working in numerous high risk or what John refers to as the ‘more interesting’ countries assisting with capacity building in post conflict locations as well as training and mentoring upcoming security professionals as well as working within diverse multicultural teams to achieve risk reduction aligned to operational requirements.
John believe that diversity in culture and gender is essential to a successful security function, and is firm believer in providing realistic and tangible solutions that make a positive change on client's operations and people's lives.
Paul Brewitt
Country Security Manager - Iraq, SPM Oil & Gas
Paul Brewitt has more than two decades of expertise in the security domain. His professional journey commenced with an eight-year tenure in the British Royal Marines from 2000 to 2008, during which he conducted operational deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Following his military service, Paul enjoyed a progressive career in the private security sector. His last role was as Director of Operations, providing leadership and operational direction to align security strategies with the needs of clients in diverse sectors within Iraq, including Government, Logistics, Oil & Gas, NGO, and Construction.
Paul has recently transitioned into a position within an Oil & Gas company, where he serves as the Country Security Manager. In this role, he holds the central authority on all strategic and operational security related matters in Iraq.
Paul believes that the effective provision of practical security solutions requires a solid grasp of business dynamics to ensure that security measures serve as enablers. He further believes that safety and security are intrinsically linked. It is on this premise that Paul devised a comprehensive personal development plan to align with his approach. His accomplishments include obtaining an MBA, a NEBOSH Level 6 Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety and the ASIS CPP certification. Currently, he is pursuing a Master's Degree in International Security and Risk Management, at the University of West London.
He maintains his industry knowledge by actively participating in professional associations like the Security Institute (SyI) and the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS), ensuring he stays up-to-date with the latest industry trends.
Peter Stephenson
Director – Fire Safety Division, Hydrock
As a Director (Fire Engineering) at Hydrock, Peter co-ordinates the companies international expansion into the Middle East and consultancy activities including developing fire strategies, fire & emergency response strategies and fire systems analysis for projects. Peter is also a Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) and is currently President of the IFE GCC UAE Branch registered in Dubai.
His considerable experiences in fire safety engineering and rail infrastructure projects includes working as a Business Development Manager at Warringtonfire, Associate Director at Buro Happold, Senior Fire Safety Engineer for Network Rail, Fire Safety Officer for Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service and as a consultant in both large multi-disciplinary and small independent practices. Peter is actively involved within the international fire safety community, formerly being treasurer of the Railway Industry Fire Association (RIFA) and former finance director of the International Aviation Fire Protection Association (IAFPA). Peter is a regular contributor to regional journals (Fire Middle East and Gulf Fire).
Richard Flint
Technical and Commercial Lead - Physical Security, BRE
Richard is widely recognized as one of the leading experts in physical security standards in the UK, boasting more than 26 years of managing the testing and certification of security products, preparing countless standards such as LPS 1175, and delivering security research programs at the Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB). He is passionate about the role of standards and dedicates a significant portion of his time to supporting individuals and organizations using standards to implement effective security measures. This includes providing training and mentorship to various stakeholders, including law enforcement, government agencies, consultants, and end users worldwide.
Rob Davies
Operations Director - Advisory Services, WSP in the Middle East
Robert has over 20 years' experience in the field of fire safety engineering. Since graduating from the Fire Safety Degree course at the University of Central Lancashire he has undertaken a variety of roles within the Fire Safety Industry. He started his career with AkerKvaener, Portsmouth carrying out fire protection system designs for Petro-Chemical and Pharmaceutical facilities before moving to International Fire Consultants Limited (IFC), High Wycombe. Whilst working for IFC he gained extensive experience in managing and witnessing Fire Resistance Tests, Fire Product Certification (including factory audits), undertaking Fire Risk Assessments and preparing Fire Safety Strategies and Fire Engineering Solutions for a variety of building types. During this period in his career he completed the Master’s Degree course in Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Ulster.
In 2007 Robert joined Buro Happold, Dubai to establish their Fire Engineering team in the Middle East. During his time with Buro Happold he prepared Fire Strategies to NFPA for multiple, large mixed use / high rise developments. In 2009 he was awarded Chartered Engineer status with the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) and qualified as a Certified Fire Protection Specialists (CFPS) through the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
At the end of 2009 Robert moved to Riyadh and joined the Arriyadh Development Authority. As their fire safety advisor Robert was responsible for developing fire safety management policies and procedures for their historical building stock.
In October 2010 Robert returned to the UAE and joined WSP as Head of Fire & Life Safety. In this role, as well as undertaking design work and leading projects as a Project Director, Robert grew the Fire & Life Safety team from 4 to 30 engineers. Robert then went on to become the Director of Specialist Services which encompassed all property and building related engineering specialisms.
Robert is now the Operations Director for Advisory Services within WSP in the Middle East. This Business Unit provides strategic advice across a wide range of sectors; utilising the extensive engineering knowledge that exists within WSP.
Satia Rai
CEO, IPSA & Head of Belonging at Securitas UK.
Satia has enjoyed an extensive career in the security profession starting on the front line in the retail sector, over 27 years ago. She progressed to management and senior leadership roles, with experience in security services and risk management within the public and private sector at both operational and strategic levels. Satia has played a significant role at C-suite level in various key organisations and has an exceptional record of leading transformational change within the security sector.
As well as being a dedicated security professional, she is an outstanding spokesperson for equality, diversity and inclusivity in all of its forms.
In a voluntary capacity Satia is CEO of International Professional Security Association (IPSA) and Chair for the Security Industry EDI forum, a member of the International Security Expo Advisory Council, a member of the Security Skills board and she also participates in the Security Industry Authority (SIA) stakeholder forum.
Satia is also a winner of the Young Professional of the year Award for the Institute of Strategic Risk Management award (ISRM), Winner of the Chairmans award at the British Security Awards 2023, and a finalist in 2022 for the Women in Security Awards (WiS) and Outstanding Security Performance Awards (OSPAs) 2023.
Steven Reilly
Principal Engineer - Fire and Life Safety, Jensen Hughes
Steven is the Fire & Life Safety Lead for the MENA region at Cundall, with over fifteen years experience in fire & engineering consultancy. He has vast experience in Fire Safety, from carrying out Fire Risk Assessments & Audits on new and existing international developments to leading multidisciplinary teams on large multi-million-dollar schemes.
Stevens passion for sustainability and concern about the current climate crisis closely aligns with Cundall's mission to deliver sustainable engineering solutions across the built environment. Zero Carbon Design 2030 has seen Cundall commit to only designing zero carbon projects by 2030.
Terry Johnson
Manager Crisis Preparedness & Emergency Response - Group HSE Department, ENOC
A professional career spanning 44 years from UK fire & rescue service as operational firefighter, through international development with the UN as technical expert then seconded to the fire service college UK within the international advancement section, to a placement with Dubai Civil Defence, initially to oversee training and up-skilling of DCD operational capabilities in order to develop policy, procedures and writing of the UAE fire & life safety code of practice. Participation and attending large, developed incidents, as Incident Command support and subsequent investigation report was also an important part of the role, namely; the Torch tower fires in Marina, the Address hotel fire and a number of industrial and difficult incidents across Dubai and wider Emirates, including airports and ports.
The privilege of representing DCD on various Emergency Crisis committees and working groups as a Senior Fire, Rescue & Emergency Services Professional for all Operational requirements, including Major Emergency Incident planning and crisis liaison.
Currently engaged by Emirates National Oil Company ENOC, looking at sustainable and environmental solutions to match the resilience needed for asset and response team protection for ENOC assets.
Yacine Benamane
Vice Chair, ASIS Dubai Chapter
Yacine Benamane CPP®, has also a Diploma in Security Management and is a trained and qualified crisis and business risk senior manager with more than 20 years breadth of corporate security experience in Oil & Gas and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sectors delivering tailored security strategies for people protection, Supply Chain, and route to market operations throughout North Africa and Middle East.
Currently MENA & Iran Senior Regional Security Manager for Unilever based in UAE, he is also an authorized auditor of Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA), member of the Security Institute (SyI), the US Department of State’s Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) and Vice Chair of ASIS Dubai Chapter since 2020