ADAM ROSCOE
He is a corporate crisis, issues management and communications expert with a proven track-record of anticipating, responding to and resolving business and personnel-critical challenges around the world for more than a decade. In 2020/21 he regularly rotated in an out of Iraq as head of communications and a member of the crisis management team for the Rumaila Operating Organisation (ROO), near Basra. ROO is a joint venture between Basra Oil, bp and PetroChina and is Iraq’s largest oilfield, generating 25% of the country’s GDP and employing 32,000 employees and contractors in a high hazard location.
Adam Roscoe, ‘CrisisManagement’ senior consultant, is managing director of ESG Consulting, which specialises in working with national and international clients on environmental, social and governance issues and opportunities, communications and stakeholder engagement.
Adam’s current focus is on assisting companies develop organizational resilience across disciplines, capitalizing on his work for a Fortune 500 company with more than 500 locations in 100 countries, where he was responsible for developing, resourcing, deploying and leading the company’s crisis management and security capability.
He led crisis response between 2004-15 through a series of life-threatening and business survival situations.
As part of crisis mitigation, he initiated and created the company’s first professional security capability and global network, integrating it with crisis response and crisis communications. As a founder-member of the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program, he assumed ‘ownership’ for a number of risks, including terrorism, crime and major incidents (industrial, natural disasters and travel-related). As part of mitigating these risks, he developed and delivered crisis training content, scenarios (based on ERM output) and defined and led a regular cycle of top-level crisis and issues workshops and training globally.
His career includes experience as a journalist and news editor, senior crisis and issues management consultant for a global public relations firm, and head of corporate communications for international companies in chemicals and engineering. He is a member of both the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (MICIPR) and the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (MICRS) and is a PECB Certified ISO37001 (Anti-Bribery Management System) Lead Auditor.
RON POPPER
Ron Popper, ‘CrisisManagement’ senior consultant, is a former journalist, corporate communications executive and Head of Corporate Responsibility with 20 years’ experience managing different types of crisis within a multinational corporation and other organizations and has delivered crisis training for international companies. Ron is also well versed in crisis communications.
As a founder-member of a Fortune 500 company’s Group Crisis Task Force, he was involved in handling serious incidents, including kidnappings, shootings, fires at plants, and epidemics.
During his 15 years with the company, Ron was also responsible for handling sensitive countries and projects, which often involved negotiations and mediation efforts with different stakeholders, including governmental and non-governmental organizations, in different parts of the world.
Ron gained huge experience of crisis, kidnap, diplomatic and psychological issues when, almost single-handed, he managed a two-year hostage crisis in North Africa. During this time, he was responsible for maintaining contact with the hostage whenever possible, working with governments and other actors in attempting to negotiate a release, liaison with the hostage’s family, and leading corporate reaction to the media. After the successful conclusion of the crisis, his efforts were recognized by the company and media.
He spent more than 20 years as a newspaper and radio journalist working in different countries, Ron is an expert on business and human rights, and has also jointly led capacity building programs on communications and respect for human rights.
MARTIN RICHARDS
Martin Richards, ‘CrisisManagement‘ senior consultant, specialises on working with public sector and business clients on crisis preparation, training, exercises, crisis plan preparation and assisting clients manage live crisis situations, including kidnap.
Martin spent 30 years in the UK Metropolitan Police with command responsibility over a series of high-profile major incidents, management of leadership development, national police powers and policy and concluded as UK director of strategic police firearms training.
Earlier in his career, he was a leader within the firearms unit and was for 14 years an international hostage and crisis negotiator coordinator being deployed to negotiate the release of UK citizens throughout the globe including, Afghanistan, Africa, Iraq, and Israel. He was an advisor to UK ambassadors and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (foreign ministry) on international crisis management.
He achieved the rank of chief superintendent before joining Control Risks in 2011 where, for five years, managed hostage negotiation and release incidents and led more than 200 training programmes in over 40 countries.
At Control Risks, he designed and implemented nine new training courses, ranging from e-learning to immersive exercises, covering kidnap management, piracy, siege management, terrorism, hostage survival, kidnap prevention, negotiation, family liaison and victim communications.
He joined Bloomberg LP in Hong Kong as regional security director for the company’s operations in Africa, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. Here he developed and refined travel safety, security and crisis management arrangements that contributed to improved business resilience and continuity. This proved successful in managing public demonstrations and disorder, major flood and terrorism related incidents.
LIAM HERBERT
Senior consultant Liam Herbert is a specialist in corporate reputation and business resilience. Over the past 30 years he has advised clients across broad industry sectors on crisis events, regulatory and litigation matters. He has particular experience in energy, industrial manufacturing and transport, supporting multi-site operations nationally and internationally.
He has worked on some of the most significant issues in the UK, including the 2005 London bombings and the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. With a background in media, originally training with the BBC, he has operated at Board level advising and implementing business strategy to support complex corporate issues. A client background that includes the nuclear industry, tobacco industry and UK energy industry he has operated in within complex regulatory sectors both nationally and internationally. His professional practice also includes political and government engagement at a UK and EU level.
He has direct experience in supporting clients facing litigation matters, including corporate commercial matters and criminal prosecutions.
Working directly with broad management teams he has devised and supported the implementation of business continuity strategies and tactics. Training directors and senior managers in resilience practice and critical thinking decision making. His practical and collaborative approach builds trust in team dynamics and helps to foster stronger working practices within corporate structures.
Over the course of his career, he has held board positions as head of corporate communications within companies and as board director with several national and international public relations businesses. He is a Fellow of the PRCA.
Crisis Management 