Nicholas Bennett Email & Phone Number

Dubai, Ae

Eastern Europe

Somalia

Libya

GardaWorld provides risk management and logistics services to companies, governments and NGOs in some of the World’s most hostile environments. PE backed, it has a t/o of $4bn and more than 130,000 people. It’s growth and ROI have been market leading. I was appointed to lead the Libyan operation (which I grew to more than 800 staff) after the dismissal of the previous RD and given my existing knowledge of Libya (see below). The aim was to keep existing clients, find new ones, deliver high and stable EBITDA the PE backers demanded while managing the exceptionally complex political context on the ground. I succeeded in all of these objectives.Selected Achievements:• Won back a commercial performance of an industry leading EBITDA on a $25m t/o, a 140% improvement; and grew the company (including its contracted allies, including in the Libyan security establishment).• Successfully managed the reputational turnaround necessitated by a previous failure with a high profile diplomatic client.• Solved a potentially business ending moral crisis caused by these previous events, threating to destroy the local team with its knowledge and relationships, using my instinctive leadership skills to win trust. • Managed the many moral hazards working in Libya posed, any one of which could have ended relationships with our international clientele and tarnished our global reputation, maintaining a long-term growth and diversification strategy, high quality standards and a code of ethics. • Engineered an inventive solution meeting the very specific security needs of an engineering and construction company, meeting legal obstacles to armed protection by sub-contracting a neglected Libyan specialist police force, training, arming and mentoring them to enable the construction of two new powerplants.

With its huge oil reserves, tourism potential and relative political stability, the KRI provided a huge opportunity for GardaWorld. The region was subsequently hit by the 2014 oil price crash and the ISIS rebellion. I mastered both these crisis and after four years passed to my successor a thriving going concern.I twice received recognition at our annual awards ceremony for the highest % margin business unit in the division. At its peak the business employed 700 local and international staff.Selected Achievements:• Rapidly established, after extensive engagement with local political stakeholders, local partner allies and potential clients, a fast growth strategy, using the near complete autonomy I was gifted by the management.• Negotiated and operated risk management and logistics contracts with the oil and gas super majors (including BP, Chevron and TAQA), the British and American Governments, the World Bank, numerous infrastructure service companies and international NGOs. • In addition to the core energy companies, NGO and diplomatic clientele, built an ever deeper relationship with the US Department of State, including the security solution for the 6 year build of the newest American Embassy. • Successfully managed the commercial operations of the business in an environment weak on legal norms and enforcement, including contract negotiation and delivery, dispute resolutions, quality control, fleet management. • Radically adjusted the firm’s strategy and operations due to the near simultaneous oil price crash in 2014 and the eruption of ISIS. • Changed the service offering and had either retained, or won back, 75% of GardaWorld’s client base by 2018 despite these unprecedented upheavals. • Safeguarded GardaWorld’s reputation by engineering the safe evacuation of more than 70 international engineers, despite their encirclement by ISIS terrorists, engaging with the many diplomatic missions and other stakeholder, executing an airborne rescue mission.

Libya

Aegis Defence Services was a British risk management and security company with offices in Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Somalia and Mozambique. With Colonel Gaddafi deposed, the international community, global corporations and NGOs were interested in working in the country. Regardless, all would require a level of risk management sophisticated enough to meet the challenges of a post-revolutionary, and then rapidly failing state. My role was to enter this market, provide these services and deliver the financial returns Aegis demanded for this high risk business.Selected Achievements:• Grew from zero a business with an EBITDA of 25% and a staff (local and expat) of 90.• Led and delivered a comprehensive on-the-ground survey of Libya its post-revolutionary threats and opportunities, providing BP, Shell and others with critical decision support analysis needed to plan their market re-entry and shipping of oil and gas products.• Established relationships with the post-revolutionary defacto power brokers in the country, ensuring goodwill and establishing pathways to ensure compliance with all known laws. • Gradually grew the key elements of the Libyan business, its unrivalled market leadership as a provider of risk management. • Developed risk management products and services in dialogue with potential clients leading to rapid expansion, including winning deals with Occidental, BP, Shell, numerous Governments and NGOs.• Maintained the focus and employee engagement of the team despite the exceptionally demanding circumstances, providing strong, inspiring leadership which kept the confidence of everyone in-country.• Created the conditions that enabled the first wave of oil and gas majors, service companies and NGOs to return to work, and among others, supported the World Bank and the Swiss, Brazilian, Norwegian and British embassies to return to work, securing their supply lines, people and assets and reputations.

Iraq

Civil contingency planning in Libya

For the Royal Green Jackets and The Rifles. Mentor to the Afghan National Army.

2:1 Ba (Hons), Business

Education record