Speakers & Organizers   

Biography
Mr. Kurtz, joined The Steele Foundation in 1994, advancing through a series of leadership positions in the company's Business Intelligence practice with recognized expertise in strategic planning, competitive intelligence, partnerships, and business acquisitions and mergers. In 1997 he was named a Managing Director and Vice President of the corporation and was promoted to Executive Vice-President of Corporate Affairs in January 1999.

Mr. Kurtz was elected to The Steele Foundation's Board of Directors in 1999 and relocated to Europe in 2001 as President of Steele- Europe. He was subsequently elected Chairman of Steele International, the parent company of The Steele Foundation, and in January 2004, he took the helm of the risk management company as Chief Executive Officer of The Steele Foundation.

He is an active media consultant to the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the BBC, and ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox Networks; addressing topics such as intelligence gathering in the Middle East, terrorism, intellectual property theft, and the emergence of the private security and private intelligence sector. Additionally, he lectures to multi-cultural corporations and has been the keynote speaker at various conference events around the world on topics such as international crisis management, business intelligence, and the evolution of the private security market. He has served as a Security Consultant for numerous think tank conferences and has consulted on the topic of risk management to prominent social, government, and business leaders.

He began his career with the Los Angeles Police Department before pursuing his studies. Mr. Kurtz studied in Cambridge, England and the University of California at Berkeley, majoring in jurisprudence and social policies. Before joining The Steele Foundation, Mr. Kurtz then spent several years in the private sector where he was actively involved in risk management consulting and security management.

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Session BI12: The World is Flat: Building Barriers to Manage Risk
February 18, 10:00 - 10:45 Abstract:
The World Is Flat. The convergence of technology has made it easier and seamless to conduct business further away, in turn making our world much smaller. India, China, and so many other countries have become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing. This has created an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two largest nations, giving them a significant new stake in the success of globalization. In turn, the world has evolved too quickly for our political, business, and regulatory systems to adjust in a stable and effective manner. Their resources have become more and more limited. This has increased the exposures and risks to both domestic, multinational companies and non-government organizations (NGOs).

The trends of our global economy clearly illustrate that companies are controlling greater resources further away from a more centralized position. Companies are struggling to mitigate the threats of terrorism targeting the private sector, the risks of supply chains in Asia and Latin America, customers in Europe, outsourcing in India, and extended workforces around the globe. Companies must understand what rules, systems, best practices and customs are in each country where they operate. Furthermore, they need to safeguard their people, ensure they are compliant with both US and foreign regulations, and have the resources to protect their intellectual property. To succeed in business today, multinational corporations have progressively turned to private risk management companies due to Government’s inability to respond or protect them.

Governments are hampered by inadequate resources, poor training, corruption, and because of cultural tolerance. This presentation provides attendees a perspective on the increasingly critical role that private responders play in protecting companies around the globe, in the fight against terrorism, and in natural disasters.