Walter Courage
Director, Business Development
Walter Courage retired from the British Army in 1996 at the rank of Major General. He commanded 4th Armoured Brigade in Münster from 1984 to 1987, was Chief of Staff of the United Nations Force in Cyprus until 1990, Chief External Affairs Division in Germany until 1995 and Director General for the Territorial Army until his retirement. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath for his work in Germany.

Henry Pugh
Director, Head of Business Intelligence
Henry Pugh graduated from Oxford University in 1991 with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics. He joined the Ministry of Defence that year and left as a principal in 1998 to join The Risk Advisory Group. His area of expertise is strategic advice, merger and acquisition transactions, and due diligence with a particular focus on western Europe, Africa and North America.

Oleg Babinov
Director, Head of Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia
Oleg Babinov is a graduate of Moscow State University. From 1989 he worked as a management consultant, providing services to Russian companies undergoing privatisation and restructuring. In 1994 he entered the risk management sector and in 1997 he joined The Risk Advisory Group, becoming head of the Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia practice in 2004. He advises corporate clients and financial investors on the management of risk when investing and operating businesses in Russia, eastern Europe and Eurasia.

Evgeny Tarasov
Head of Moscow Office
Evgeny Tarasov is a graduate from the Institute of Asian and African Studies of Moscow State University, where he studied international economics, Middle Eastern affairs and Arabic. He completed post-graduate courses at the same institute and at the Russian Academy of Sciences - Institute of Oriental Studies. Prior to joining The Risk Advisory Group he worked at the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations as an analyst, with the Moscow Aircraft Production Organisation MIG group as a project manager and later at the subsidiary bank of the group, Aviabank. He is an expert on Russia, the Baltic states, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

Gary Wood
Managing Director, Dubai Office
Gary Wood is the head of The Risk Advisory Group's Dubai Office. Prior to this he worked as the operations manager in a security and crisis management company, having previously served with the British Army. Six years of his military career were on operational tours with the United Kingdom’s Special Forces Group (Special Reconnaissance Regiment), including a period as operations officer responsible for the planning and co-ordination of all covert counter-terrorist operations in high-risk environments. The remainder of his service was in the Royal Military Police, working primarily with the elite Close Protection Unit where he was deployed in support of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to Uganda, Lebanon, Zaire, Albania, Rwanda, Burundi and Sierra Leone.

Pieter S. Jonkers
Director, Head of Benelux Office
Pieter studied Industrial Engineering at the University of Eindhoven in Holland and Law at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and the University of Orléans in France. He qualified as a lawyer in civil and criminal law. He then practiced for seven years in Amsterdam, specialising in insolvency and company law.  On leaving private practise he joined a leading international investment bank as compliance counsel.  In 2001 he became a senior consultant at an international risk management consultancy where he worked for five years.  During this period he specialised in business intelligence and corporate investigations and worked on cases in the Benelux region, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and Israel. Pieter joined The Risk Advisory Group in May 2007 as a Director and head of our Benelux Office which is based in Rotterdam, Holland.

Martin Stone
Director, Head of Middle East and North Africa
Martin Stone joined the group in October 2006 from Aon Limited where he was a director of its professional risks and special risks divisions. He was responsible for the formulation and implementation of their business plans and managed marketing activities. Between 1997 and 2000, he was head of country and political risk at Deloitte & Touche, specialising in the Middle East and North Africa. His book, The Agony of Algeria, was published by Columbia University Press (New York, USA) and his articles on security and political risk have been published by the Financial Times and Risk Books (London).

Marcus McCaffrey
Director, Head of Investigations and Assurance
Marcus McCaffrey joined The Risk Advisory Group in 2004 as a senior consultant managing the group’s investigatory fieldwork. During and prior to this period, he has investigated a wide range of issues including international breaches of US corruption legislation to incidences of serious corporate fraud including some of the largest property, mortgage and construction frauds in Europe. He took over as Head of Investigations and Assurance in 2006 and now in addition to directing investigations, advises a number of publicly listed companies on their audit process and anti fraud and corruption strategy.

Salimah Remtulla
Director, Head of Employee Screening
Salimah Remtulla graduated from Brunel University with a BSc in management studies. She joined The Risk Advisory Group in 2000 in the marketing department, first as a co-ordinator and then as its manager. Today she is the Head of the Employee Screening department.