Heads of departments 
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 Risk Advisory. 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
Director, 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 Risk Advisory 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.
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Gary Wood
Managing Director, Dubai Office
Gary Wood is the head of Risk Advisory'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.
Martin Stone
Director, head of Middle East & North Africa
Martin Stone joined Risk Advisory 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).
Salimah Remtulla
Director, head of Employee Screening
Salimah Remtulla graduated from Brunel University with a BSc in management studies. She joined Risk Advisory in 2000 in the marketing department, first as a co-ordinator and then as its manager. Today she is head of the Employee Screening department.
Rebecca Palser
Director, head of Corporate Investigations
Rebecca Palser has a BA (Hons) in Law and Italian and is a qualified barrister. After a brief period in the commercial department of an independent oil company, she worked as an analyst covering regulatory changes across western Europe and sub-Saharan Africa for investors. In 2003 she joined the Business Intelligence practice of Risk Advisory. In the following six years she held various positions within that department culminating in the role of head of operations. As such she was responsible for managing investigations across Africa and western Europe. In addition to due diligence investigations Rebecca has managed a number of international asset search assignments including a year-long search for billions of dollars of assets to support the efforts of a global law firm to secure and recover those assets. In 2009 she was appointed head of Corporate Investigations.
