Mark Sutcliffe

After six years as an Officer in the British Army with the Royal Hussars (PWO), Mark spent two years working on the docks of Hartlepool and Bristol starting off as a tally clerk.
The following 22 years were spread between blue chip companies, Gearbulk, GAC and Wilhelmsen (during which time he was invited to join the board of Wilhelmsen Lines Car Carries in Southampton). His focus was a mixture of operations and business development in these global companies. Applying this extensive experience and recognising the urgent need for greater collaboration within the global maritime industry, Mark founded CSO Alliance Ltd. in 2012. Since then, he has continued to seek to fulfil his vision of bringing the global maritime security community closer together to help reduce criminality impacting the maritime sector. Mark is a member of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers and has developed an impressive array of contacts from across the entire range of the global shipping community.

Mark ‘Bruce’ Roberts MBE IPM

After 26 years in the Royal Navy (including Defence intelligence and NATO), working in protective security, intelligence and counter-terrorism, Bruce served a further 12 years in the UK intelligence community. He was a member of a number of high level government working groups that provided oversight of security of the maritime, oil & gas and aviation sectors. He also served as head of the Critical National Infrastructure threats team in the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre and managed the threat input for the National Risk Assessment. Bruce has further served with Carnival Cruise Corporation as Regional Security Manager (EMEA Region) and is now responsible for the daily operations and company restructuring of CSO Alliance. Decorated by the UK and US governments, Bruce received a Commander-in-Chief commendation and was cited for an operational commendation during his military service.
He holds a masters degree in terrorism studies, a degree in intelligence management, diploma in business administration and fellowship of the Security Institute. He is also a ‘qualified’ CSO and government trained protective security advisor.

Gareth Hamilton

Highly trained in accounts practice with Grant Thornton LLP, Gareth is a qualified accountant with a wealth of industry experience. After qualifying, Gareth moved straight into working in Industry where for the last 10 years he has managed finance teams in a variety of fast paced environments from start-up’s to multi-nationals such as Tripadvisor. His industry sector experience spans property, software, technology, travel & live events among others. Since joining CSO Alliance in January 2017, Gareth has implemented structure and controls around financial processes and reporting within our business whilst contributing to the on-going commercialisation of the business model.

Simon Osborne

Simon has a background of starting and growing mostly digital businesses spanning 25 years. In 2009 he was part of the team that started Protection Vessels International (PVI) with responsibility for Sales and Commercial Development. In 2013 PVI was 5th in the Fast Track 100 of the fastest growing companies in the UK. Simon was an early investor in CSO Alliance and is also an investor and Director in other businesses covering Cyber Security, Insurance and Online recruitment.

Kimberley Dance

With a career working with membership organisations and global event management, Kim understands the importance of sharing industry best practice. Through the knowledge and experience gained in previous roles (including as Membership and Administration Manager at the Association of Event Venues), she has enabled rapid and successful delivery in key areas for CSO Alliance. Since joining the Company in late 2018, she has applied her experience to deliver efficiencies to provide a more streamlined and efficient event management system, improved and developed the onboarding process for our new platform, and developed processes to improve the event management of our global series of maritime security workshop, as well as all aspects of membership administration.

Johanna Loock

Based in the US, Johanna is responsible for managing the Company’s operations in the Americas as well as being responsible for content on all CSO online platforms, the Maritime Security Review, and weekly circulars. Johanna previously worked in multifaceted roles within the global security departments of both of the world’s two largest cruise corporations (Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.) Her work has included monitoring and assessing short- and long-term potential threats to security both at sea and on shore, emergency preparedness planning, coordination of emergency response, consultation on behalf of CLIA at the IMO, and liaising with local and national law enforcement, military, members of the intelligence services, and IGOs. Johanna holds a Masters degree in Intelligence and International Security, and has attended industry training courses provided by the US State Department and UK CPNI. In her work, she also utilises her extensive first-hand knowledge of many areas of the world. Since joining CSO Alliance in January 2019, Johanna has further applied her extensive IT skills to improving our online services and processes.