Americas Regional Resilience & Protection Manager

Americas Regional Resilience & Protection Manager

A regional specialist and subject matter expert in physical protection and operational resilience for implementing and overseeing Cushman & Wakefield's (C&W) resilience & protection strategy. Acting as an ambassador for "Enterprise Resilience & Protection" (ER&P) matters across the Americas business and supporting operational teams to develop, implement and maintain procedures, programs and initiatives covering physical protection and resilience in line with C&W policy. Responsible for Protection at the Category 1 locations in region, and the strategic assessment of organizational protection vulnerabilities and developing strategic initiatives to minimize, control and mitigate potential threats. Prioritizing focus on protecting employees and key internal and external stakeholders from potential protection threats impacting their personal safety/protection.

This is a senior corporate role which will directly report to the Global Lead Enterprise Resilience & Protection. The role will require an experienced professional who has held a similar role in a related industry and who is comfortable and confident in working and presenting at a senior level. The individual will be commercially aware and fully accountable for developing productive relationships with key service line stakeholders for the region.

Core Responsibilities:

This Americas Regional Resilience & Protection role will be responsible for identifying areas of potential strategic organizational security risk and developing robust mitigation controls, policies, procedures, and guidance in accordance with a developed and coherent protection and resilience strategy.

The role will work across all C&W departments across the Americas and therefore senior stakeholder engagement will be critical to the candidate's success. The candidate must have demonstrable experience in developing senior stakeholder relationships and influencing change and improvement. As a minimum, the candidate will therefore require a proven track record in effective protection risk management and operational resilience management to be successful.

Critical elements to the role will include:

• Foster and maintain relationships with key service line and geographical stakeholders across North America as well as Central and South America; a critical aspect of these relationships will be advising and supporting senior stakeholders in understanding and managing critical and at times complex ER&P matters, including crisis events as and when these may arise
• Supporting C&W's travel protection management program and partner organizations e.g., International SOS.
• Overseeing Protection controls for Category 1 locations in region, ensuring physical protection practices and technology are fully operational, and supporting the executive protection program within Region.
• In accordance with a defined Resilience & Protection strategy at regional level, implementing regional performance improvement initiatives to raise awareness and improve operational outcomes.
• Managing crisis management and resilience programs to policy at a regional level for interpretation and use locally by operational businesses across the Americas.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders within the Americas region when CMT is activated, with a permanent position on the North America, Central and Southern America Crisis Management Team(s).
• Canning for new related legislation and working with local operational business to interpret requirements and meet legal compliance.
• Identifying and assessing new and emerging geo-political organizational threats as they arise and taking action to support the business to mitigate strategic risks.
• Acting as a regional ambassador for resilience & protection, implementing templates, policies, and support materials for use by the operational business and providing support as required to implement.
• Representing C&W as required in relation to client audits, meetings, and presentations to provide assurances of C&W's focus on regional resilience & protection.

The candidate will lead and champion the ongoing improvement of C&W's Resilience & Protection management systems, ensuring that these align to International Standards as applicable. The candidate should have an exceptional understanding of what 'best practice' looks like with a clear vision of how to lead the regional organization to this goal.

The role will concentrate on physical protection risks (as opposed to data / IT protection) but will be capable of consulting with professionals in other departments to deliver a holistic resilience & protection management approach.

The role will need to co-ordinate the activities of ER&P resources around the region to effectively deliver relevant strategic initiatives including crisis management planning and exercising regimes. Where necessary the candidate will take part in crisis management meetings during incidents where resilience and protection are a factor.

The successful candidate will take an active role within the global EHS Team assisting with the development of regional templates, guidelines and the implementation of global tools and processes. A wider knowledge of quality and safety management would be a distinct advantage.

The candidate must have proven experience in developing and implementing cross-border initiatives to improve Resilience & Protection compliance and awareness and will be responsible for:

• Monitoring, auditing and reporting on resilience & protection performance and progress against set objectives to regional leadership teams. Routinely presenting at regional corporate meetings and steering groups to increase resilience & protection awareness and engagement.
• Managing appropriate regional training programs, methods of delivery and evaluation of effectiveness to ensure employees are competent regarding resilience & protection.
• Aligning our protection and terrorism threat management strategy with best practice guidance issued across the region.
• Taking full responsibility for our global crisis management processes and procedures and ensuring relevant stakeholders are appropriately trained and aware in relation to escalation and major incident management processes.
• Taking full responsibility for regional resilience management global templates and procedures and ensuring relevant stakeholders are appropriately trained and aware in relation to the resilience processes.
• Providing support and technical advice to senior regional managers on resilience & protection issues including provision of training and procedure testing processes.
• Monitoring regional changes in legislation and best practice to ensure continuing legal compliance and best practice throughout the region.

Qualifications / Knowledge & Experience:

• Educated to diploma or degree level in a Resilience & Protection or an equivalent discipline, the successful candidate will have demonstrable experience of developing, implementing and refining models of Resilience & Protection management aligned with international standards.
• Detailed knowledge of the ISO standard 22301:2019 Business Continuity Management Systems (BCMS)
• Detailed knowledge and practical application of protection in facilities and property management including the management of manned guarding and the management of CCTV, and Access control systems, Genetec being the global platform.
• Well-versed in OSHA CFR 1910 & 1926 standards and knowledge of OSH Canadian Law across providences.
• Experience of working in a multi-site environment in the corporate facilities, retail, property, or service delivery sector preferable.
• The successful candidate will have a proven track record of working independently to influence senior stakeholders.
• The successful candidate will ideally have worked successfully in a national role and will have experience in developing successful stakeholder relationships. While travel is essential, the candidate should also be competent and capable of the use of IT engagement tools e.g., Microsoft Teams, video conferencing etc. to deliver meetings and training sessions.
• Wider quality management and health and safety knowledge would be an advantage.

Proven skills and qualities in the following areas:

• Relationship and stakeholder management, influencing skills, commercial awareness and pragmatic problem- solving skills are essential requirements for this role.
• Professional and proactive in all aspects of their approach and style, an excellent relationship builder, able to coach and influence change, by working in partnership and collaboration across the business.
• Able to operate at a senior level with senior executive stakeholders.
• Commercially aware and able to act calmly and with authority in a crisis. Able to deal with major incidents and advise members of the company executive team on appropriate action to be taken in any protection-related incident.
• Ability to effectively respond to complex inquiries, solve complex problems and provide innovative solutions, whilst considering the bigger picture and commercial factors, anticipating potential issues and future needs of the business.
• Likes working as part of a team but equally comfortable working alone, enjoys working with diverse and dynamic stakeholders and business units.
• Excellent presentational skills and confidence at delivering complex and difficult messages to a variety of different stakeholders of varying seniority.
• Sensitive to the varying cultures and ways of operating between countries. Able to tailor solutions to suit national requirements and legislative frameworks.
• Exceptional time management skills and an ability to work and deliver under pressure.
• Fluent in English; additional languages skills including Spanish / Portuguese are a plus
• Full, clean driving license