Corporate security and risk management firm Control Risks Group and medical and safety assistance services firm International SOS this month announced a joint venture to provide corporate accounts with security information, advice, evacuation and consulting services on a consolidated platform, while leaving the companywide security and medical services to the respective parent companies.
The joint venture will launch in July, according to Control Risks president and CEO of North America Jim Brooks. Both firms share ownership equity in the new firm, Travel Security Services Limited. The board of directors is comprised of three Control Risks executives, including CEO Richard Fenning, and four International SOS executives, including chairman and CEO Arnaud Vaissié.
The company will be based in London and its 100 employees, who will join from both organizations, will be based in six countries. Corporate sales and marketing efforts will be maintained by the parent companies.
"As we pool teams of analysts from both firms, we can significantly increase both the depth and the breadth of our coverage," according to Control Risks Group's Brooks.
London-based Control Risks and Trevose, Pa.-based International SOS have worked for 14 months to form a strategic alliance after competing for some corporate accounts and providing different services to shared accounts, according to International SOS executive vice president Tim Daniel.
"The two companies were doing much of the same thing for a similar set of customers, but we were coming from different vantage points with an intersection in the middle," Daniel said.
Steve Hoffman, CEO of Annapolis, Md.-based competitor IJet Intelligent Risk Systems, said there are about a half-dozen players in the corporate travel risk management and security arena.
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