Risk and cultural advice
Risk and cultural advice, together.
MERCAG is The Middle East Risk and Cultural Advisory Group: a niche, bespoke practice where cultural intelligence comes first, backed by a strong foundation in risk. With nearly thirty years of experience in crisis and risk management, starting in the Royal Marines, I provide senior leaders with clear, industry-specific analysis of what it actually means for a company to operate in a particular country, region or remote area. Every engagement is tailored to your organisation and handled with complete discretion.
My roles in crisis and risk management have allowed me to be embedded and immersed in the cultures themselves. Understanding how a community actually functions is what makes a risk assessment accurate, and the risk perspective keeps the cultural advice practical rather than theoretical. That analysis includes the real impact on the business and its people, the community and family dynamics that shape relationships on the ground, and the cultural, religious and social considerations that can either support or undermine an operation if they are poorly understood.
The work covers how multinational staff are likely to be received, the sensitivities that need to be navigated day to day, and the specific risks and constraints that will affect decision-making and continuity. Corporate social responsibility is treated as a practical tool rather than a communications exercise. On infrastructure projects such as gas pipelines, for example, I have advised on the approaches that keep local communities constructive while identifying where expectations, relationships or external pressures could create real exposure for the operation, particularly where local networks and remote-area dynamics shape how a company is received and how stable the operating environment remains.
I sell on integrity rather than on volume. Being honest and up front is what keeps clients coming back, and I will tell you plainly if what you need is not something I can help with.
It is for organisations that need more than standard country-risk reports: grounded insight into remote-area operations, local community considerations and the practical realities of keeping both the business and its people effective in complex environments.
Alongside the risk and cultural work, I provide the geopolitical overview. I speak with people across the region about the landscape as it really is: what is happening on the ground, the atmospherics of each country, and how local people feel, both as individuals and as a collective. That picture sits behind every assessment, because the same event or policy can be read very differently depending on who is reading it.