Meet The Team

ILS was founded by George and Rebecca in 2010. The aim was to deliver quality security consultancy services to International Organisations, using the wealth of knowledge and experience they had gained from working with NGOs in post-conflict environments and other complex settings. Since then, the team has grown significantly and we are extremely proud to employ such a unique team of professionals.

George Shaw

Co-Founder & Managing Director

George has led the development of ILS from its inception in 2010. He maintains oversight of all ILS’ service delivery and business development, with a specific focus on our Global Learning Programme. George has worked in aid and development since 2003, in both strategic and operational roles, in the UK and in various complex and post conflict settings around the world.

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Rebecca Maudling

Co-Founder & Director

Rebecca has led the strategic development of ILS since our inception. Today she oversees various functions of the business including strategic development and growth, financial management and sector engagement. She has a varied background including working in international development programmes in countries including Kenya, Ethiopia, India, Egypt and Pakistan.

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Helen Hill

Director of Finance & Operations

Helen is a chartered accountant, she has previously worked in practice, national companies, and charities. She is your contact for all things finance.

Leandro Nagore

Director of Learning & Development

Leandro oversees the development and delivery of ILS global training programme. He joins ILS following a period of time working in academia and as an L&D consultant within the Human Rights, Democracy and Election Observation space. Prior to that he spent 8 years as an Election Monitor in a range of complex environments. He is fluent in English, French and Spanish and has worked in 18 different countries over the past 10 years.

Caroline Ellis

Commercial & Compliance Manager

Caroline manages all aspects of client contracting and compliance and leads the management of the ILS corporate risk register, working across the business to mitigate a range of strategic and operations risks. Caroline is an experienced senior operations professional with over 16 years’ experience in managing complex international operations and project implementation for FCDO and other donor clients. Having previously worked as the COO for the FCDOs HEROS programme and a Senior Operations Manager for Palladium, she has wide range of business operations experience in the UK, Africa, Middle East and Europe.

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Hannah Eastwood

Risk Advisory Manager

Hannah has eight years experience providing operational and strategic risk advice, ranging from rapid-onset humanitarian responses to civil society organisations in high-risk contexts. She works with a number of our major global clients, advising on Duty of Care best practice, designing and implementing security risk management frameworks, and running capacity strengthening mentorships. Her specialist areas include working with organisations promoting press freedoms, LGBTQIA+ rights, and humanitarian operations. She has wide country experience, including in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Moldova, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and Indonesia.

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Beth Chandler

Learning & Development Manager

Beth is Senior Training and Risk Advisor at ILS, with a focus on in-person training in UK, East Africa and USA, as well as working with a variety of clients globally as a Risk Advisor. After studying Disaster Management with a focus on management of spontaneous volunteers in a disaster, she began in the NGO sector working for grassroots projects focusing on Disaster Management, Forced migration and Psychosocial Support programmes across South East Asia, Middle East, Africa, South America and Europe. Beth oversaw the safety and security of all international work at Comic Relief UK before consulting for a number of other UK based INGOs in a safety, security, safeguarding, and training capacity.

Monica Ribeiro

Senior Risk Advisor

Monica is an experienced humanitarian with a background in protection, and extensive operational risk management experience. Having worked for more than 20 years in fragile and high-risk environments, predominantly with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), she has held a broad range of management and advisory positions throughout her career, in countries such as Mozambique, Colombia, South Sudan, DRC, Mali, OpT, Rwanda, and Angola. Monica is equally comfortable working in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Jeremie Postel

Senior Risk Advisor

Jeremie is an experienced humanitarian operations coordinator with over 7 years of field experience working for emergency medical organisations such as Doctors Without Borders and Médecins du Monde. He led and managed the security of large teams in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, and Haiti. He specialises in threat analysis and mitigation, risk management cultures, and access negotiations. He holds a MSc in Violence, Conflict, and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Nicola Griffiths

Senior Training & Safeguarding Advisor

Nicola has 15 years experience in programme design, delivery and technical support, including learning and knowledge development - seven of which were spent delivering and advising on humanitarian assistance for complex emergencies in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Her areas of expertise include child protection in emergencies, human security, gender based violence, mental health and psycho social support and reintegration. Her humanitarian career has seen her working in complex contexts including South Sudan, Iraq, the Sahel, Bangladesh and NE Nigeria to name a few.

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Zoe Knight

Risk Advisor

Zoe has a background in research and operations, with a focus on human rights and international security. Most recently, she held the position of Senior Security Specialist at International SOS where she delivered assistance to a range of clients operating in high and extreme-risk locations. Zoe has extensive travel experience, and has a keen interest in West Africa, having conducted security assessments in Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea-Bissau. Building on previous positions in academic research and client-facing risk management, her work at ILS involves developing the risk advisory team’s analytical function.

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Paul Davies

Training Officer

Paul is a training officer delivering courses for ILS in the UK. He brings a varied experience to ILS from the British Army, private security roles and the private sector. In his roles, Paul has worked and travelled extensively in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia/NZ. He is a qualified coach and instructor, having trained people of all backgrounds (including volunteer management) for the past 25 years in hostile environment awareness technical, commercial and recreational diving, and first aid. A proven problem solver, qualified electrician and rugby coach in addition to the above, Paul can address any issue, whilst delivering a professional service, remaining conscious of his audience and their individual needs.

Jacob Stewart

Business Development Advisor

Jacob leads on proposal writing and business development at ILS. He has a background in international development and experience working with government agencies, INGOs, private consulting firms, and research institutes. Prior to joining ILS, Jacob has been a research and community partnership consultant delivering work for the French Development Agency, Mountain Sentinels (National Science Foundation), McMaster University, SOAS University of London, and Colorado State University. Prior to moving to the UK, Jacob lived in Gifu and Kagawa Japan for four years and is comfortable working in both English and Japanese. Jacob holds an MSc in Environment, Policy and Development and a BA in International and East Asian Studies.

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Rachel Felton

Operations Co-Ordinator

Rachel is responsible for the administration, logistics and coordination of our global training programme. She has enjoyed a career in administration and holds a degree in Zoology and Ecology.

Ruairí O'Connor

Digital Operations Advisor

Ruairí leads on multimedia design, branding, communications content creation, data protection, digital projects and information management. Prior to joining ILS, he worked for the Fonthill Foundation as warehouse and donations manager, leading on logistics and procurement for the 'contain-a-school' projects in Uganda and Tanzania.

Nicky Wright

Finance Assistant

Nicky is a Finance Assistant, she has enjoyed a career in legal administration and finance.

Inna Keldi

Office Administrator

Inna provides admin support across the operations and training teams. Her background is in Psychology, having studied this at university, and previously worked in mental health care, including working with individuals with learning disabilities in residential settings, those with severe mental illness, refugees, and trauma survivors. Inna recently spent some time travelling and doing voluntary projects with children in Nepal, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Consultants

ILS manages a fantastic team of highly experienced, multi-lingual consultants who support the delivery of our Risk Advisory and Training projects worldwide. An international group of subject matter experts, our consultants are an invaluable asset to ILS, contributing their knowledge, experience and skills to a range of risk management and training tasks, from security risk management, personal safety, health & safety, crisis management, safeguarding, media safety and wellbeing.
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Beth Chapman

Senior Consultant

With over 15 years' experience in the operational delivery and management of overseas travel safety and security, Beth has worked in partnership with many humanitarian and environmental NGOs, notably in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia to deliver safe and effective programme visits in complex environments. Beth is an outstanding trainer, and brings a strong understanding of Duty of Care to our team.

Stephen Gluning

Senior Consultant

Stephen has an extensive background in security risk management, crisis management and humanitarian operations management from a 23-year operational and director-level career in the United Nations. Stephen held senior positions for the World Food Programme in the Philippines, Italy, and Pakistan from 2009 to 2019, after being a chief security officer for the United Nations for 13 years.

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Chris Kemp

Board Advisor in High Risk Media training

Chris is the Group Director of Security for News UK. He has over 30 years of safety and security experience. Chris is a former Army Officer, and Senior Security Advisor for the UK Government’s Stabilisation Unit. Most recently Chris worked as the head of the BBC High Risk and News Safety team.

Hannah Storm

Associate Advisor in Media and News

Hannah is a consultant, trainer and keynote speaker. She has a strong journalism background, specialising in media safety and mental health. As former CEO of the International News Safety Institute, Hannah has global experience working at Reuters, The Times, ITV News, Channel 4News, and the BBC.

Richard Namu

Consultant Trainer

Richard has a wealth of experience in security, health, and safety. He is skilled in security and risk management, occupational safety and health, emergency medical services, and firefighting. Over the last 15 years, he has honed his deftness in instructing, designing, and developing training curricula for different audiences. He often delivers training and workshops for humanitarian organisations, private sector companies, security firms, and various government agencies across Africa. He is an ardent team player and enjoys learning new things.

Imogen Wall

Consultant Trainer

Imogen delivers our Field Resilience & Stress Management Training; a mental health trainer and qualified therapist specialising in staff welfare and crisis management, she also has extensive experience as a frontline humanitarian responder. Prior to ILS, she carried out frontline humanitarian work in Indonesia, Sudan, Haiti and the Philippines for the UN, and worked for the BBC world Service as a producer and editor. A survivor of burnout and associated conditions herself, she continues to work as a humanitarian consultant and responder alongside her teaching and mental health work.

Terry Jewell

Consultant Trainer

Terry leads on First Aid Training for ILS. He has served in the Fire Service for over 25 years, and is a team leader within the UK’s International Search and Rescue Team.

Loise King'ori

Consultant Trainer

Loise is a security trainer with ILS. She has a background in disaster management, for the last 2 years she has trained both online and in person on numerous personal security, HEAT and travel safety courses in Kenya, Ethiopia and Nigeria.

Natalie Au

Consultant (Safeguarding)

Natalie's expertise in safeguarding and gender equality and social inclusion and safeguarding spans a 15-year career working in the international development and humanitarian sectors globally with a particular focus across Africa and Asia. She has worked with a vast range of clients ranging from international NGOs, Foundations, private sector companies, government agencies and bilateral development banks. Natalie has direct experience conducting organisational assessments and providing technical support to address key gaps and risks; developing and setting up safeguarding policies and procedures; delivering safeguarding training; conducting investigations; and developing technical products to support clients to strengthen their ability to implement effective safeguarding measures. She has particular expertise in child safeguarding and safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

Jane Pickett

Consultant Trainer

Jane delivers security training and supports crisis management training for ILS in the UK. A fluent Russian speaker, she has extensive work experience in law enforcement, police and peacekeeping training, and hostile environment training.

Nick Fenton

Consultant Trainer

Nick has delivered training for ILS in the UK, and recently in Ukraine. He is an adaptable and outgoing security professional with proven experience of leading civilian and military teams through the demanding environments of the UN and Defence at international level. He has experience in policy formulation, stabilisation, programme management, humanitarian affairs, and negotiation. Nick is fluent in French and is an articulate and dynamic communicator, skilled in complex decision-making processes.

Karokh Khorany

Consultant Trainer

With over nine years of experience in Security Risk Management spanning both humanitarian and civil sectors, Karokh has a unique blend of expertise. His aid sector journey includes navigating complex security landscapes in many countries of the Middle East, and Africa, with a focus on strategic leadership, crisis response, capacity building, and risk mitigation. He holds an MSc in Security Management, and he is fluent in English, Arabic, Kurdish, Assyrian (neo-Aramaic), and intermediate in French.

Tess Williams

Consultant Trainer

Tess is a consultant trainer on our security and risk management courses. Tess has over 25 years’ experience within the humanitarian sector, in progressively senior operations and programme roles. She has been working as a security consultant since 2017, and alongside training, has developed security frameworks and crisis management plans for organisations. Tess has had a long term interest in security, originally writing her undergraduate thesis on the use of acceptance as a security strategy in conflict environments. Tess is also a qualified coach, including certifications in trauma informed coaching, and has a particular interest in the psychology of risk and the impact of stress on personal and organisational security.

Daniel St. Pierre

Associate Risk Advisor

Daniel is a security industry professional with more than 20 years of experience working in support of civilian missions and NGOs in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas in a variety of complex and hostile contexts. Specialising in risk analysis and security training, Daniel regularly contributes to ILS trainings overseas in French and English.

Carla Oannis

Consultant Trainer

Carla is a licensed clinical psychologist with over seven years of professional experience and has seamlessly integrated her expertise into diverse international and local organizations spanning multiple sectors, including medico-social, livelihood, community health, and child protection. Coming from Lebanon, she possesses fluent proficiency in English, French, and Arabic, facilitating effective cross-cultural communication. Her focus and research on the interplay between the mind and body have positioned her as a specialist in addressing issues related to stress, depression, trauma, grief, and anxiety.