Bruce is a recognized leader, author, and speaker in the areas of future forecasting, risk management, technology, and intelligence. He founded iJET (rebranded WorldAware) in 1999 to bring government quality strategic and operational intelligence to the commercial market that was consumable and actionable. Through a series of acquisitions including Kroll Information Services, Pinkerton Global Intelligence Service, and Aon’s WorldAware unit, WorldAware became the gold standard supporting Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies.
Bruce is active in the risk management, security, and travel industry sectors. Bruce was recognized by the ONTIC Center for Protective Intelligence as an industry PIONEER, Business Travel News (BTN) as one of the Top 25 Most Influential Executives in the business travel industry, and he was awarded the Global Business Travel Association President’s Award in 2021.
Prior to founding WorldAware in 1999, Bruce worked with a number of government agencies including NSA/CIA, DoD and NASA. During this time, he developed systems for the intelligence community. He has also served as a lead architect on intelligence programs for the US government.
Bruce received a BS in Physics from Allegheny College and holds a MS in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. He is an adjunct professor at University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC).
Susan Aplin is one of two World Trade Center Institute Co-CEOs. Susan’s career has spanned retail/eCommerce, product development & design, supply chain, sustainability, entrepreneurship in public and private sectors. She has broad responsibility in running the institute, which spans over 5,000+ global leaders and members, including many iconic brands. She is also Co-Chair of the World Trade Center Ambassadors.
A purpose-led and impact CEO, Susan has held executive roles in large global brands and key management roles taking start-ups to exit. She founded a leading sustainable home goods brand that incorporated climate science, style, and breakthrough innovation and created the first climate index for home decor and furniture products.
Susan is an outspoken corporate leader and advocates for sustainability and the environment, diversity, equity and inclusion, and the advancement of women’s and human rights. She has been an inspirational leader throughout her career and believes leaders possess unique opportunities to leverage their professional platform for growth and good.
Appointed by Secretary Jack Lew, she served on the United States Department of Treasury CEO Roundtable Commission during the Obama administration.
Susan is a frequent speaker on leadership, entrepreneurship, sustainability and conservation, global strategy, impact management, and living your purpose. She has shared her expertise with top media outlets and serves as a leading voice on sustainability and entrepreneurship. Susan has been a keynote speaker and speaker at top women’s leadership conferences and at premiere sustainability, climate, and industry conferences.
Susan currently serves on the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service President’s Council and remains active in top environmental and conservation organizations.
Connect with Bruce and Susan on LinkedIn
Interview questions:
1. As an expert in assessing and mitigating risk, how do you think the growth of artificial intelligence and machine learning impacts global businesses?
2. A result of these megatrends is projected hyper urbanization. Does the rise in remote working tools adopted during the pandemic change this trend at all?
3. The World Trade Center Institute’s network is made up of 5,000 global business leaders who are driving global business and global good. The global good piece is largely about environmental sustainability.
- To that end, what trends are you seeing related to climate change and resource scarcity?
- And how can businesses minimize the impact of these threats on their operations?
- Are there, for example, any technological advancements they should be aware of?
4. You also have a lot of experience in tracking and assessing how to deal with geopolitical issues that could impact global businesses. One such issue is that the global consensus is shifting and fragmentation between nation-state blocks is increasing.
- Do you think global businesses need to choose one sphere over another to engage in?
- For example, look at all the companies that voluntarily pulled out of or paused business in Russia after the crisis in the Ukraine began. Is there a chance of separate, parallel economies here?
5. Should businesses prioritize these megatrends and geopolitical issues? Or do they need to take more of a holistic approach to dealing with them?
6. Each of these trends and issues will, inevitably, impact personnel.
- How can we prepare our workforce for them?
- Do we need to re-think benefits, for example? Or recruitment strategies?
7. We have talked about a lot of heavy issues today. What are you optimistic about?
McIndoe Risk Advisory helps enterprise leaders achieve Agile Operational Resiliency that enables their organizations to maintain productivity and grow through the most difficult challenges. We work with forward leaning clients to adopt a predictive, proactive posture to threats by leveraging our proprietary integrated risk management model and harnessing leading edge technologies.
Our core philosophy is to strengthen our clients’ operations against dynamic challenges so they can focus on business objectives and seize opportunities in any environment. We deliver adaptive and sustainable solutions through technology, processes, training and exercising that minimize disruptions and protect people, places, supply and information for the long term.
Governance, risk mitigation, emergency management, crisis management and business continuity, with a keen focus on people risk management, are at the heart of our approach. McIndoe is led by Bruce McIndoe, a leader in risk management, technology and intelligence with a high-profile and deep ties into the private and public sector, supporting more than 1,000 global companies with millions of connected personnel. And our elite team has decades of experience engineering the processes, protocols and SOPs to meet legal and legislative regulations that influence a spectrum of industries.
The World Trade Center Institute (WTCI) empowers globally minded leaders from the Mid-Atlantic with ideas and connections to drive growth and global good. The organization does so by hosting events where people can learn and connect; offering fellowships to executives who want to grow into the C-Suite at global entities, as well as high school and college students who want a career that touches many cultures and countries; and helping people from other countries learn about a range of issues from their counterparts in the Mid-Atlantic.
WTCI also has created and now nurtures the largest network of global business leaders in the Mid-Atlantic. The network includes more than 5,000 people from companies, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions and government agencies whose work touches countries around the world.
Recent News: https://wtci.org/newsroom
Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybiz.co, conducts CEO Interviews.
If you’re interested in a citybiz CEO Interview, please contact
Edwin Warfield – edwin.warfield@citybizlist.com
