Pilgrims Group Opens Dubai Office

Global risk management and security specialist, Pilgrims Group Limited, has appointed John McCaffery as Director for the Middle East following the company’s continued expansion in the region.

McCaffery will head up the company’s new Dubai office, where Pilgrims’ offering includes risk management and operational consultancy services as well as corporate training in risk management, crisis management and business continuity planning.

He will continue to grow the Pilgrims brand in the Middle East, particularly within Iraq in the oil and gas and EPCM markets.

“Dubai is the regional base for nearly every major multinational in the world; particularly in our target markets of the oil and gas and EPCM industries,” says McCaffery. “Opening an office in Dubai allows Pilgrims to readily access a wide variety of our current clients as well as a large percentage of our target markets.”

Pilgrims will be offering services to clients based in Dubai that conduct operations in the regional geomarkets such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and KSA. Its teams will be offering the company’s full range of aligned and complementary services that provide a security based outcome for clients, adding significant value to their business operations in frontier and emerging markets.

“We’re establishing a regional business unit that allows us to be even more responsive to our current client’s needs, whilst increasing our market share in an established, highly competitive geomarket that is replete with security service providers,” McCaffery explains. “We will also be introducing new clients in these existing markets to ‘the Pilgrims way’ with our range of trusted products and services. What makes us different is our reputation and quality of service. Pilgrims is a SIA top 5% UK security company, judged on quality of service, good practice and professionalism, and our training initiatives are award winning. We will extend our brand reach into new markets with new and existing clients with not only our highly regarded current service offerings but also new products and services.”

“Pilgrims helps businesses reduce their business risk with practical, real solutions. I’m looking forward to developing Pilgrims’ full range of services in Dubai and should be the first point of call for new clients looking to maximise their security efficiency.”

Pilgrims Group’s Headquarters is in Surrey, England, with offices across the globe servicing its clients’ risk management needs in regions which include the UK, USA and MENA.

About John McCaffery

John has over 20 years’ experience in the Australian Defence Force and ten years in the private security sector.

He has considerable experience in international risk management operations in the Middle East and Asia, and in senior levels with government and non-government security agencies. This includes the planning and management of ADF involvement in the security for the 2002 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and with the United Nations in East Timor.

Specific areas of expertise lie in security and corporate services in the oil and gas sector to manage the best practice security protocols and procedures. He has worked as an independent consultant, corporate security director for a multi-national oilfield services company and for a number of other prominent security companies.
During his time in the oilfield services industry John was promoted to Vice President of Corporate Services and was responsible for the establishment of a regional administrative support centre providing global human resource management, recruiting, training and security services to over 30 countries and a global workforce of over 10,000 staff.
He has an MBA from the University of Queensland and is a member of the American Society for Industrial Security and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.


Pilgrims offerings to clients in the Middle East include:

Risk management consultancy
Operational consultancy
Manned guarding services
Corporate training in operational risk management, Crisis training and business continuity planning
Operational risk management information and intelligence services
Communications support by way of provision of technical communications services
Technical security systems and equipment including installation and management