Joe McMahon

Joe McMahon is the Chief Operating Officer of SAME Solutions, a company that uses high quality video, point-of-view and interactive scenarios to spark interest and curiosity in learners and lead to actual behaviour change.

He is a former British Army Captain who attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the Junior Command and Staff course and then led operations in Northern Ireland and Iraq. After the British Army he became a military adviser to the United Arab Emirates government based in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

As a corporate leadership and crisis management expert, with over 20 years’ experience, he helps organisations operate in hostile environments in the Middle East, Africa, South America and South East Asia. Here are some examples:

• Consultancy for the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires, Lima and frequently at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland
• Two years as Global Security and crisis manager for AXA Group (160'000 staff) based in Paris
• Establishment of the crisis management systems and training of senior management for a number of major international companies including in Lebanon, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia
• Strategic risk assessments of onshore and offshore oil and gas operations in Israel, Egypt and the GCC
• Establishment of the management systems for numerous multinational organisations and government entities such as a major Palestinian governmental organisation
• Setting up and management of an anti-piracy operation off the coast of Togo
• Evacuation of personnel from Cairo and Alexandria during civil disorder in Egypt
• Numerous other tasks in Colombia, Mexico, Ukraine, Philippines, Indonesia, Egypt, Palestine, Mali, Pakistan, Yemen, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Jordan and Kuwait

Joe is also the co-founder of Essential Leadership providing leadership training and problem solving to start-ups, middle management and the suite C-suite of large organisations.

He has a BSc degree in Politics and International Relations from the London School of Economics and an MA degree in International Security Studies from University of Leicester. Speaks fluent English and French, proficient Arabic and German.

Joe has written two novels - The Face of God and The Fourth Stage, with a third on the way.

Leadership