Harm Oosten – Chief Executive Officer
Years ago, at the time the company was founded, GTAC was in need of a recognized thought leader in the space of security, counterintelligence, and investigations, and Harm Oosten became Chief Security Officer. He became the company’s CEO in 2019 and manages and directs the company toward its primary goals and objectives.
However, Mr. Oosten is not only responsible for high-level strategic decisions and those that direct the company’s overall growth.
Mr. Oosten is very hands-on. Because of his extensive expertise and experience in global investigations, export controls, compliance, and sanctions-related matters, threat and vulnerability assessments, as well as with anti-corruption (FCPA), extremism and Operational Security programs, he’s also active as project manager when requested. Next to that, he also designed and implemented various risk/crisis management, anti-corruption and security awareness programs for a variety of organizations.
Mr. Oosten has been trained to use various interview and interrogation methods, and because of his long track record of conducting sensitive, high-profile internal investigations for organizations concerned about alleged wrongdoing or potential misconduct, he has the experience and emotional intelligence critical to investigating sensitive, nuanced situations (such as allegations of inappropriate behavior by, or made against senior leaders), fully aware of the disruption they can cause to the business and the distraction they pose from the organization’s mission.
Over the last 20 years, Mr. Oosten, multilingual, assisted law firms, pharmaceutical companies, investment firms, banks, high-net-worth individuals, the art market, a well-known multinational owner, operator, and franchiser of hotels, three of the ‘Big Four’, and dozens of Fortune 500 companies in different industries throughout Europe, in the Middle East, Asia, Egypt, Russia, Morocco, Israel, South Africa, the Caucasus, Turkey, Australia, and Mexico. He has also consulted with senior executives from multinational companies to resolve delicate problems, which fell outside the scope of mainstream advisers.
When he was ASIS board-certified in security management, he contributed to the Professional Investigator’s Manual as well as to the Protection of Assets Manual (a.k.a. the “bible” for the security industry), both published by ASIS, International. He is an active member of the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) of the U.S. State Department where he is a member of the Middle East & North Africa Regional Committee (MENA), the Europe Regional Committee (ERC), the Pan-Asia Regional Committee (PARC), and the Latin America Regional Committee (LARC). He’s also a member of the Dubai and Abu Dhabi Chapters (UAE), the Istanbul Chapter (Turkey), the Kyiv Chapter (Ukraine), the Mission China Country Chapter, the Mexico City Country Council and the Bogotá Country Chapter (Colombia).
Mr. Oosten moved frequently throughout his career and divides his time between EMEA and the U.S. He spends most of his time in Europe and in Washington, DC.