Murder and espionage claims in recent months have brought to the forefront the issue of safety of wireless industry personnel working abroad.
Two weeks ago, Ricardo Periera, 41, Glenayre Technologies Inc.’s general manager of the company’s Sao Paulo, Brazil, operation, was shot and killed in an attempted robbery one morning at a drugstore in Sao Paulo. Months prior to this, Russian authorities detained Richard Bliss, a Qualcomm Inc. field technician, in Rostov, Russia, charging him with espionage. And last summer, Michael Moisseev, 46, a senior executive that headed Motorola Inc.’s Russian paging technologies division, was shot in Moscow apparently by the Russian Mafia, said a published report.
“Clearly safety is an outstanding issue,” said one wireless industry executive. “These recent events are disturbing for the industry. Both operators and manufacturers are faced with those issues in some of the more turbulent markets.”
The concern over safety is likely to grow as wireless companies increasingly take advantage of new opportunities around the world. Generally, the end of the Cold War and emergence of economic globalization that followed has created a whole new set of challenges for U.S. companies expanding into world markets.
“No one even thought twice about [safety] until the Richard Bliss incident,” said Robert White, president of Pennington Consulting Group, an executive search, recruiting and consulting company specializing in the wireless industry. “From our perspective, we’ve been hearing more and more of this just recently … It’s a growing problem.”
White pointed to examples of many employees who fear for their lives when working abroad.
“We have a candidate who left a huge international concern because they wanted to send her to China on a permanent basis. She had some concerns about her security, and she resigned from the company,” said White. “We had an engineer doing work in Africa. He feared for his life every time he went there. The money was phenomenal, but traveling there scared the hell out of him.
“It’s a new issue that I don’t think, in some cases, the people are aware of the dangers and are focused on the viability of the company that sends them there.”
While the death of Pierera-a native Brazilian who Glenayre said was instrumental in establishing the company’s presence in Brazil-is seen as a random act of violence, more than perhaps any other case, the tragedy that befell Moisseev points to the stark danger of doing business overseas and the limitations of even the best intelligence gathering.
Moisseev, according to an August New Technology Week news story, was a manager of Motorola’s paging business in Moscow. Early last July, Moisseev was found in his garage shot dead in a suspected hit by the Russian Mafia. Moisseev had been in the garage several days before police found him.
The few details that have surfaced initially were provided to New Technology Week by Georgi Strura, a spokesman for Motorola in Moscow. Motorola spokesmen at the company’s Schaumburg, Ill., headquarters, said they knew little about the Moisseev murder and referred questions to Strura.
RCR could not reach Strura for comment.
Strura, in an interview last summer with New Technology Week, described Moisseev as a dedicated and respected executive worker “who was instrumental” in making inroads into Russia’s emerging wireless market.
At that time, the publication reported Motorola intended to construct headquarters in Moscow comparable to 350,000 square-foot facilities being built in Beijing and Sao Paulo. New Technology Week said Motorola sources suspected Moisseev’s murder by the Russian mob was tied to the building contract.
“I think the company is very security conscious,” said Margot Brown, a Motorola spokeswoman in Schaumburg. Brown said Motorola evaluates risks of each country. “The company is very savvy on this,” she said.
Brown could not say how formal a policy Motorola had in place and declined to detail the company’s security measures for fear doing so would undermine employees abroad.
Since Bliss’ release in December, Qualcomm said it revised some of its safety policies in certain countries, which included creating more detailed safety programs, hiring an international security director to provide regular updates about conditions in any given country and sometimes hiring local consultants within a specific country.
“Before the Bliss situation, we had a very strong program for those going outside the United States. It was consistent with what major corporations are doing,” said Daniel Pegg, Qualcomm’s senior vice president of public affairs. “After the Bliss case, we reviewed what we were doing in countries or areas where there was any uncertainty or where there have been any experiences with any other companies.”
In Russia, Qualcomm said it has changed its policies regarding how it conducts standard drive tests with global positioning system satellite receivers, which is how Bliss found himself accused of spying. The Russian federal Security Service said Bliss conducted long-distance topographical surveys with GPS receivers and obtained sensitive data about unspecified and restricted facilities in Rostov-on-Don. Qualcomm is building a wireless local loop system in Rostov. Pegg said today Qualcomm makes sure the Russian government knows when it is conducting GPS testing and requires its customers’ personnel to accompany Qualcomm workers on drive tests.
All of the wireless companies contacted for this article said they have stringent safety policies for those working abroad. Companies typically provide training to employees on how to protect themselves and employ professional organizations that provide a host of services ranging from emergency medical services to evacuation plans. Glenayre said it uses a service called SOS International.
Bell Atlantic International, an international wireless player for about nine years, employs a director of security who oversees all of its international markets. In some markets, it provides security personnel to provide transportation for employees.
“The safety of our employees and families is critical,” said Steve Fleischer, a Bell Atlantic spokesman. “We’ve always had guidelines. The goal is to make sure employees understand issues in each country.”
Lucent Technologies Inc. said it too has an extensive security system in place, but declined to comment on specific measures.
Wireless companies are not entirely on their own when it comes to overseas security. The State Department and the Commerce Department offer assistance to U.S. firms.
The Overseas Security Advisory Council, a State Department unit created in 1985 by former Secretary George Schultz in response to entreaties by U.S. companies that wanted more and better overseas business information, interfaces with Motorola and 21 other U.S.-multinational firms on security issues. OSAC meets three times a years to discuss issues ranging from economic espionage to copyright piracy to encryption to terrorism.
The council’s Web site (ds.state.gov) provides firms with daily intelligence gathered from embassies, foreign press and government security and intelligence agencies. Travel advisories also are provided.
“Certainly, crime overseas is still with us. Terrorism is still with us,” said Nick Proctor, executive director of OSAC.
Proctor said terrorism in Mexico and organized crime in Russia is particularly bad.
“They (information sources) arm us with much information and companies can then take prudent security precautions up front,” said Proctor.
Yet, as bad as crime is in some countries, Proctor said violations of intellectual property rights and economic espionage are just as big concerns for U.S. firms. U.S. embassies, said Proctor, are working hard to help strengthen laws and enforce them in other coun
tries. The Commerce Department has personnel stationed at U.S. embassies to assist American firms.
But, in prov
iding informational assistance on security to U.S. businesses overseas, the U.S. government faces a dilemma, according to an administration source. How should the United States balance protection of U.S. companies from overseas security dangers with warnings-which could discourage firms from doing business abroad-with efforts at the same time to remove trade barriers?
Wireless companies argue that working abroad is just as dangerous as working in the United States.
“Anywhere you go in this world there will always be safety concerns, and it’s not indicative of this world, it’s indicative of life itself,” said Bell Atlantic’s Fleischer.
“We have the same problems right here,” said Beverly Cox, Glenayre’s executive vice president of human resources. “We’ve had more employees robbed in the United States than we have on an international basis.”
Glenayre said it has set up a memorial fund in Pierera’s name on behalf of his family.
