DRIVER SAFETY


15


GEORGE WIESSING FINANCE MANAGER


Operating base I am based in Oegstgeest in the Netherlands.


TEAM MEET


TAPA EMEA’s growing, full-time professional team have been given a remit to grow the Association’s presence in the region to continue delivering more benefits to members to help improve the resilience of their supply chains. In each issue of Vigilant, we’ll be talking to members of the team to find out more about their new roles…


Let’s start with a career bio


I joined Compaq, the US computer company, in 1992 as EHS&S Specialist in the Netherlands, located at their European distribution centre. As we dealt with a huge warehouse filled with valuable computer goods, loss prevention was a great concern and security represented most of my focus. I became EMEA Regional Security Manager and later switched to EMEA Supply Chain Security. When Compaq was acquired by HP in 2001, I had a dual task within the anti- counterfeit team dealing with both supply chain and anti-counterfeit security, before leaving HP in 2016 to provide consultancy services in these fields.


A TAPA EMEA volunteer


I first joined TAPA EMEA as part of the start-up team in 1999 and was Vice Chair and Treasurer for some years. During this time, I was also a trainer supporting members adopting the TAPA Standards and also led the Incident Information Service (IIS) team in the region. More recently, I assisted in the Parking Security Requirements (PSR) programme, promoting the new Standard to Parking Place Operators, and always stayed involved in the finance aspects of the Association.


Joining the full-time team


TAPA EMEA is in my blood, having been part of its launch and significant growth over the years. I’ve


always wanted to retain a connection to this great


organisation, so when the opportunity arose to join full-time, I could only say yes.


Supporting EMEA’s growth


I manage the day-to-day finance tasks related to our membership and the products and services we utilise. This includes making sure we live up to our tax reporting obligations.


Realising our potential


For me, it was always a natural transition for TAPA EMEA to establish a full-time team if there was the ambition to fulfil its potential in the region. Our original team of volunteers did a tremendous job but, of course, they had very demanding day jobs and TAPA EMEA could never be their main focus. Creating a dedicated and focused team is making us even more professional and sustainable, and this is producing growth and resources to feed back into the work we are able to do for our members.


Priority focus


We intend to further streamline our internal finance processes to make sure we support our members as best as we can and to make us easier and more efficient to work with.


Looking forward


The future for TAPA EMEA and its members is very exciting. I see further expansion of the TAPA EMEA Family, which brings more connections and networking opportunities. We will continue to be best-in-class in setting the standard for supply chain security, and strive for our voice to be heard and respected within our stakeholder community of regulators as well. There are also going to be more digital solutions for members, such as IIS 2.0. And, on a personal note, I’m looking forward to meeting our members again when we plan to resume our face-to-face conference programme in 2022.


Away from the office


Outside of work, my number one activity is being out on the sea, preferably with a nice swell and strong south-westerly wind blowing in my windsurf sail. If it’s not windy and there are no waves, you’ll find me tinkering with one of my pre-1970 project cars.


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