FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EXPANDING INTO MIDDLE AMERICA
NEW SUBSIDIARY HEADQUARTERED IN COST RICA

January 3, 2011. The Zeta Group announces its new subsidiary in Middle America – Zeta Group Mesoamerica. The term Middle America applies to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Colombia and Venezuela. The new subsidiary head office is located in San José, Costa Rica.

“Having an office and experts in the region is part of our strategy to develop new markets and to serve our clients more efficiently and more competitively” said Michael Salib, President, The Zeta Group.

Established in 1981, The Zeta Group is a Canadian consulting firm serving clients both domestically and internationally. The firm specializes in providing risk and emergency management solutions to clients in the public and private sector. “Being in the region helps us understand the local markets better” said Eric Shipley, Chairman, The Zeta Group.

The Zeta Group has developed several methodologies and tools to assist their clients in developing practical, effective and efficient risk management programs. Among them are a methodology for assessing risk and estimating what a client has ‘at risk’ in the event of a major emergency or disaster [At-Risk™] and a methodology for the identification, categorization and assessment of interdependencies of critical infrastructures [CritiCalc™]. These models have been applied successfully in several major Canadian municipalities, the province of Ontario and the Government of Canada. “These methodologies are much needed in the region and will give us a competitive edge in the market place” said Lorena Alpízar, President, Zeta Group Mesoamerica.

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BACKGROUNDER

Risk is simply an exposure to mischance. The most recent international standard on risk management defines it as the effect of uncertainty on objectives.

To manage risks [including preventing or minimizing their impacts] we need to be able to measure or assess these risks and their potential impacts and develop appropriate control measures to either eliminate the risk entirely or reduce it to an acceptable level. These measurements are estimates made by specialists in the field of risk management – they are not absolute values. The accuracy of these measurements increases with the sophistication of the methodology used and the skill of the personnel making the risk assessments.

The term ‘Integrated risk management’ in common use now in its simplest form means applying risk management principles to all components or business aspects of an organization.

One of the current problems facing risk and emergency managers is making the business case to justify putting in place prevention / mitigation measures, which are normally not small sums of money but can be quite expensive. Examples of prevention / mitigation measures include: building dams or flood dykes; rerouting freight rail lines or highways away from densely populated areas; instituting a system of buffer zones around industrial plants; and implementing a country-wide vaccination program.

The Zeta Group has developed methodologies and tools to enable clients to assess the risks they face with greater confidence and to estimate the cost in the event that a risk brought about a major emergency or disaster. This gives clients and decision makers much better information about which preventative /mitigative measures would yield best value in terms of overall reduction in risk exposure.

The Zeta Group. Experience you can trust.