'the Buncefield Aftermath' - Restoring Stability after a Crisis

Jeremy Evans, Director, JECCS Commercial Consultancy Services Limited

Shortly after 6.00am on Sunday 11th December 2005, a series of massive explosions occurred at the Buncefield Oil Depot, near Hemel Hempstead in the UK. The resulting fire was reported as being the largest in peacetime Europe. Shock waves from the explosions, which measured 2.4 on the Richter scale, were reported to be felt up to forty miles away – and even further according to some accounts. One of the immediate concerns was whether or not the disaster was a consequence of another terrorist attack, coming – as it did – less than six months after the 7/7 bombings and 21/7 attempted bombings in Central London. This, however, turned out not to be the case. Instead, the explosions and subsequent fire were attributable to negligence, being caused by an ignition spark from an oil tanker lighting a petrol vapour cloud, which itself was the product of petrol overflowing from one of the giant containers at the Depot. While there was no loss of life, the resulting fireball nevertheless left a trail of devastation in its wake destroying surrounding business premises and private homes alike and causing injuries to local residents and other people who had the misfortune to be in the vicinity of the disaster scene at the time.

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UK Risk IT September 2012 Vol. 5, No. 20, Summer 2012

Jeremy Evans

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Jeremy Evans has spent 30 years working in different sectors: broadcasting and entertainment; telecommunications; and IT services: BBC Worldwide –the commercial arm of the BBC. Part of the Legal team for 12 years, spending his last four years as Head of Contracts supporting all the different commercial activities (programme licensing overseas, book, magazine and video publishing and some of the early multimedia projects). Left in 1995. British Telecommunications – worked in its commercial division in the late 90’s, providing legal and commercial support to its Global Satellite Services business unit working on a number of international projects and was involved in the launch of various web-hosting and other multimedia services. Siemens Business Services – the IT and BPO outsourcing and managed services arm of Siemens plc in the UK. Was Deputy Head and Governance Manager in the Commercial Management and Governance Group. Worked on several major PFI/PPP projects, including the BPO outsourcing of National Savings and Investments and the IT outsourcing of the Welsh Assembly. Also worked on the outsourcing of the back-office functions of one of the major high street banks. Additionally, responsible for the rollout of legal compliance and legal training programmes across SBS and within Siemens plc Northgate Information Solutions - in 2003, joined Northgate as Group Head of Legal and Commercial, with responsibility for the management of legal services across the Company, including “cradle to grave” contract management, legal advice, legal compliance and major corporate projects (M&A, group re-organisation, etc.). During his time there, Northgate was a FTSE 250 company and a leading IT Solutions and Services provider, with its key markets being (1) HR, payroll & pensions services to both public and private sector clients (including the SME market); (2) applications and services to police forces and other emergency services; and (3) applications and managed and hosted services to central and local government, education market and utilities. The Company was subsequently acquired by private equity firm KKR. Jeremy left Northgate in June 2007 and set up his own commercial/legal consultancy business, JECCS Commercial Consultancy Services Limited. Through his company, he has assisted amongst others, IT business StreamServe, Open Text Corporation, Adaptive Affinity Limited and Anoto AB.

JECCS Commercial Consultancy Services Limited

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UK Risk IT September 2012 Vol. 5, No. 20, Summer 2012