May 1, 2005
PICA Opens Office in São Paulo, Brazil

TAMPA, Florida -- PICA Corporation is pleased to announce PAICA Brazil, the latest office opening in partnership with Merlin Risk Management & Security Services. The office will offer a range of high volume risk management consulting services to multinational corporations and high net-worth clientele.  Leading operations are Co-managing Directors Patrick McDonnell and James R. Hunter.

Patrick McDonnell moved into the private security business after a highly successful 24-year career in the British military, serving with the Royal Air Force and then 22 Special Air Service Regiment. In the risk management and security business, Patrick applied his professional skills to complex problem solving, risk mitigation, and crisis management.  Patrick has specialized in consulting with high value international business concerns.  These include: Cartier, De Beers Inc., Sheik Yamani: Ex-Saudi Arabia Petroleum Minster (Head of Personal Protection), World Wildlife Fund Elephant & Rhino Foundation’s Anti-Poaching Program in South Africa (Operations Manager), General Manager: Control Risk Group Latin America, 1992-1998, and Director of Security: Kroll Associates Brazil, 1999-2000.

James R. Hunter specializes in crisis management and communications, as well as, the integration of security measures into architectural projects.  Educated at Yale College (B.A., 1968) and the Yale School of Architecture (M.C.P., 1970), Mr. Hunter was the principal of his own consulting firm, Hunter Strategies Consultants, 1991-2001.  He also served as the President of the Central City Association of Los Angeles and worked as a Real Estate Consultant in New York and Los Angeles from 1979-1990.  As Deputy Ombudsman of the City of New York in 1978, he helped draft the city’s first comprehensive crisis management plan.  He started his career as a Teacher and Researcher in Urban Planning and Public Administration at universities in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.  Mr. Hunter is a private pilot licensed in the United States.

PICA Corporation was established in 1982 and is one of the largest companies in the world dedicated to corporate investigations and loss prevention consulting. The Columbus-based company maintains regional offices in Atlanta, Beijing, Bogotá, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Guangzhou City, Houston, Lima, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, New York, Phoenix, São Paulo, Tampa, and Washington DC, and has experienced resident agents in 196 other major metropolitan areas of the world. The company supervises and conducts thousands of investigations each year, most on behalf of Fortune 500 companies and their legal counsel.