"Life is very real and it is easy to forget how brutal real life can be. With real life, I mean life without our civilized society or just life without all support we take for granted ... Just imagine every supply you take for granted (fuel, electricity, water, stores, emergency services, etc.) being taken away and you not knowing when it will ever come back." -- Selco Begovic, a survivor of the 1992 - 95 Balkan wars
PERRENIALLY
Mark's not a tough guy. Never has been; doesn't claim to be. No military, law enforcement, or EMS background. With the exception of once upon a time co-founding (with an ex-Marine amateur boxer with la cosa nostra and bratva connections) a security guard department within an existing staffing service/ recruitment firm, Mark's a civilian par excellence. He's never kicked in a door, and never plans to.
But, whether pre- or post-2008, Mark's greatest acumen and natural instincts in small business operations lie in the areas of workplace security and safety, emergency preparedness, and risk management. He knows such well not just from book knowledge, but from tough experience too, as Mark has lived and breathed:
But, whether pre- or post-2008, Mark's greatest acumen and natural instincts in small business operations lie in the areas of workplace security and safety, emergency preparedness, and risk management. He knows such well not just from book knowledge, but from tough experience too, as Mark has lived and breathed:
- being at work in a San Francisco high-rise office building during an active shooter incident (in which 8 people were killed and 6 others wounded on one floor of a co-tenant's office), and helping barricade his worksite (several floors up from the violence) as a precaution.
- escaping a 4-story apartment building fire.
- being stranded in the San Francisco Financial District during/ after the 6.9 Richter Scale Loma Prieta earthquake.
- helping investigate and later taking to jury and bench trials several premises liability, property damage and personal injury matters occurring on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway system (consisting of 120+ track miles, 45+ stations and 650+ cars).
- crisis management of potential serious workplace violence, including a firearms-concealing male client making multiple rape threats against a female employee, and requiring the assistance of a private investigator, law enforcement, and ultimately the filing of and obtaining a TRO (temporary restraining order).
- most recently COVID-19, in which he and his team helped their workplace and client workplaces achieve, within days (and sometimes within hours) of government health & safety or sheltering orders, water-tight HR and health & safety compliances, as well as providing to clients related "sherpa'ing" to tap all available government rescue loans such as PPP (first and second draws), and other emergency aid due to the pandemic.
