Nielsen’s Global Security team is dedicated to protecting our people, technology, intellectual property and reputation for integrity. Julia Wilson, Director, Global Responsibility & Sustainability, Nielsen, recently sat down with Bob Messemer, Chief Security Officer, Nielsen, to discuss how the Security team plays an important role for Nielsen across a broad spectrum of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
Bob explained that talent development has been valuable in both strengthening the Security team itself and expanding its influence across the company. For example, he stressed the even balance in gender diversity across the team of security leaders around the globe. Research has found that diverse teams drive above average results.
“We also tend to export talent and use innovation to do things uniquely with other teams, like cross-pollination projects to embed someone from another team with us, and embed one of our people into their team,” said Bob. “The people that come out of this program—finance leaders, for example—became better financial leaders and are more attuned to the risk of fraud and other issues that we investigate.”
Sharing results from security investigations across teams enables others to be more effective as well. The Security team regularly shares the results of these investigations, along with the lessons learned, with our Corporate Audit Staff (CAS), as well as with the Audit Committee of our Board of Directors. In order to reduce the potential for risk, this collaboration is critical across all teams within Nielsen.
“It’s important for our extended shareholders to understand we do this as well,” said Bob. “We want investors, for example, to have the confidence that Nielsen has the appropriate controls and the appropriate methods to respond in the event that there’s an unforeseeable challenge. In this regard, I think the Security team plays a very important role in providing assurance.”
Visit our recently updated Nielsen Global Responsibility Report for more information about how our ESG strategy is aligned across all our business objectives.
