New player from overseas Olive Group lands "tens of millions" from Monitor Clipper Partners
By L. Samuel Pfeifle
Updated Thu November 1, 2007
WASHINGTON--Olive Group, a security firm that provides protection services, risk assessments and integrated security systems, announced this week the close of an equity financing round, with Monitor Clipper Partners as lead investor. Details of the investment were not disclosed, but Mary Jo Lampe, vice president of strategic marketing and communications for Olive's U.S. division put the funding amount in the "tens of millions."
Olive Group began in the UK in 2001, founded by former military men Chris and David St. George, along with Gavin Mayhew and John Yourston. The company quickly opened an office in Dubai and has been performing protection and other security work in Iraq since the beginning of the Iraq War. In addition to U.S. offices here, the company also has a training facility in Memphis, Tenn.
"We have traditionally been focused on personal security detail," said Lampe, "but now we're very focused on growing our strategic systems side, working toward the fully integrated security solution." She mentioned new hires of systems specialists from General Dynamics.
Currently, Olive has roughly 30 employees working in the United States. Lampe said the company in the short term is eyeing the petroleum and chemical industries as target markets, along with large corporations doing business abroad.
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