Karin Johannesen is a well known name in the industry, with her long experience of both public as private operations. In her role as security manager at the City of Stockholm, she is part of the responsibility for the safety in Swedens largest municipality. For her, communication and cooperation is the key to a safe city.

Karin Johannesen says that she stumbled into the security industry by chance and that much has developed since she worked as a doorman for about 25 years ago. Today she works as security manager at the city management office at the City of Stockholm. In her role, Karin is responsible for the safety of the city with about 44 000 employees and 975 000 residents. Karin and the unit she belongs to is led by a security director and they have a broad mission with everything from preparedness to civil defense and security protection.

– I usually say that we are not the first on the scene when talking about what happens in the subway, but we are almost the first on everything else, together with the parties involved. When things happen in the geographical area of Stockholm, it affects us in one way or another, and depending on what it is about, some kind of handling is required.

Karin likes to talk about cooperation and communication. About how important it is and why it matters. She wants collaboration to be obvious in her industry and achieving that is one of her biggest challenges at work. Because when she and her colleagues succeed in communication, collaboration becomes easier and recovery much faster.

– My biggest challenges are getting people to actually collaborate and not just say they are collaborating. This applies both internally and externally. Going that extra mile to make collaboration work always pays off in the end.

Karin believes that many people understand that it is important, but when the agenda is full of things to do, it is easy to forget. She believes that the idea is there, but that it doesn't always reach all the way. Karin has experience of lack of communication in both small and large organizations, so it is not always the size of the organization that matters.

– When you're stressed and pressured at work, whether you're a police officer or another authority, I think it's sometimes easy to fall short and do 90% well. If you can do it 101% well, you know it will pay off in the end.

It is soft values that Karin looks forward to discussing at Skydd this autumn. She looks forward to sharing success stories from players in the industry and networking with industry colleagues. Networking returns as a wish here too, to actually reach out to each other and exchange experiences. Karin believes that the situation in Ukraine will be one of many important topics to discuss, along with the election. 

– In October we just had an election and then I think that civil defense is important. I think we will also have to talk about undue influence. How do we protect ourselves from fake news and serious organized crime establishing itself in large companies?