About the Founder
Pierre Kernen
Founder — AIC
Pierre Kernen is a crisis management consultant and risk steering adviser based in Norway. His work is shaped by more than twenty years spent leading and supporting organisations in high-risk and sensitive environments — at both operational and strategic level.
Fourteen years with Médecins Sans Frontières, as a field coordinator, security adviser, and ultimately Head of the Security and Risk Management Unit at headquarters in Brussels, followed by experience in emergency and security management in the maritime shipping sector, have grounded an approach that is practical, conceptual, and built on real exposure to the weight of critical decisions.
Working through serious incidents — kidnappings, armed attacks, disappearances, reputational crises — and alongside the people responsible for managing them, shaped a clear conviction: a good plan matters. But even the best plan does not guarantee the quality of what happens when it meets reality.
There is a difference between supporting a decision from the outside and being in the room when it has to be made — when the information is incomplete, the stakes are real, and there is no simple way out.
That experience shapes how this work is approached: with respect for the weight of what organisations face, and without pretending that the answers are simpler than they are.
What makes the difference in crisis is ultimately the people carrying it — their capacity to observe clearly, reason under pressure, and decide with integrity when the situation is at its most demanding.
Why AIC
AIC was created from a simple observation: the capacity to navigate crisis depends less on the quality of procedures than on the people who carry them.
The work of AIC is to address that gap: discreetly, practically, and with respect for the complexity of what organisations face when things go wrong.
If you’d like to understand whether AIC’s work fits your situation, an initial conversation is a good starting point.