International SOS
International SOS provides medical assistance, healthcare, security and risk management services to private organisations and governments. Founded in 1985 as AEA International, International SOS now has 5000 employees, and carries out approximately one million medical and security interventions a year, including around 12,000 evacuations and repatriations [1]
Organization
International SOS has nine regional centres – in Jakarta, Johannesburg, London, Moscow, Paris, Philadelphia, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo – as well as a network of alarm centers. The centers are staffed by physicians, operations managers, multilingual coordinators and logistics support personnel[2]. Approximately 35 percent of the organization’s total workforce are medical professionals.[3]
History
AEA International was founded in 1985 by Pascal Rey-Herme and Arnaud Vaissié. The organisation focused specifically on providing medical care and consulting services to multinational companies operating in Asia Pacific. Over the following decade, the company grew from its base in Singapore and Indonesia into a pan-Asian corporation, creating operating companies in Hong Kong, Australia, Japan and mainland China. In 1995, AEA International launched subsidiaries in France and the USA. The organization was renamed International SOS in 1998. [4]