Chris is a graduate of the London School of Economics with a degree in Geography, History and Economics. He had a business career as an economist, a market researcher and a specialist in competitive intelligence. He currently runs a practice that provides counter-intelligence services to clients in Europe and North America.

Chris has written and lectured extensively on marketing and competitive intelligence. His published works include “Competitive Intelligence”, published in September 2001, “Marketing Research” published in February 1999. “Global Jumpstart - The Complete Resource to Expanding Small and Midsize Businesses” published in the US in December 1998, “Marketing on a Small Budget” and “Inflation - A Guide to Management Survival” published the 1980’s. He has also had articles published in the Harvard Business Review (“The Marketing of Unmentionables”) and the Business Strategy Review (“Permissive Marketing”). His lecturing engagements have been for business schools, universities, associations and companies in the UK, the USA, various European countries, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and South Africa.

As a consequence of his competitive intelligence activities, which were entirely legal and ethical, Chris became interested in industrial and commercial espionage, which is neither legal nor ethical. He has studied the evolution of this activity over the last 2,000 years and this forms the basis of his lecture series on the history of industrial espionage.

Chris has traveled extensively throughout Europe, especially Scandinavia, the USA, Asia, Africa and South America.He has put this experience to good use as a destination speaker covering the history and geography of destinations in Norway, the Baltic, Spain and Portugal, the Mediterranean, Madeira, the Canaries and the Azores.

Chris West is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of the Market Research Society and a member of the Society of Competitive and Strategic Intelligence Professionals.

ESPIONAGE SERIES

1. Spying - So You Want to be a Spy Mr Bond!
The second oldest profession; Espionage though the ages; Who becomes a spy; What are the career options, the difference between military intelligence, national security and industrial espionage: How well does it pay: What happens if you get caught.

2. Technology Spies of the Past
How the newly independent United States of America embarked on a program of espionage to collect British manufacturing secrets in the 40 years following 1776

3. Spies in Silk
How the silk industries of Italy and France were the result of ancient espionage to steal the silkworms, mulberry trees and silk manufacturing technology from China

4. Espionage Missions to Steal the Cure for Malaria
How the British organized the theft of the traditional cure for malaria from Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia in the 1850’s

5. Henry Wickham the Spy who Stole the Rubber Tree
How the British stole the seeds of Hevea Braziliensis from the Amazon to found rubber plantations in Ceylon, Malaysia and other British colonies.

6. Robert Fortune the Spy who Stole the Tea Plants from China
The story of the theft of the tea plant from China to establish tea plantations in India.

7. Ceramic Crooks
How the secrets of porcelain were stolen from China and the industry was established in Europe.

8. Industrial Espionage in Revolutionary France
The spies of the French Revolution and how the French cotton textile industry was developed in France using stolen British technology.

9. Espionage in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France - Throughout the period of the French Revolution and Napoleon's Empire the British maintained a major espionage programme within France. What did they do and what did they achieve?

9. Painting the Canaries Red
The theft of cochineal from Mexico and its eventual survival in the Canary Islands

NORWEGIAN SERIES

1. The Vikings – Raiders, slavers or traders? Who were they, what did they do, how did they do it and what was their legacy.

2. Northern Norway
Midnight Sun, Northern Lights, the North Cape, the Sami People and Tromso

3. Fjords of Western Norway
How this gigantic playground and World Heritage site was formed and what it has to offer

4. The Cities and Towns of Northern Norway
Honnigsvag, Narvik, Tromso, Trondheim,

5. The Cities and Towns of Westernn Norway
Mold, Alesund, Bergan and Stavanger

6. Norwegian exploration
The contribution of Norway to Arctic and Antarctic exploration from Eric the Red to Nansen and Amundsen.

7. The Real Heroes of Telemark
Trained in Scotland by the Special Operations Executive, Norwegian agents stopped Germany's nuclear bomb programme by destroying the heavy water plant in Rjuken on the Hardanger Vida.

8. Iceland from Vikings to Hiking – Development of Iceland from a Viking Colony to a Wealthy Modern Atlantic Island Republic

BALTIC SERIES

1. The Vikings of Denmark and Copenhagen

2. Stockholm, City of Spies

3. Tallinn, Creation of the Teutonic Knights and the Hanseatic League

4. St Petersberg, City of 100 Palaces

5. Helsinki, At the Heart of the Cold War

6. Skagen, Where the Seas Meet, Painters Paint and Dreadnoughts Clashed

7. Visby and the Hanseatic League

MEDITERRANEAN

1. Fighting Monks - The Knights of St John of Jerusalem in Rhodes

2. The Knights of Malta and the Great Siege

2. Pompeii on 5 Denarii a Day

3. Espionage in Ancient Greece and Rome

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

1. Galicia, La Coruna and Santa Maria di Compostela

2.Bilbaons, Basques and the best of Spain’s Red Wine. - A unique and beautiful region in Spain and France with a troubled past and a lot to offer

3. Lisbon, A brief history of the role of Lisbon in the development of Portugal ending with the role of the city in WW" where spies mingled, royalty took refuge and where James Bond Learnt His Craft.

4. Porto – Portugal’s second city that is second to none. A city that dates back to the Celts and Romans and is now a world heritage site of palaces and churches stopping off at the Moors and Napoleon on the way!

5. Madeira - The long term ally of Britain that was the original European sugar island (the Canaries were the second). It is now best known for the sweet wine, that takes its name from the island, bananas and its gardens. Like other Atlantic islands it is also a tiourist hotspot. Its most famous tiourist was Winston Churchill who went there to paint

6. The Azores - Were they the site of the lost city of Atlantis? Maybe, but it is certainly part of the chain of volcanic islands in the Atlantic that has been a stopping point for transatlantic travellers and a haven for pirates for centuries. In the 19th century it was ideally located to be a staging point for transatlantic cables and in WW2 because of its position it played a key role in the Battle of the Atlantic,. It is now better known as a tourist hotspot, its tea and its pineapples.

7. The Canary Islands - Spain's Volcanic Paradise

BRITISH ISLES

1. London Calling - A Londoners insight on where to go when you have seen all the major sights

2. Scotland for the Brave - Tracing the turbulent history of the relationship between Scotland and England

3. School for Spies - In WW2 Britain trained a secret army to operate behind enemy lines. Scotland was the location of the main training sites. What did they do and how successful were they?

4. Ireland - England's troubled colony that became a Celtic tiger

Chris has lectured on cruise ships operated by Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, P&O, Sea Dream, Fred Olsen and Cruise and Maritime. Destinations include ports in the Norwegian Fjords, the Baltic, France, Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and India.

The following recent Cruise History has been recorded for this candidate.