Spotlight on Leadership

Stephen O'Keefe will be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award

at this year's RCC Loss Prevention Conference

Stephen O'Keefe is an external consultant on contract with Retail Council of Canada who advises on the many aspects of loss prevention affecting shrinkage and profitability for retailers. He has 30 years of experience working directly with some of the largest retailers in Canada such as Sears, Hudson's Bay and, for the last 15 years, he was as Vice President of Loss Prevention and Risk Management with Walmart Canada. At Walmart, Stephen was also a key member of the Global team dealing with Mergers and Acquisitions which exposed him to many different countries and different Loss Prevention programs and philosophies. 

Stephen advises Loss Prevention professionals in the areas of refund fraud, organized crime, restorative justice and various legislative issues. Most recently he helped retailers deal with a very restrictive law dealing with Privacy. For a number of years, organizations were not allowed to share details related to criminal activity. With his help, in June 2015, a law was passed allowing for the sharing of information under specific guidelines now outlined in PIPEDA (Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act).