The Security Circle
An IFPOD production for IFPO the very first security podcast called Security Circle. IFPO is the International Foundation for Protection Officers, and is an international security membership body that supports front line security professionals with learning and development, mental Health and wellbeing initiatives.
The Security Circle
EP 112 IFPO CEO, Sandi Davies and ASIS CEO, Bill Tenney: A Powerful Alliance: Security Membership Leaders on "Elevating Security Standards"
BIO Sandi Davies
As Chief Executive Officer of the International Foundation for Protection Officers it is my intention to meet and exceed the goals and objectives of this organization. Developing and making available the best security educational programs possible is critical to the success of the Foundation. Additionally important is the effort involved in creating and maintaining productive working relations with our many members, partners and supporters around the world. We have a great team!
"Since it's inception in 1988, the International Foundation for Protection Officers (IFPO) has played a leading role in providing professional education to security professionals and students. The Foundation has collaborated with colleges, universities, corporations, training providers, professional associations and employers. Through membership, discounts on learning products and professional certification processes; the IFPO strives to professionalize security personnel in all industry sectors. The Certified Protection Officer (CPO) designation has been attained by over 45,000 persons in more than 45 countries around the world. Thousands of supervisory staff have become Certified in Security Supervision and Management (CSSM). Hundreds of instructors, faculty and consultants have helped in the teaching of protective service materials and become Certified Protection Officer Instructors (CPOI's)."
BIO Bill Tenney
William “Bill” Tenney is a Navy veteran and recognized professional in the fields of corporate security, intelligence, and business resilience. He has built and led high-performing teams in financial services, technology, media, and retail sectors in the U.S. and overseas.
In the private sector, Bill has built and led corporate security teams at MetLife, Bloomberg LP and Target. Bill began his career in the U.S. Navy, serving in the U.S., Japan, and London, and deployed aboard the USS Midway and USS Independence. He also served in the foreign service in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York.
He earned a master's degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from St. Olaf College.
Security Circle ⭕️ is an IFPOD production for IFPO the International Foundation of Protection Officers
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yoyo:Hi, this is Yolanda. Welcome. Welcome to the Security Circle podcast. IFPO is the International Foundation for Protection Officers and we are dedicated to providing meaningful education, information and certification for all levels of security personnel and make a positive difference where we can to our members mental health and well being. Our listeners are And so are you. You're the decision makers of tomorrow and today, and I want to thank you personally, wherever you are around the world, for being a part of the Security Circle journey. If you love the podcast, we are on all podcast platforms, uh, and just check us out if you haven't already. Where have you been? Even better, just like, comment and share the LinkedIn post. Thank you for your company. Wow. Today. What a special day it's taken a while to put together, but it's entirely worth it. I have two very influential people within the security sphere. You are going to know both of them. I have Sandy Davis. Sandy, welcome back to the security circle podcast. How are you doing? Very well. Thank you. It's good to be back. Well, you had a very high download on your last podcast. If anyone hasn't checked you out yet, they should definitely do that. welcoming for the first time, the new CEO of ASIS, Bill Turney. How are you doing, Bill?
bill:Very well. Thanks. Uh, really great to be here.
yoyo:Well, Bill, I'm going to come to you first because you are the new man as it says on the door. You have recently joined ASIS as CEO. Tell me, how did this happen and how do you feel about it?
bill:Yeah, well, first of all, I'll start with the second part. I mean, I feel great. This has been a great opportunity to join a great team, I think to deliver on a great mission. super excited to be in the role.,how did it happen? look, I kind of got tapped on the shoulder and someone said, would you be interested in this? And the more I explored the role, the more interested I got, what I learned quickly and it's been reinforced during my time in the role, which is, I've been a. You know, long time member, but I wasn't getting the full value out of my membership, nor was I making sure my team was getting the full value out of their membership. So I think one of the great stories about ASIS International is There's a lot of resources here for membership members. How do we make sure that people are getting that full value out of our, out of their membership? How do we make sure that we're continuing to advance the profession, help security professionals and do this together? The world is not getting any less risky. I think ASIS is more needed now as much as ever.
yoyo:Sandy is a CEO for Ifpo. Hello. you have been CEO for quite a long time now, haven't you? What's your journey been like from the point of saying, okay, I'm going to grab this horse by the reins? Oh,
Sandi:my gosh, that happened in the early eighties. many years ago when I worked for a contractor and I'd see these security officers come in for an application or a job interview and five minutes later, they had their uniform tucked underneath their arm and the way they were to protect people, property and assets. Of significant value. So, that's what really started and promoted, you know, got my, my, got me thinking about what I can do to change this. I worked with a, um, board of directors or advisory board, I guess, back then, and we brought it all together and it's evolved over the. You know, many years that we've, been in business from, classroom training to, um, uh, you know, correspondence to floppy disk to, um, computer based learning. I mean, it's been, it's been a journey and it's been a lot of fun.
yoyo:But ultimately, it's about getting into the hearts and minds, isn't it, of our frontline standing?
Sandi:Right, and I'm very passionate about that because I think that, unfortunately, that portion of the industry has been plagued with poor reputation. You know, we all heard it and it's just, I just, it broke my heart every time. And I, I don't like the word guard. And when I'm around a board of directors meeting and anybody uses a guard word, I have a little dish on the table and they have to throw money in it.
bill:I love that. I love that. Sandy, I'll double down on that. When I was a chief security officer in my life, we made sure to call them security officers,
Sandi:right? Uh,
bill:they were contracted, but they were absolutely part of our team. In many cases, The first line, right? That was where the CEO, the first person he was going to see when he came into the office every day was one of our contract security officers. And so making sure that those people were integrated as part of our team. They're an extension of our brand, as a corporate security team and super important. I completely agree with you in that space
Sandi:now. I know that there's some states and provinces and countries that don't allow you to use the word officer because it's too close to a police officer, which I understand. I can't change the world, but,, and then some aren't even allowed to wear their CPO. Pins or crests because it has officer on it, which is just, I think just, very sad.
yoyo:Maybe we're at the beginning of a sea change, but Bill, I've never known a CEO that works in an office to not know the name of the security officer that's working in the reception each morning.
bill:Oh, yeah, there., look, we found that a lot where in particular, if you're hiring the right security officers, they're really good at customer service. They understand that's sort of one of the first line of defense, the eyes and ears. Part of that is knowing your employees, your associates, who's coming into the building and being able to separate sort of the known from the unknown. And yeah that's super important.
Sandi:I believe that, that's critical and customer service is where most of our clients want more emphasis on. As we create a new textbook, they're like, every officer should have great customer service skills so that they represent our company versus, you know, or sort of like, Looked upon in a poor light.
yoyo:In fact, if you don't mind me saying, uh, Bill, you're rather young for this type of role. I might look younger
bill:than I am.
yoyo:Has anyone said to you, I thought you'd be older?
bill:Yeah, look, I, I spent, 15 years in the public sector, starting out as a Navy intel officer, and then, in that national security space as a civilian, and then about another 20, uh, in the corporate world with, first Target, and then Bloomberg, and then most recently at MetLife, and so, yeah, look, It's been a great run and, uh the opportunity to kind of step out of that sort of come in as a practitioner, but now look at the association space and really being able to impact the profession, uh, in a broader way is super exciting to me. And actually, uh, another thing I'll kind of highlight that Sandy kind of led with was, you know, IFPO really establishing. That, uh, kind of certification to give people the foundation for the profession and how do they do that. And this is where I think the the missions of IFPO and ASIS are very much complimentary, uh, you know, IFPO starting with that sort of some of those junior personnel that start out in those, those, uh, you know, manned guarding, security officer roles on the ground, And then can we kind of help them grow their careers as we grow the profession up into ASIS certifications and move into those places where they can really be doing security risk management and starting to think strategically and become business leaders and really helping lead their organizations through difficult times. Just really exciting to think about the different groups that are out there. And how do we partner together to do more as a group than any one of us could do independently?
yoyo:Bill, you'll know more than anything else that our members, uh, have quite often started off in a security officer frontline,, front reception, you know, the guarding post. Security Officer Hutt, they've started there. I started there on that minimum wage when I left the police force, it's just so good that between the two of you, that we can encompass that frontline junior element and then, into the security professional and you, and you both get it, you both get that there's not a conflict of interest there. It's about the journey that a security professional can have from the beginning to the end. Well, let's say not the end. Yeah.
bill:Yeah. Yeah. No, to a great career. And look, it's interesting. You both, uh, have been in the space, for some time. And so, you know, this as well, every time I talk to a security. Professional about their journey. It's typically a long and winding road and not everyone sort of expected to end up here, but the journeys are always interesting. And I think what we're trying to do is build that tent that's big enough to kind of take people who have come from the public sector. That might be law enforcement. It might be the military. It might be other areas. that come from straight up from the ranks from being a security officer on the ground that come from the business side with other skills. And how do we really have that big tent, and then come with standards and guidelines, certifications and certificates, a lot of education networks, communities and help people grow. within the profession, grow the profession together, and then really be seen as organizational leaders, whether we operate in the public or in the private sector.
yoyo:Sandy, I've always maintained that, having not been a member myself, uh, for several years, beginning of my security career, I can't tell you how lonely I felt just feeling like I was the only one, not only on the front line, but then working my way up through managerial roles. And Sandy, I've always maintained that, being a member of a security body does actually make you feel part of a security community. I've always advocated to join as many as you can afford, don't just limit yourself to one what would your sentiments be around that?
Sandi:Well, I agree with you completely that being part of a networking or an association or a fellowship or whatever we want to call it is pretty critical for career advancement as well, because the opportunities that you get to share information and communicate different educational opportunities, seminars, conferences, or what have you. And as you know, Yoyo, you don't know a stranger when we go to GSX. Everybody knows you, um, but, uh, I think that, um, in addition to that, it's a feeling of, of, um, belonging. And I think that everybody likes that. Um, and, and just to, uh, under, uh, Talk on Bill's point about, um, you know, uh, security officers and the need to, to have an educational pathway. And I think that it, ASIS and IFPO have done that very successfully because we feed a lot of people into ASIS, as does, I know, we get all sorts of inquiries back because they may be looking for something that's more entry level. I think that the industry is changing and evolving in terms of recruitment and retention. And I think it's my biggest comment on that is we have, we deal with about 100 high schools now in, in USA, which is kind of exciting. They don't, they're not necessarily, um, as attracted to law enforcement for multiple reasons. And we need to nurture those people because otherwise, you know, we're going to, there's going to be a dead space and that's not productive for our industry.
yoyo:Bill, I have a question specifically for you. For the first couple of years that I was an ASIS member, I didn't have this kind of connectivity with GSX. I didn't feel like it was from me. And it took a little while. How can we, how can we get to that member who's joining for the first time and help them to feel that actually GSX is something where I just, I don't know if it's because I was English or not, I don't know. I just didn't feel like I belonged there. But I, hell no, I, I know I belong there. So how can we narrow that gap so we haven't got members thinking, okay, I don't know if I should be there or not.
bill:Yeah, look, that's a great question. Um, I'm biased because like you look, I, you know, just having gone through the last GSX. I think there's a lot for everyone and and there's and it can cast a very wide net and it sort of depends on what you're interested in. Are you interested in the community piece networking with like minded people? Are you interested in the educational content? And some of that is during it. And some of it is if you're a CSO center member, there's You know, before the conference even kicks off, there's special things for CSO center. If you're, if you're eligible for that kind of content, there's keynote speakers. And quite honestly, the keynotes this year were great. We've got, you know, Santa Marin for the prime minister of Finland. Where are you going to see that? Kirk Lippold, who is the commanding officer of the USS Cole when it was attacked in the port of Aden, talking about leadership in crisis times, uh, speakers on AI. Uh, there's a and then there's the exhibit floor where you can see new technologies and look what I would say, too, is it's an opportunity to really engage and get involved. Like, look at those communities, those affinity groups, uh, or those groups that are, you know, around executive protection or intelligence or business resilience or whatever that is and really kind of find your people and and it can help in so many different ways. Uh, I think as an individual, um, It can help in your day to day job. I mean, I think one of the great things that's kept me in security is when things go wrong, we are always talking to each other. We're benchmarking, we're sharing Intel, we're sharing, uh, background on providers. We're very open, uh, in sort of the profession. And that to me is fascinating. And when things go wrong, it's too late to have the network. So, you know, get to GSX, be there with people that you're expanding your network. for your own professional development, what opportunities might be out there for you to grow your career, either learning from someone else or potentially finding your next job. And, and I get that people might not be able to go every year because of, you know, plans or business, uh, imperatives or even budget. But I would say it's a great opportunity to kind of get out of your silo and open your aperture. And, uh, and kind of get out of your, your day to day and think a little bit more strategically, make new relationships, expand the network, learn new technologies. There's just all kinds of opportunities I think there. And I would just really encourage people to give it a shot.
yoyo:Well, look, you remind me of, uh, Gottfried, Gottfried Hendricks, because he's retiring now, but he can't retire because his friends are all in the ASIS community. And he says, well, if I was to really retire and it's. Beautiful Dutch accent. He'd be like, I want to be able to see all of my friends. And he has a career as a volunteer with ASIS. And so I guess really it does grow to become more, doesn't it?
bill:Absolutely. And look, very kind of you to put me in that in the company with hot free because, uh, that those are big shoes to fill. So I, uh, I'm just happy to kind of be mentioned in the same in the same breath. He is. He's a gem as a past president. And he's one of the many that have come up to me and said, tell me what you need. I'm here to help. I'm here to serve. He absolutely thinks about being a servant leader, giving back to the profession, giving back to the community. And like you describe, as you get more engaged in this, yes, there's the work piece, yes, there's the professional piece, but then there's also a community of people who will support you in good times and bad. Look, my first president was Cy, uh, Oatridge. Cy. We'll talk about this as one of the great gifts that the profession has given back to him, and ASIS has given back to him. He has given much to this group, but he's gotten equally back, and he would probably even say more. And to me, that speaks volumes. And so, you know, I just encourage, as you describe, whether it's GSX or volunteer leadership, chapter, region, communities, whatever it is, Get engaged, get engaged.
yoyo:Cy Oatridge is one of my favourites, but don't tell him anybody. Sandy, you, you've had a career of servant leadership, haven't you? In, in, um, in your role as CEO of IFPO, and to the point actually, we were in Texas when you won an OSPA for your lifetime dedication to your role. And it was so thrilling to be there with you collecting that. What can you do after you've achieved that accolade?
Sandi:It's interesting you ask that because it wasn't once I received that I was referred to as a legend, um, a pioneer, and I thought, you know, oh my gosh, I felt like I should just walk away from the table and go and retire and, you know, take up golf or something. But no, it was the highlight of my career. There's no doubt about it. And, uh, actually. Um, I just did a video for the global OSPAS that are going to be in February. Um, they're doing it all virtual. So it kind of brought back the whole feeling of that achievement. All I can say is I didn't win that. Um, I wasn't the recipient because of just my. I had so many great volunteers and people to work with and organizations like ASIS where, you know, I think that I can contribute a lot of that to getting involved with the councils early on, and, meeting people that served on my board afterwards. So, yeah, it was an exciting time. I'll tell you.
bill:Sandy, I know you're not, uh, you maybe not didn't see me on video, but I'm giving you the polite golf clap for congratulating you for that. As Yo Yo was, was remarking on that. Look, I just want to underline something you said, which is none of us succeed alone. And in particular in this association space, it's the magic between volunteer leaders, you. Uh, the staff and members that really gets to, you know, the one plus one is three and we can do more together than any one of us could do on our own. So I firmly believe in that. And hearing you say that, I'm just nodding vigorously that that's where the magic happens.
Sandi:Right, absolutely
yoyo:Is that what a polite golf clap is? It is. Polite
bill:golf clap. You learn
yoyo:something every day, yo yo. But listen, there is a big elephant in the room here, Bill. ASIS are actually celebrating something rather special this year, aren't they? Why don't you tell us about that?
bill:Indeed we are. So we are celebrating our 70th 70th anniversary of our founding. and so that is super exciting. And being able to kind of say we've been around for that long, and it's amazing to see how the association has grown from its founding. But it's also interesting to look back and see some of the similarities of the world that the founders faced and what we're facing now. And the founding principles they kind of came up with around it. Sharing practical knowledge, collaborating to unite the profession, uh, establishing standards and guidelines and how that was very, uh, kind of, they were great at looking into the future and seeing that those founding principles really resonate today. we're looking to not only live up to those, but continue to expand and build upon the foundation that, that they laid. And I think it's just a great opportunity to kind of look back, but also at the same time, look forward.
yoyo:I'd like to deep it a bit more. I mean,, what do you think has really changed though in 70 years in our global sphere of community risks,
bill:yeah, well, look, it's interesting. Uh, we kind of went back to those founding documents and what they talked about is being those sort of founding risks were around cold war tensions. Advancements in technology, emerging forms of crime.
yoyo:Oh boy.
bill:Civil unrest. I mean, like, do any, does any of this sound familiar, right? Yes.
yoyo:So it's a
bill:little bit of like history doesn't, doesn't repeat itself, but I think what we're seeing is just different versions of the same kind of thing, whether it's geopolitical tensions, the use of technology as a vector for, for crime or nation state, competition. You know within countries, we see civil unrest. We see new forms of crime. So, like I said, in some ways, some of those big themes remain the same, but some of it's, you know, we're looking at a new modern world. And I guess I'll, come back to one of the things I mentioned at the beginning, the world's not getting any less risky, security professionals are on the front lines every day. How do we in this association space help them give them the tools? To do that, but also engage them. So we're all working together to advance the profession, not only amongst ourselves, but with those people that we support those people, whether they're in nonprofits or the government or for profit businesses, they own the risks, and it's our job to help identify and assess those risks, develop prevention and mitigation measures and help those entities planfully respond to the inevitable disruption. I think the one thing I'd say in today's world for any big enterprise, it's not a question of if you're going to be disrupted. It's when and where. And the answer for many enterprises is now and everywhere. And so how do we help support those professionals in their day to day jobs?
yoyo:Sandy, you've been around,, I would say a wee while, and we have, as women, been in a lot of male dominated spaces, and we haven't always felt uncomfortable, but I know I can say from personal experience that the moment I became an ASIS member, I never felt safer. For anybody who has any doubts about some of the very bad conducts that we do know exist, I have never and nor have I heard it from any of our colleagues within either of our membership bodies. Sandy, you've seen the journey through as well. You've seen probably as a woman, you know, what it's like to not be in a safe space.
Sandi:I would, I would take that back to the early 1980s. My first conference was in New Orleans, I believe it was. And I think I was all of about 20 years old. I feel that men are embracing, women into this industry and obviously by the figures of the Women in Security Council and, these are bright women. Um, they're very talented. And I think that there's a certain amount of respect, which they deserve. I think they are, warm recipients of that. Um, and, and they should be recognized too.
bill:I'll add into this. Uh, you know, I've obviously seen the profession change over time and continue to change. for the better. I've sort of always taken this as though putting my chief security officer hat on. If I'm only looking for talent in half of the gene pool, that's a problem. Like we need to cast a wide net and find the best talent everywhere. And it's in finding people with different backgrounds, different histories, different expertise, different, you know, experiences in different, with different cultures, speaking different languages, like again, the magic happens when you bring all of that together and have those perspectives. Offering different approaches and I've always sort of said, like, I'm not the smartest one in the room, but we're gonna get a bunch of people and that hive mind is going to be very smart, and we're going to do better together than we could separately. And so I've been super pleased with some of the efforts. I mean, look, one of the things we kind of talked about at the last lead her. So the lead her joint effort between A. S. I. S. And Sia. That was one of the first, events I got to join as, as a CEO. one of the things that was great, I walk into that conference room and sometimes you walk in and it's a conference and it's sort of, everyone's just kind of, I don't know, a little bored. The energy in the room right out of the gate was super, it was a buzz. That was, that was impressive. But the other piece, like one of the comments that sort of came out is like, Hey, uh, you know, women don't need security, but security needs women. And again, this gets back to the finding the best talent. And we've got to look for the best talent everywhere. Cause there is a war for talent. And if we're not, offering those opportunities, those people are going to go somewhere else. And then we're going to struggle to put the best team on the field, and that's really what we need to do. So, yeah, I think ASIS clearly has always, I think, striven to be a Big Ten organization. We care about the profession, and how do we advance that profession? And in order to do that, we need all, all the innovation, all the experience, all the perspectives, and that's how we're going to get the best, the best approach. And again, collaborate and do more together than we could do separately.
yoyo:Going back to earlier when I mentioned your perceived age, Bill, it was because I thought this is a good time to really focus on the next generation. You know, we have this emerging generation that are incredibly smart, very educated, very, very clever, and very passionate about what they do in the security community. So I'd love to hear your thoughts about where the next gen feature in the future of ASIS in the next 70 years.
bill:Yeah, look at the next 70. I don't know if I'm gonna hit all of that. But look, I think one of the things we're trying to do, I mean, kind of just to lean into that big tent piece is make sure that people understand. Hey, there's a place for everyone here. whatever your background is, whatever your generation is. And how do we do that? And a lot of that with that generation is making sure they know who we are. And then part of it is thinking, how do they want to engage with us in what ways? Look, a lot of that are things around technology. And so how do we offer those opportunities? Podcasting is a great example, right? You're doing this right now, leaning into that generation. Social media, how do we make sure we engage with that? How do we make sure that we as an association have the right tools for members to tap into this? Now. This is a lot for us, right? We're in the midst of undergoing a digital transformation. We've got a lot of legacy technology to get out from under. Great news is we have a plan and we need to get through that and we're looking for ways to potentially accelerate that. So how do we do that to make it easy for members to tap into the ASIS resources and receive the resources they want? At the time they want in the manner they want to get it so they can use it to deliver for their organization or achieve their career goals or advance in the profession, whatever that looks like. I think, that's a journey. I think, we're working it. That's a group that we continue to lean into. They've got their own community. We want to make sure that they feel heard and that we're listening and really actioning some of the things that we hear back from that group.
Sandi:Back in 2021. We sat around the table and we said, who are security officers now? What are their roles and responsibility? How have they changed? we took a plunge and recruited, Dr. Martin Gill and his team to do a research project so we could. See what their positions are, what their wants and needs are. It was, it was sort of a game changer because there, the overall consensus was they were in this for a career. They're not in it because the pizza place wasn't hiring., So that changed our whole, um, thought process in catering to them, in appropriate way. and through that research, it resulted in us developing the security officer competency model, which we couldn't have done without The survey on roles and responsibilities of officers. So I think that we have to understand before we can action too much, we have to understand the foundation, the fundamentals, otherwise we're just going blind into it.
bill:Yeah, that's a great point. it starts with listening, right? It's making sure that you're really doing some active listening on what are you hearing from whatever constituency is that you're trying to support and then figuring out, okay, how do I turn that into a plan? I guess the other thing I should probably be remiss. yo, yo, if I didn't talk about for us is when I think about that next gen, one of the things we've really leaned into is mentoring. So you mentioned Godfried. There's a lot of people like the Gottfrieds and the Cy Otridges and everyone like that who really, have taken young people, that generation, under their wing and how do we mentor that generation and sort of share with them and of the experiences that we've had kind of the most of the battle scars in the heart yards that many of us have worn right and using that as a personal example to help them advance their own careers and forge that personal bond. I think that gets back to your point about Hey, there's community about getting your job done. There's community about growing your career and then that community turns into lifelong friends and all of those when they're interconnected can be extremely powerful.
yoyo:you stole my next question, Bill, it was going to be about mentoring and I've had so much exposure to this. I sat on a panel at GSX last year in Orlando, with Jonathan Perillo, and, what he had to say around mentoring. I found inspiring and he really loved what I had to say. And you've got these different perspectives sitting on a panel, which is exactly how it should be. And I stood there in front of everybody and I said, most people recognize that they need a mentor because they've got stuck. They either know their job isn't going to take them where they need to go, or their boss isn't setting them up for success. They just need to hear someone say, yeah, what should we do about it? You know, you've got a number of different options. I've even got colleagues who currently have mentors in ASIS. I've got colleagues who are looking for mentors. This is a very active space, isn't it, Bill?
bill:Yes, completely agree. I think that that's one of those things that this profession leans into, uh, I kind of talked about that during, uh, you know, sort of, as we think about executing our day to day jobs, we're always connecting and sharing, uh, insights. And if we're going to do that on our day to day, let's do that in our career too, right? Let's make sure that we're kind of leveraging each other. I think there's a lot of folks who have been doing this for a long time. They are servant leaders. They are all about the mission. They care about the profession and they want to help. They want to give back. Sometimes you just need to ask and and people will be happy to kind of reach out and help. And if it's not them, they might know somebody. Right? It's one degree of separation. It's those weak ties that can really help people, kind of find that next step or get unstuck, as you were saying.
yoyo:Sandy, when I first joined ASIS, I think I found my first mentor at the first, wine drinking session after I'm sure it was either a winter, spring or summer seminar, but it was, I think if you're looking and someone's looking to give and you happen to meet up, it just happens very organically and, and look, I met Mike and, Mike Hearst is a wonderful mentor. He's a mentor without actually even realizing it. There's such a lot to learn from him and we can't have a conversation today without at least giving a nod to Mike's contribution to IFPO.
Sandi:I totally agree with you and I think the greatest joy I get, from the mentoring program is when a mentee becomes a mentor. I mean, that's what it's all about. We encourage it at this at the security officer level. It's it hasn't taken off like I think it could and should. So we're reevaluating that. these more senior programs that we have. The mentoring is much more popular and utilized.
bill:The other thing I would add is, you know, underappreciated maybe. Is what those, you know, older mentors can learn from the younger mentees Like really it can become sort of it and should be a two way conversation How do we make sure that all of us are being continuous learners and continuing to keep that sort of aperture open? As you asked yo yo about that sort of next gen which really is the now generation, right? It's not It's not sort of next. They're in the workforce now and, and growing. And, and how do we make sure that that, information flows both ways and we can both learn from each other.
yoyo:Yeah, absolutely I would suggest to anybody listening who is at that stage where they realize, I know I need a mentor. What am I going to do? This is a great. Place to start. ASIS connects even has a mentoring group where you can register to be a mentee. You can register to be a mentor and hopefully get matched up or just come and breathe the same air and have great conversations and people will connect you. Some of the young women I'm mentoring I've already earmarked their next stage because I recognize there's so much that I can do and then I'm gonna bung them over to people like Kasia. Do you know what I mean? Because there's just such a great talent pool, certainly within my network. And I'm like, okay, I know now where we can direct you to get the best help. And that's what I really love about both of our communities, to be honest with you, wouldn't you say Bill?
bill:Amen. Yeah, absolutely. I think all of us do that, right? You find people, and one of my sort of observations is, I see people, working as volunteer leaders, and the level of effort they put in, and you start to think, if they're kind of knocking this out of the park as a volunteer leader, in addition to their day job, they must really be killing it at the day job. And, how do I connect them to people who I know might be looking for talent like that, or at least kind of keep them in mind, to make some introductions and you never know where that relationship is going to lead and that helps everybody, right? You just want to kind of keep finding great people and putting them into great positions, allowing them to succeed. Again, that advance of the profession, it helps everyone, security really is a non competitive space. So how do we. How do we go after that together?
yoyo:I was going to tell you the names that spring to mind. Mike Hurst, you look at Matthew Porcelli, you look at Mike Gipps, for example. There's a lot of Mikes in security. They're all my favorites. They are career volunteers and they have had, you know, career voluntary careers are running alongside their normal careers. I heard a phrase today, actually, that I think you're going to love. We've heard the term go getters. These people are go givers, and I think that that phrase itself needs a lot more airing.
bill:Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That aptly describes their, their input in there and their willingness to give back.
Sandi:that's a great quote. I just want to add, though, I think, though, too, there's a certain amount of people that they haven't put a title on the mentoring, but that's what, in fact, they're doing, you know, you give somebody a call. I mean, they haven't agreed that this is what we're doing, but, I think there's a lot of that, too, within the ASIS community.
yoyo:before we wrap up, Bill, take us through what, I don't know if there's anything you can tell us that's going to be coming up that's going to be exciting for this year. You've got an elevator pitch for what's coming up in 2025 for ASIS.
bill:Yeah. Well, look, I don't know if that I would say it's sort of the elevator pitch, but, but, look, I, I think many are aware since the founding ASIS has really been that educator of the industry, and creating a network, around which professionals can sort of rally and connect and really, you know, kind of before my arrival, The board and team really kind of came up with this new strategy around, yes, being the educator, but really leaning into this role as facilitator and connector. How do we connect people within ASIS, within the security industry, and even outside the industry? I kind of go back to that. Discussion of how we operate on a daily basis as security professionals. And I think the opportunity now is for us as associations to operate in the same manner. Let's not compete. Let's figure out where we can collaborate and do more for our members. Then any one of us could do separately. And so how do we do that? And as A. S. I. S. grows globally, and we think about bringing in those members from all over the regions and making sure that we're delivering for them on the ground, being a facilitator to connect members within regions between regions. How do we connect with like if power, you know, Sandy Sandy's team and our team? You know, working together to think about what are our members need? How do we grow it together? What can we do together that allows them to grow their professional development together? What other groups are out there? There are many that we're sort of either talking to or have already been engaged with, whether it's around IPSB to talk about executive protection standards, or whether it's the security foundation to work on. Areas of mutual interest, whether it's OSAC or DSAC, whether it's, you know, ARIP or ATAP, there are all these organizations out there that there's a ton of opportunity for us to really look at what do our members need, what can we do, what are our skill sets and strengths, and how do we kind of combine and do more together than we could do separately. So I think really just leaning into that facilitator role and help and in doing that, Advancing the profession. That's what our members expect. Our members expect us to help them do their jobs better. Great. Let's figure that out and let's do that in the most efficient way possible.
yoyo:I do think you won a competition there for getting as many acronyms as you possibly could into a single. That's why I was laughing. I was like, oh, you Americans and your acronyms. Oh, yeah.
bill:Yeah. We're not alone, though. There's a lot of there's everyone's got their sort of acronyms and I'm happy to go through the alphabet soup and draw them all out. And there are some but look, it's just it's that facilitation piece leaning into connecting with other folks and look in the US. One thing that's really big for us is around school security. Leaning in with nontraditional security space, whether it's superintendents, administrators, you know, school resource officers, nurses, you know, things like that to do more together than we could do separately around an issue that's like super important, to the society at large.
yoyo:Why schools, Bill?
bill:Yeah, look, I think this is a societal problem. And while it's mostly in America, it's not only in America. And I think we have a lot of members who are passionate about this. And let's be honest, a lot of us are parents. And so we see this and have felt this Personally, we have skill sets to bring to this. And I think, you know, we can advance this conversation by bringing together our skills and collaborating with others who maybe don't understand what we do and how we do it. And look, one of the things I'm, I've sort of challenged by sometimes, and I was challenged by this in my career. Sometimes our partners within the corporate world would think of us as gates, guards, and guns, and that is not the space we want to be in. We are very much around managing risk. How do we identify and assess risk, develop prevention and mitigation measures, plan for response? That's what we do. And bringing that sort of approach to schools is great. It's not just about metal detectors and bulletproof glass. That's not it. It's about identifying Where, who are troubled people, where are troubling situations. How do you get left of that and start to do threat assessment, which we've been doing for some time, you know, in this corporate space and bringing those skill sets into an area that maybe didn't always have them or they weren't universal. They didn't know what they didn't know. And so I think there's a lot that we can bring to this discussion and there's a lot of passion between behind Thank you. Many of our volunteer leaders that are driving this, it's a great opportunity to make a broader impact on a societal problem.
yoyo:That can only be done with an incredibly talented pool of professionals all pulling together. I just want to focus on ASIS Kenya We know they've stood out. They have created a fabulous brand for themselves in terms of ASIS and professionalism and security and risk. We need more ASIS Kenyans, don't we? I'd love to see ASIS Greenland. I think that could be quite a good move right now. There's many of other countries in Africa. What can we do to encourage more leadership in areas where there is a lower representation?
bill:I'm going to underline what you said about ASIS Kenya. Uh, that was another early trip I got to meet. And to be fair, it was hosted by the Kenya team, but it was all of sub Saharan Africa. And that is a group that is super passionate. About ASIS and their profession and doing more together than we can do separately. There are some great leaders on that continent, that are delivering some great stuff. And one of the things we see within ASIS, percentage wise, that group has more certifications than anyone else. And they have described to me that they are, that has been extremely helpful as they we've seen. We've seen a lot of companies engage with organizations from, you know, Western Europe from the U. S. When they come with those certifications that gives them instant credibility. And now they're partnering with the ubers and the Microsoft's and all the other or they work for those companies because they have that certification is credibility. So I think look, A. S. I. S. Africa. We have, a steering committee that's going on right now, and the intent is that they will become a regional board in 2026. And that helps grow. ASIS's footprint within that continent. There are challenges that they're facing. Some are unique to Africa. Some are similar. And how do we in ASIS work with the membership on the ground there and really drive the profession together?
yoyo:Sandy, over to you now. I opened up our IFPO newsletter today. I was rather thrilled to see that the Security Circle, for which you are therefore now on, is an award winning podcast, Sandy, it was a great, newsletter and as I read, I was so surprised at how much is going on that even as a board member, I wasn't really aware of. So tell us what we've got coming up for 2025. What's exciting you right
Sandi:now? Oh, I'm over the moon with excitement. We're going to be making an announcement April 1st that we've hired a new executive director who, is going to have a major role in the organization. She's part of the YP group. she's a. A dynamic girl. She attended GSX in, Orlando with me and she's coming to London for ASAS Europe. but she's, we're not gonna make the formal announcement until, April 1st. I'm over the moon. I think that we'll learn a lot from her. She's young, she's tech savvy. She's eager to learn. So I'm very excited about that. What else is coming down the pipe? Well, we are going to release our 10th edition of our main textbook for the certified protection officer program. And we're going to be looking and updating all of the other programs to align with the security officer competency model. The 10th edition came after the competency model. And there's a few. Blanks there. Same with the security supervision and management program. We've just created a competency model for that as well. So we're going to be working very diligently on that. I think the biggest and most exciting thing is developing strategic partnerships. And expanding our global footprint, that's going to be our focus. we've got a plan in place and we're still, moving out any crinkles that it might have. I feel very positive about it. Our new certification, the MSI master security instructor is really taking off. So we'll focus on that. And, expand our, staff a little bit. We've just gotten so darn busy, which is not a bad thing. So, um, yeah, we're looking forward to a great 2025.
yoyo:Sandy. To you in terms of certification, employers love security membership certifications, they are one thing above many that will allow a recruiter to think, okay, so we've got somebody who is part of the security community, who is connected to the security community and it means a lot to employers. Why is it, Sandy?
Sandi:there's a couple of scenarios here. first of all, there is a case where, end users put it in the bid specs. That they have to have certified officers. They want tangible proof of education, which it, you know, I know that they, the contractors kick and scream and aren't really happy about it, but I know that the officers are very happy about it and, their demand, we see that more and more, which just delights me, um, then, I think too, that employers. Want they would rather I got to think that they would rather outsource their training. Why do they want to try to keep current with the trends within the security industry and so on and so forth? Let me that up to us. We'll take care of it. And I think, too, that probably, and we haven't done a deep dive into this research is to see what the, P and L, what, how that impacts their budgets is, you know, training, outsourcing their training or doing it themselves. I think it's gonna be a benchmark year, no doubt. I really feel strongly about strategic partnerships. We've signed about 15 strategic partnerships in the last six months. You know, a lot of people, of course, don't know about IFPO, so it's, I think that the support that we get from some big fortune 500 companies is also really, um, bringing things to a surface because these employers are wanting certified officers. And I just think that it's also a huge liability avoidance strategy to have a third party independent training provider.
yoyo:Bill, I had a recent chat with the CEO,. Provider for man guarding, and he's leading towards, you know, being able to differentiate between a relatively new security officer and a very experienced security officer. And of course, really, certifications are the right way to go about that. And I certainly know that if an American employer in the UK would be more likely to appreciate and understand the value of CPP PSP from ASIS as well.
bill:Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And look, that's we're looking to do right. Help people, whether it's a company that's got its employees and they're trying to, make sure that they're developing them and giving them a pathway. If we can help that as Sandy's described, why invent that internally when you can go externally or whether it's individuals. That's we want to make sure we're doing is delivering for the professional delivering for our members.
yoyo:In fact, we have our ASIS Ukraine chapter lead right now, trying to get through CPP. I'm going to be very honest with you. I can't imagine a harder environment to try and do a CPP qualification in than in Kiev. I don't know if he's done it yet. And we're talking about a city that still has a lot of power outages. You know, his children they're trained now not to go and do their homework when they get in from school. They're trained to charge up mobile phones as soon as the electricity comes on. That's how life changes there. That's a big nod to Andrew Lukashenko, who has also been a guest on the security circle. Top bloke, top, top bloke. Right. Well, listen, Sandy thank you so much for everything that you're doing on behalf of all of the IFPO members. You are an amazing CEO and leader and inspirational for women in security. Thank you so much for being a guest on this week's, Security Circle podcast.
Sandi:Thank you, Yo Yo, it's my pleasure.
yoyo:And Bill, what can we say? No pressure, lots of eyes watching you this year.
bill:Would just say pressure is a privilege, right? look, that's what you want to be doing. You want to be challenging yourself. You want to take on the big issues. And look, I'm super excited. I feel very honored and humbled to work with a great team, a great set of volunteer leaders and to really focus on delivering for members. So, uh, just excited to, to be in the role and super happy to be invited to talk with you and with Sandy.
yoyo:You have my support. Wishing you all the best for this year. Hopefully see you in New Orleans.
bill:Absolutely. Thanks very much.