International Protective Security Board

One week ago, I had the pleasure of kicking off the IPSB annual Close Protection Conference in Nashville, TN. This represented a seminal moment for me and our organization. During my time as the Association President of ATAP I was fortunate to have the opportunity to drive significant growth of that organization. When I took over the reins of ATAP, we were just over 1,000 members after being in existence for over 20 years. By the time I left office four years later, we were over 2,500 members and they now exceed 4,000 members. That same energy to unite our community was present at this year's CPC in Nashville. After assuming the role of President of the IPSB last January, the IPSB began to put a few things in place to facilitate our global growth. Some of these resulted from the previous boards work to engage our founders and ensure diversity on the board to represent the global markets and sectors we represent. We officially announced partnerships with ASIS International and the Corporate Protection Leadership Council (CPLC) to further expand upon our community. The board continued to grow and expand our reach this year and the hard work of our volunteer board members and committee volunteers was clearly evident at the event. Of course, we could not have hosted such as phenomenal event without the hard work of Melissa Manchester, MBA, CAE and her team. With just shy of 700 registrants and post conference surveys from our attendees indicating this was THE BEST CPC to date, thank you Bryan Flannery and the conference committee! The energy coming from the attendees wasn't just excitement to see each other again, we had a large number of new attendees, it was their collective vision of an engaged and unified community with the mission of elevating the practice globally. It certainly didn't help that we had a group of great speakers, panelists, exhibitors and of course our sponsors. I certainly have to thank 360 Privacy for their significant contribution and private event they hosted. There are not enough words to write, or at least the readers would fall asleep if I continued to thank all of the sponsors that realized the value of investing in the IPSB. During this event several working group meetings were held to begin the planning for events around the globe in Europe, Asia, and Latin America...with some headway opening up in the Middle East as well. The IPSB is committed to reaching all corners of the map and developing grass roots protective communities that will continue to focus on bringing this community together to better protect those that require our services. On behalf of the entire board, I want to thank all that attended this year's CPC in person and those that were there in spirit! We will see you at regional events during 2025 and in Charlotte, NC for our annual conference next year. Be sure to spread the word and make sure that we get protectors engaged around the globe. Happy Holidays to everyone.

The targeted killing of UHC CEO Brian Thompson is putting security protocols for executives in the spotlight. Last week, Megan Gates caught up with Manhattan-based security executives, threat assessment professionals, and more to explore what some of the long-term ramifications might be, especially for organizations that face public ire. “I think that’s another shift for people to think about. You know that as the figurehead of the organization you often do represent the decisions of that organization,” said Angela O.. “As organizations, just as you might have placed additional security protections in the event of having a layoff at your organization or different significant policy changes, so too I think we need to look at the risk situation that organizations might face as they change different protocols, different methods of interaction with their clientele, and see how that might impact people.” https://lnkd.in/ew6przKe