Spitalfields was the venue for the winter gathering of ASIS UK on Wednesday, reports Mark Rowe.
The last event of a calendar year for the UK chapter of the security management association like any other body is an occasion for reflection and presentations. Darren Carter remains vice-chairman and Stu Nash treasurer. A new role, taken by Farah Benis, is digital content. After a members’ vote, Tim Molden has become secretary and Shakirra Patel has joined the board as ‘Next Gen’, organiser of events for young professionals. Judy Atkinson has been co-opted on as ‘membership and awards’. Chair Letitia Emeana thanked outgoing directors Richard Brooks (after three years as ‘Next Gen’ organiser) and Caroline Bashford (after six years, as marketing and latterly secretary).
Tim Molden gave an update on membership; it’s still growing and just before the November 30 gathering in London E1 had topped 800 (the total forever changing as new members join and some don’t renew). He recalled that at the summer seminar Mike Hurst presented Tim Williams with the ‘triple crown’ pin to mark the gaining of ASIS’ three professional certifications; the CPP, PSP and PCI, covering security management, physical security and investigations.
Pictured left to right are Tim Molden; Hannah Wadey, CEO of the London-based Safer Business Network (SBN), presented with the annual Mervyn David Award plate, for contribution to the industry; and Letitia Emeana. Hannah was among the speakers at ASIS UK’s summer seminar; SBN’s work in business crime reduction was featured in the October and November print editions of Professional Security Magazine.
Charity cheque
Patrick Rea, an ASIS UK member and trustee of PTSD Resolution, was presented by Letitia with a cheque for £2000, the proceeds of the 2023 golf day. A raffle at the winter seminar made another £2500 (to be doubled under the ‘Big Give’ scheme) for the charity that offers counselling and support to veterans (and indeed security industry people) suffering from post-traumatic stress. Letitia in her talk to members stressed the chapter’s being visible to others, and its networking (the chapter held an evening event in June publicising PTSD Resolution, in the House of Lords). Courtesy of Steve Kenny of the IP video surveillance product manufacturer Axis Communications and other sponsors, the chapter ran four CPE (professional development) days in 2023, most recently at Informa (owners of IFSEC) on November 1 – handy, so that holders of the CPP (the main ASIS certification) can get re-certified. Letitia recalled the all-day summer seminar at the Oval cricket ground in south London was the chapter’s biggest yet; and the chapter is looking to do something similar in 2024.
Letitia spoke of ASIS UK as a place for networking, and so like any other membership body it is; the quarterly seminars are also consistently a place where you hear speakers on security management, investigations and related subjects that better inform you for your work, and indeed broadly as a citizen of the planet. Each in their own way, the four invited speakers did that – Stuart Osborne, an associate to the UK official National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) who reprised his presentation to Consec, the annual conference of the Association of Security Consultants (ASC), in October; Martin Dubbey, MD of investigations and intelligence consultancy Harod Associates; Tirion Havard, professor of gender-based violence at London South Bank University (LSBU); and retired former senior police detective Jonathan Wilson.
To single out one, Tirion Havard described the role of mobile phones in coercive control of women, by their partner. As she set out, having gathered experiences of abused women who went into refuges, the mobile phone can not only be on 24-hours, but can be a gateway to other devices, such as smart heating and Alexa, that the partner can exploit to harass. Tirion related the remark of one woman, that shows quite how bad, how character-changing, coercive control can get: “I felt my only get-away was to die.”
What is the corporate security person, or indeed any work colleague to do, for someone who is in such a situation, who may while in the workplace show signs of being under coercive control? Tirion’s advice was to be kind; to show sympathy, and empathy.
What came to my mind as possibly relevant was some of the excellent material offered by the NPSA, in terms of personnel security, to be aware of colleagues acting unusually, whether because of their home circumstances, or (where it may become hostile to an organisation) a gambling or drug addiction, that may cause them to do risky behaviour, that may compromise the business. The NPSA campaign ‘It’s OK to Say’, for example, seeks to educate staff ‘on identifying and reporting unusual or concerning workplace behaviours, and in setting up mechanisms to promote the appropriate intervention’.
More in the January print edition of Professional Security Magazine. For the ASIS UK 2024 seminar dates, visit the magazine’s online calendar.
ASIS Europe 2024
Talking of 2024, the ASIS Europe annual conference is in Vienna from March 20 to 22: Letitia Emeana is among the speakers; others include Catherine de Bolle, Executive Director of the European Union’s policing agency Europol; and Glenn Schoen, whose ASIS award-winning book Code Black was most recently reviewed by Professional Security; Stuart Roberts, Vice President Client Development And Sales, Securitas Services Europe; Henry Wilkinson, Chief Intelligence Officer, and Matt Ince, Strategic Intelligence Manager at the intelligence consultancy Dragonfly; Peter French of SSR Personnel; Steve Kenny, of Axis Communications; Jason Dibley, Technical Director at the counter-espionage and TSCM (technical security counter-measures) firm QCC Global; and Shaun Boulter, Global Head Operations & Security – Corporate Mobility , AXA Partners UK. Conference co-chairs are Gavin Henderson, Vice President & CSO for Mastercard International Markets, at the payments card company Mastercard; and Inge Huijbrechts, Global Senior Vice President Sustainability, Security and Corporate Communications, Radisson Hotel Group.
