Security Industry Authority chief exec Michelle Russell hailed the ‘security officers of distinction’ at the ACS Pacesetters lunch at Windsor yesterday.
Speaking to Professional Security after the ceremony she said: “It’s an afternoon where you feel humbled to be in the presence of front-line security officers, recognising the role that they play; not just looking after the public but literally saving lives. It’s just an example of the light and shade that they deal with every single day.”
The award-winners were 15 from a dozen guarding companies, as some incidents leading to nominations had more than one officer respond; plus three ‘highly commended’, such was the high standard of the 100 entries from members of Pacesetters. Michelle Russell added that those winners were only examples of what officers do every day.
She confirmed that she and other senior SIA people will be out and about on July 24, notably with City Security Council events in London and Manchester, to mark the international security officer of the year day, chosen because of the 24-7 nature of their work.
As in previous years, the officers of distinction were men and women, of all ages and sorts, who had responded to sudden and sometimes life-and-death challenges, whether showing skills or qualities, mostly though not always incidents; some of the awards went to officers for consistently exceptional work on their sites.
Highly commended were Phil May, Josh Hancock, Abdul Adedayo and Shane Lee of Security UK, working at the East Midlands Designer Outlet, at South Normanton; Awais Ahmad of Clipfine Security; and Deb Groves of Samsic UK. Winners were: Adeel Javed, of Sodexo; Adeniyi Oloye, and Daniel Williams, of CIS Security; Bill Boateng, and Rico Hymans and Trevor Platt, of Corps Security; Kyle Russell of Kingdom; Chloe Swinbourne and Vandon Eunick of MAN Commercial Protection; Georgia Copeland of First Response Group, working at Outernet London in the West End; Adrian Reynolds of Westgrove Support Services; Luke Smith-Brookes and Waleed El-Egbi of Samsic UK; Abiodun Ogunkola of Maybank Security; Ugur Ibrahim of City Group Security.
The lunch also heard from former City of London Police commissioner Ian Dyson, who spoke as chairman of the charity the Consortium for the Prevention of Suicide; a raffle with some 25 donated prizes raised £2300 for the Consortium. Mike White read the officer citations, and Professional Security MD Roy Cooper was again event compere.
More in the July 2025 edition of Professional Security Magazine. Photo by Mark Rowe; the award winners.
About ACS Pacesetters
Run by Lynda Moore, it’s a group of companies that are among the highest-scoring 15 per cent of those approved under the ACS scheme of mainly guarding contractors, as run by the industry regulator the Security Industry Authority (SIA). Visit https://www.acspacesetters.co.uk/. To find out who are members, visit the ‘member profiles‘ part of the Pacesetters website.
