The Great Conversation

Min Kyriannis, the Managing Director of a consulting company called JMK, is unique. Her knowledge of technology, systems that run our buildings and security, and her grasp of our times, fuels a great conversation. When asked what the greatest challenges were going forward, she links our ability to be agile and innovative to our emotional IQ, our ability to be empathetic, and our integrity. The human issue needs to be in place to be able to grasp and leverage the opportunities ahead.

Torchstone Global is in the security business. They have a network of employees, independent contractors, and trusted partners that help them provide their clients with a broad range of services and expertise in over 70 countries.

We spoke with co-founder David Niccolini to understand his journey and philosophy in creating Torchstone's The Business of Before®

This conversation not only covers the complexity of protective intelligence, but also helps each of us really search our hearts and the organizations we are creating to answer the questions "Who are We?" and "Who will we Never Be?"

We are always looking for success stories of women leaders. Especially in the security industry. Many of the more successful women we have spoken with have found their path to value starts with a mindset of no barriers. Elisa Mula, the Founder of EMD is one of those women. We discuss the front of mind opportunities she sees emerging and gain insights into how she conducts her business.

Elisa formed EM Designs, LLC (“EMD”) in 2004 to achieve her vision of creating a consulting business focused on forging new paths for women in industries where they are typically underrepresented. Elisa researched a variety of industries across the international community and ultimately determined that committing to one field would allow EMD to make a greater difference. Focused on an industry in which she had extensive education and years of experience – Elisa was able to leverage her expertise for the benefit of EMD specifically and women as a whole. That industry, Physical Security, is one to which Elisa has dedicated more than a decade of her life, developed an unparalleled network of professional colleagues, and demonstrated an unrelenting work ethic. 

Jim Sawyer has been one of the key architects of the physical security program at one of the largest children’s hospitals in the USA for over 40 years. We sit down with him to see what he has learned and how it is informing the future of security at Seattle Children’s and the industry. Learn how customer service, collaborative risk management, “zero incidents”, and information aggregation and reporting are fueling the success of his program.

The Digital Transformation of key sectors of our economy is complicated. In many cases, the ecosystem is unable to adjust because their tried and true practices are good enough to produce the profits they are comfortable with. For some, the ability to invest in new operational models requires heavy lifting in re-training their people and constrains their ability to innovate and change.

When I met Eric Yunag, the Vice President of Technology and Innovation at one of the largest security integration companies in the world, he was the CEO of a much smaller integrator in South Dakota. During his sixteen-year tenure at the company, he led numerous operational and sales initiatives, as well as the expansion of the company into new locations around the country. But now he is helping Convergint Technologies pivot from providing security solutions to becoming a strategic advisor on digital transformation initiatives to security and business executives. This has been happening in the midst of an aggressive acquisition spree; innovation and change and aggressive growth. The recipe for their success is a meal that security executives want on the menu: business and security intelligence as a service that promises to create strategic advantage for their organizations.

The opportunity is open to many integrators and to their customers. The risk is their ability to adjust to the speed of change in our social and business worlds that technology is demanding of all of us.

George Finney, CSO of SMU, shows why he is the ultimate bridge builder. He steps us through the 9 habits that need to be cultivated in individuals and teams to empower the DNA of security. People, to George, are the strongest link, not the weakest. 

Read George’s book, Well Aware: Master the Nine Cybersecurity Habits to Protect Your Future, for more on this subject.

When you meet Tony Ridley, you immediately hear his accent. And then you experience his mind. Tony took us through the difficult role of a risk advisor; navigating what we don’t know. Known for his expertise in Enterprise Security Risk Management as well as him business acumen, Tony challenges us to see differently, with a discipline of inquiry and patience.

We wanted to get inside the mind of a former police officer, special agent and New York Times best-selling author who has the history and credentials to provide thought leadership around protective intelligence; the critical tool for organizations in an increasing complex world.

Fred Burton has served on the front lines of high-profile investigations like the hunt for and arrest of Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind behind the first World Trade Center bombing; the 1988 plane crash of PAK-1 that killed U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel and Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq; and the search for Americans kidnapped by Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon

His best-selling books include his personal memoir GHOST: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent,  Chasing Shadows: A Special Agent's Lifelong Hunt to Bring a Cold War Assassin to Justice, Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi and his fourth book, Beirut Rules: The Murder of a CIA Station Chief and Hezbollah’s War Against America.

Burton also consults with Fortune 500 companies on security developments and how to keep their personnel and business safe as the Executive Director of the Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence. He serves on the board of the Center for Mass Violence Response Studies and is an active member of the Greater Austin Crime Commission.

We came away from our time together realizing we are never quite equipped, never fully ready, and never can fully imagine what might occur. But we can develop a leadership and organizational mindset. And we can create a platform to aggregate the critical information we need at the time of need, so that we are prepared to assist our stakeholders stay safe, secure, and resilient.

Brian Tuskan has had a successful career as a security executive with one of the world’s largest software companies. He started his career in law enforcement but began to color outside the lines early on. He has been giving back to the ‘family’ he began with, by providing generous counsel to police officers who have reached an inflection point in their careers. Recently he has launched a video/audio cast. You can now listen to his conversations by accessing his website at www.CoptoCorporate.com. Any executive in any industry who is considering making a career change should listen to this conversation. You will walk away with some nuggets of wisdom that might make the difference in your life and your career.

Imagine a career where you had a front row leadership seat during the gradual dissolution of one of the most admired growth companies in the United States. Washington Mutual (WaMu) was a conservative savings and loan bank. In 2008, it became the largest failed bank in U.S. history. By the end of 2007, WaMu had more than 43,000 employees, 2,200 branch offices in 15 states, and $188.3 billion in deposits. By the end of 2008, it was bankrupt​.

Annie Searle was the Senior Vice President and Divisional Executive for Enterprise Risk Services at Washington Mutual.  Searle's early responsibilities included enterprise research, planning and architecture as well as vendor and application security; additional responsibilities included continuity of operations, technology change management, disaster recovery, and technology risk management for the entire company; as well as regulatory and audit assurance for the Technology Group. ​

We have a conversation about uncertainty and the four lenses we must see through, to be attuned to the changes that will inevitably occur. And we also talk about how she is cultivating new leaders who are articulate and critical thinkers. We discover the need for core beliefs and values that can hold during times of crisis. ​

Annie teaches courses on operational risk, information ethics, consulting practices, cybersecurity, and the foundations of information management to the next generation leaders at the University of Washington’s School of Information. ​

​She is a lifetime member of The Institute of American Entrepreneurs, and one of roughly 50 thought leaders selected since 2007 by New York University for its annual Global Risk Roundtable. In 2011, she was an inaugural inductee into the Hall of Fame for Women in Emergency Management and Homeland Security. Searle is a well-known national public speaker on a variety of risk-related topics.​

​Annie is also Principal of Annie Searle & Associates LLC, an independent advisory and research firm created in 2008, at the center of which is the ASA Institute for Risk and Innovation, focused today on influencing policy and publishing in the areas of privacy, security, risk, disruption and emerging technologies.