EMEA security team at The Walt Disney Company joins IFPO UK and Ireland

The Walt Disney Company is one of the biggest, best known and most respected businesses in the world, so this news is a very proud moment for IFPO. The Walt Disney Company prides itself on personal and career development, diversity, equity and inclusion, talent retention and employee welfare. All of these factors align closely with the IFPO’s stated mission to support security professionals – and notably so those on the front line – in their careers and to promote well-being.

As part of The Walt Disney Company’s corporate membership, IFPO’s learning and development partner Nuology will be delivering its accredited learning packages both online and in-person across the next 12 months. Various members of The Walt Disney Company’s EMEA security team who work at various facilities and on events stand to benefit from the instruction to be given.

Scott Paterson CPP PSP, The Walt Disney Company’s director of security operations for the EMEA region, commented: “Investment in personal development and training for all of our security officers and supervisors is paramount to the success of enabling our business to operate in a safe and secure environment. We welcome the opportunity to further enhance this through bespoke and accredited courses, with IFPO meeting the needs of our security officers and the company as a whole.”

Paterson added: “We have a multi-pronged approach to training. The IFPO angle will only add value for our security officers, further motivating them within their role and providing them with continued progressive education as we collectively work to ‘Protect the Magic’.”

Mike Hurst CPP CPOI MSyI FREC, director of IFPO UK and Ireland, responded: “The Walt Disney Company’s EMEA security team’s commitment to ensuring its team members are well trained, supported and motivated is fantastic to see and we’re absolutely delighted that they’re on board.”

Advisory Board joiners

IFPO UK and Ireland has just welcomed Iskandar Jefferies CPP MSyI and Ashley Watson PSP MSyI CTSP to its Advisory Board. The Advisory Board, which also includes Security Matters’ Editor Brian Sims Hon FSyI among its cohort, plays a vital role directing and leading the growth of IFPO across the UK and Ireland.

Iskandar (‘Kandy’) Jefferies CPP MSyI is an accomplished security professional with experience of effectively managing security operations in complex, hostile and high-risk corporate environments. His experience spans almost 20 years in the security industry, in which he began in the role of security officer and worked his way up to director level.

Jefferies has a colourful background of experience from overseeing operations in Afghanistan through to managing ex-British Special Forces personnel and also looking after guard force solutions. He harbours a unique lens on leadership, mentorship, coaching and support and specialises in servicing technology clients. Further, Jefferies has a proven track record gained from working closely with some of the world’s foremost technology organisations.

Outside of his role with Pinkerton as a regional strategic account manager for the EMEA region, Jefferies has previously held positions on the Board of Directors for ASIS UK in the roles of director for diversity, equity and inclusion and director of the ASIS Young Professionals network.

Jefferies attained his ASIS Certified Protection Professional qualification in 2013 and was awarded the Freedom of the City of London in July 2019.

Risk management skills

Ashley Watson PSP MSyI CTSP has been in the security industry for over 16 years now and boasts a combination of engineering, system design, project management, consultancy, corporate security and risk management experience.

Over the years, Watson has worked on Critical National Infrastructure sites and other key Government sites as well as for global organisations including MasterCard, Thomson Reuters, Refinitiv, LSEG and Google. At present, he’s the security operations and risk manager for the Bank of China.

Watson is able to combine technical system design, project management and consultancy skills with policy and procedure development skills as well as develop risk management and operational strategies.

He holds the ASIS PSP qualification and, in 2018, completed the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure’s physical security training pathway.

Watson is passionate about professionalism within the industry in addition to career development, learning, knowledge sharing and mentoring.

IFPO: the key detail

The IFPO was established in 1988 in Canada by Ron Minion, a former member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and owner of a large Canadian contract business. Minion served as its executive director until 1992, and was succeeded by Sandi Davies, who has held the office since then.

IFPO boasts members in 68 different countries, with security professionals in 56 of those nations studying its educational programmes.

For its part, IFPO UK and Ireland is a not-for-profit membership association providing professional learning opportunities for security practitioners. The overriding objective is to impart the knowledge, skills and competencies needed by those practitioners to maximise their job performance and enhance their career potential.

The UK website, to be found at www.IFPO.UK, was launched in July 2020.