The Security Executive Council (SEC) celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, marking two decades of research and service to the security community.

Since the SEC launched in 2005, it has held fast to its mission: to help security leaders succeed while advancing the corporate security profession overall. With the SEC’s research arm, the Security Leadership Research Institute, it has developed data- and evidence-based solutions that have transformed the corporate security leaders and programs that have employed them.

Each year, the SEC has acted as the trusted advisory firm to 200 high-performing companies and security practitioners on average, leading and participating in hundreds of corporate security projects and thousands of security leader conversations. It has partnered with colleges and universities, security associations, and corporate security product vendors to advance knowledge of risk-based practices and to continually pursue excellence in the corporate security industry. And SEC staff and faculty have authored more than 50 books on research findings and successful practices, as well as hundreds of columns and articles.

“Over our 20-year history, we have had the distinct honor to partner with some of the very best security people in the world,” said Bob Hayes, founder and Managing Director of the SEC. “We have been invited into some of the best and most valued security programs to examine and document their journey and winning formulas. Security leaders have openly shared their knowledge to advance the industry. The proficiency we acquired is not the sum content of the SEC, but the collective effort of hundreds of like-minded professionals working to advance an industry they have invested their careers in.”