Congratulations to the 500 biggest security organizations and best business-minded leaders and their entire teams for achieving recognition and position on the 2010 Security 500.

I was fortunate to interview and profile leaders across seven critical sectors who generously shared their time and expertise. The profiles offer an in depth look at how today’s best leaders contribute to their overall organization’s culture, goals and successes. My personal thanks to:

• Mark Cheviron, Vice President, Security and Corporate Services, Archer Daniels Midland Company (Agriculture/Farming/Food Manufacturing)
• Jim Hutton, Director of Global Security, Proctor & Gamble (Industrial/Manufacturing)
• Jack Sullivan, Director of Security, Dunkin’ Brands (Retail/Restaurants)
• Jeff Ward, Chief of Police, San Antonio Unified School District (Education: K-12)
• Richard Gunthner, Vice President of Global Corporate Security, MasterCard (Finance/Banking/Insurance)
• Maria Chadwick, Director of Surveillance,
The Las Vegas Wynn (Hospitality/Casinos)
• Steve Colo, Chief Security Officer, SAIC
• Mike Ennis, Vice President International Security and Senior Risk Manager, SAIC (Business Services)

What did we learn from this year’s profile subjects? First of all, they are proven as both accomplished security executives and exceptional business leaders. But the key to their personal success is that they are outstanding people whose leadership and people skills are to be admired and (if possible) copied. It was an honor and a pleasure to be told their stories and entrusted to share them in the 2010 Security 500 report.

Their tremendous career success, beyond their enviable smarts and personable manners, can be attributed to their leveraging People-Processes-Technology combined with being the Subject Matter Expert at the junction of enterprise risk management and their organization’s unique culture, goals and circumstances. This is a recurring success factor among the best CSOs in the 2010 report and especially among those profiled.

An important improvement in this year’s Benchmarking Survey is the coaching we received from business leaders to refine the data collected and the benchmark reports provided to all participants. The survey consists of a general section of questions and then steers participants to unique questions for their specific sector. This will allow all participating organizations to use the benchmark report across all participating companies (for example, security budget as a percentage of total employees) and then measure within their unique sector (for example, security officers as a percentage of college students).

We also work toward confidentiality. The unique and detailed information collected and benchmark report data is not published and is only shared with participating organizations. Each participating organization’s report shows other participating organizations data but not the organization’s name.

The 2010 Security 500 coaches greatly improved our process and the resultant reports we are able to share with all survey participants. We thank the following organizations for graciously offering their time, expertise and direction to the Security 500 Survey:

• Agriculture/Farming/Food Production: Richard Ryan, Archer Daniels Midland
• Business Services: Ted Almay, Deloitte
• Diversified: Jerry Meade, Loews
• Finance/Banking/Insurance: William Phillips, CNA Financial
• Education: College-University Robert Beach, Longwood University
• Hospital/Medical Center: Leonard Sullivan, Medical City Dallas
• Hospitality/Casinos: Chad Callahan, Marriott
• Hospitality/Casinos: Maria Chadwick, The Wynn Las Vegas
• Industrial/Manufacturing: Chad Wehrman, Proctor & Gamble
• Media/IT/Communications: John Honovic, Viacom
• Retail/Restaurants: Paul Stone, BestBuy
• Stadiums/Arenas: Dr. Lou Marciani, NCS4
• Transportation/Supply Chain: Dennis Treece, Massport
• Utilities & Energy: Timothy Rigg, Progress Energy
• Overall Guidance: George Campbell, Security Executive Council

Some sectors were not “coached” and are up for adoption for the 2011 Survey. The better refined the questions asked, the more valuable the benchmark reports provided to participating organizations. Please let me know if you are interested in further developing the Security 500 Benchmark Survey for your specific sector. 

While many people coached, researched, edited and helped make this year’s Security 500 the best it can be, all questions and errors should come my way. Or, to request the complete report contact me at mccourtm@bnpmedia.com.

Please note the Security 500 Conference on November 9 in New York City (FREE to all Security 500 Member companies) and the Security 500 Webinar *Live* on December 1. You can register for both at www.securitymagazine.com.