2012 Security 500 Leader Profiles

Captain Larry K. Atteberry Manager, Global Protective Services

Emerging at Emergent

“Our team of protective services officers, including a few with designated police authority, is part of a propriety security organization housed within our company dedicated to protecting those who protect life. This tells our employees that their work environment is the safest place they will be all day,” says Larry Atteberry, manager of Global Protective Services at Emergent BioSolutions. A former law enforcement veteran, he works closely with all of the company’s business units to address risks to his company’s global workforce and physical assets.

Through global security operations coordinated by the Senior Director of Global Protective Services, Atteberry’s team provides 24/7/365 support to the company through video surveillance and access control; GPS tracking of their supply chain; and real-time monitoring of weather and natural disasters, including tornados, snow storms, fires and earthquakes. Emergent BioSolutions invests aggressively in education and has successfully hired and retained an outstanding security team.

At the core of Emergent’s security strategy is a strong focus on risk management. The identified risks to the business are compliance, business resilience and incident management. “Protecting life and enabling an innovative approach to business by creating a safe and secure environment for people to do their jobs is our number one goal,” explains Atteberry. That strategy is executed through a global security standardization program throughout the company.

“By standardizing procedures at all our facilities we reduce risk and liability by having the right people in place to respond the right way,” notes Atteberry. “We invest heavily in compliance including FDA, SOX, EPA and other regulations. Being compliant enables the company to function.”

“We work with the leadership at each location to standardize our processes and identify and assess common and unique risks. By identifying gaps we also identify the key people we need at each site, along with ensuring proper training on job duties and the reporting of information. Standardization also includes our technology, so personnel can understand and utilize the technology at any site without additional training time. That adds to our resilience.”

The security process has become embedded in the company’s business processes. By having the site audits and risk assessments integrated into the business facility plans, the protective services team is able to identify risks and mitigate them quickly. “Our assessments help enable business to be more efficient and save money by reducing risk, which translates into lower insurance premiums,” says Atteberry.

The company is heavily focused on financial contributions and incident management as key value metrics for security. “The external audits by regulatory bodies or the insurers are one measure of value. Networking with law enforcement and DHS for assessments is another measure. Getting an exact value is complicated, but we are able to meet our company’s goals and expectations,” says Atteberry.

“Our Senior Director expects us to ensure compliance through audits and collaboration and to identify and reduce risks effectively, which, in turn enables the business to run smoothly,” explains Atteberry. “Our security and business continuity programs should enable us to respond to any situation effectively to support our people, facilities and business operations.”

While ESBI’s upper management has a clear view of Protective Service and its contribution to the company, Atteberry notes that some CEOs are still getting their arms around security’s value to their organization. “This is also a very specialized profession with unique expertise. By being open minded, asking questions and listening they can get a strong perspective on risk management and security best practices,” shares Atteberry.

Atteberry most enjoys the talented people he works with at Emergent who have an appreciation for the security team and who respect the value it brings to the business and their safety. “The work is very interesting. It is a rewarding role to be proactive on risk and then reactive to an incident. I like the opportunity to look at ‘what-ifs,’ evaluate risk and then take action. It’s also great to see security being thought about at the executive level to help mitigate risks to the company.”

Outside of work, Atteberry is an avid outdoorsman and martial arts enthusiast, who enjoys hunting, marksmanship, weapons training and camping. A third generation, retired law enforcement professional, he has three children.

If Atteberry were not a CSO, he says that he would own an executive protection or investigations company.