Though Heather O’Brien says that nepotism played a role in getting her that unpaid document-shredding job at the age of 10 (her father was a security guard company executive), as well as the one where she coordinated the company e-newsletter at 12 for which she recruited her friends’ help and had her first foray in leadership — there’s no mistake that her hard work, career trajectory and impressive resume within security are all her own.
O’Brien has become well versed and well sought after for her insights into optimizing contract security forces and proving their worth. The contract security force is frequently a large ticket item on any company’s security P&Ls, making it a common target for budget reductions. O’Brien’s work in developing methods of security officer force optimization has set standards that have benefitted the organizations she has worked for, as well as many others beyond her own through her involvement in the Security Executive Council, ASIS and other organizations.