Staff Sgt Matthew Fitton was this year’s winner of the Imbert Prize.
The award for the best dissertation by a master’s degree student in security management was presented at the annual lunch of the Association of Security Consultants (ASC) in Piccadilly, London. Lord Imbert, the prize judge and a patron of the association, could not attend; Jon Laws read his speech. Diners at the RAF Club in Piccadilly, central London, drank a toast to Lord and Lady Imbert.
In typically generous remarks, Lord Imbert praised all three entries; Fitton’s from Cranfield University, towards a MSc in international security; consultant Kevin Larkins’ from Portsmouth; and senior director – operational security at Asda-Walmart Claire-Louise Rushton’s, from Leicester. Imbert said that all three were winners, adding: “The security profession is the actual winner.”
The dissertations, Lord Imbert added, showed many bright young people were joining the security profession, and he thanked universities for their part in raising standards in the ‘ever-changing profession’.
Earlier in a welcoming speech, the ASC chairman Joe Connell hailed the expanding scope and influence of the association; and its finances in a healthy state: “We are really in a good position.”
Joe Connell presented the association’s own awards; the ‘contribution to security consultancy’ went to treasurer Bob Martin; and highly commended awards went to members Stephen Beels (for his work growing the membership by 25pc in the last year), Nick Johnson (the ASC’s new logo and website) and Warren Collins, who could not attend. Among those present were ASC patrons and former senior policemen Sir Hugh Orde, Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate and Lord Bethell, who spoke; former chief constable Tom Lloyd; NSI chief exec Richard Jenkins; and SSAIB chairman Geoff Tate; and past ASC chairmen Allan Hildage and Colin Braziel.
Besides the ASC’s regular business group meetings at the Honourable Artillery Company on City Road in London – the next one is on Thursday, July 28, when the invited speakers include Rui D’Almeida, Access Control Manager, Genie CCTV; and Mark Novak, Business Development Manager, Avigilon – the association in its 25th anniversary year is holding a dinner on September 9, also at the HAC; and its annual conference Consec, at London Marriott Hotel, Heathrow on October 13. For details of events, visit http://securityconsultants.org.uk/member-events.
To contact the ASC visit http://securityconsultants.org.uk/association-of-security-consultants.
Pictured left to right are Joe Connell and Matthew Fitton; for more pictures from the afternoon, see the August 2016 print issue of Professional Security magazine.
