The Hampshire-based security consultants Spearfish have added John Smith, former director of group resilience at Prudential, to the board of directors. He will serve as non-executive director and will provide advice to the company as well as more specific strategy and guidance to Spearfish Corporate Services, its business support division. Smith brings more than 30 years’ experience to his role at Spearfish.
Dan Hooton, managing director at the company, said: “We are delighted to welcome John to the Spearfish board where he will play a major role in helping us grow our Corporate Services division. Our clients value the highly personalised and creative security solutions we provide, and John’s experience of managing security on a global basis will allow us to deliver a first class service to businesses.”
Smith is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and began in commercial security in 1978 after leaving the Army. Before the Pru, he worked at Thorn EMI Group serving in a number of security roles including being appointed director of high security systems and services. There his responsibilities included the implementation of high security systems to banking and government clients.
In 1992, Smith moved to Prudential, the life insurance and financial services company with 25,000 employees and operations and assets globally. Smith assumed increasing responsibilities over his 20 years at the company, eventually being appointed director of group security. He said: “Although companies often operate in the same industries and with facilities in the same countries, it’s important to treat each case individually. It is essential to understand the way a company functions before you can plan how best to protect it. I am looking forward to helping Spearfish extend its reach in the corporate security market and working with its excellent team of corporate security advisors.”
Smith was the first person at Prudential to hold the role of director of group resilience and shaped it himself, covering all aspects of security and business resilience worldwide for the organisation. This included physical, operational and IT aspects of information risk, privacy, financial crime (including money laundering), business recovery, fraud prevention and investigation, and crisis and disaster management.
In his four decades in the security industry Smith has also served in senior roles with several industry associations. He is former president of the International Security Management Association (ISMA), an alumnus of the US State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), an emeritus member and former chairman of the Risk and Security Management Forum and a founding Fellow of the Security Institute. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
