CEO Death Puts Focus On Security

Douglas Elms of SafeHaven Security: “Security is a spectrum. It’s not all or nothing. It doesn’t have to be bodyguards and ninjas.” (Michael Woods)

People have been reaching out to security consultants like Douglas Elms since the slaying of a health care CEO in New York City on Dec. 4.

Elms founded SafeHaven Security Group in Rogers, which serves clients around the country. A former law officer, Elms worked in security for Walmart for 24 years, personally guarding CEOs from Lee Scott to Doug McMillon.

Security companies tend to work outside the limelight, but they have been prominent since the shooting of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, as he walked in Manhattan to a morning meeting.

“We work nationwide, and some of our existing clients have asked, ‘Hey, we want to have conversations about improving our security, especially around high-risk events like shareholders meetings, board of directors meetings [and] public announcements,’” Elms said. “And then, yes, we’ve had other non-clients reach out to us recently, and they want to be educated: Where do we start?

“Security is a spectrum. It’s not all or nothing. It doesn’t have to be bodyguards and ninjas.”

SafeHaven typically works with corporate clients, wealthy individuals and a few politicians. Each is different. A politician or high-profile CEO may want to interact with the public more than the owner of a private company.

“Sam Walton drove himself to work,” Elms said. “The president has all kinds of inconveniences, so security and convenience are on opposite ends of a spectrum. There is no 100% security.”

Corporate Affairs

In December, The Wall Street Journal reported that just over a quarter of S&P 500 companies provide security services for its executives.

Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale pays Chairman John H. Tyson up to $50,000 annually for security services and allows him the use of the company’s security personnel, who make $75 an hour. This information was in the company’s proxy statement filed in December.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., in its March proxy statement, said it paid anywhere from $1,962 (to then-CEO John Roberts III) to $14,727 (to CFO John Kuhlow). CEO Shelley Simpson received $5,936 in security funds, and COO Nick Hobbs received $5,773.

The company said the funds were for “security services, available for primary and secondary residences, in the form of home security systems, monitoring services or security consulting.”

Event Planning

The Jan. 1 terror attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, in which a truck killed 14 people before the driver was killed by police, seized the attention of Matt Mills. He is the assistant chief of the University of Arkansas Police Department.

Mills leads UAPD’s protection of guest speakers ranging from royalty to the former president of Panama.

“We do this anyway, but especially after an incident occurs, we will sit down and say, ‘OK, what are the best practices?’” he said. “How are we doing and what can we do better?

“We use our local, state and federal partners for intelligence gathering. We use our SEC sister schools as benchmarks to see what they’re doing and see if they have had any incidents or concerns during any of their events.”

Elms said danger signs are always present before violence.

“There’s a definite increase in violence in our society for a lot of different reasons, and there’s definitely an uptick in people being concerned about their safety,” he said. “It’s not just CEOs; it goes all the way down to you and me, and I do think that there’s always warnings. It’s proven that there’s always warning signs of violence.

“There may not be a lot of them, and it may take a professional to really understand. You can either bury your head and say, Well, gosh, that’ll never happen to me, or you can have professionals assess those and tell you what your real risks are.”