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When what’s behind your name really matters.

EPLFOver the last 4+ years I have been on a personal journey to get this industry back to where it was when I entered it in the 90’s.  Sometimes at a cost of being personally attacked on why I did not want to leave it alone.  Why should I contradict the lost professionalism, depleted morality of the industry because some of the old regime and pillars of the industry were somewhat complicit in where it had gone astray and were benefiting from the chaos and disorder.

The gap between the corporate side and entertainment [celebrity] side was no longer there anymore and thanks to the 24 hour news cycle and TMZ we were all being lumped into one mess.  What I was saying started to make sense to the attentive ears of those who came from the same up-bringing as me and the message started to gain traction.

It wasn’t until recent that I saw once again an attempt to retread, rename and repackage a great movement towards the right direction that I decided to reach out to two [2] people who I knew wanted the same things for the CRAFT as I did and had the JUICE to make it happen from their respective niches.  About three [3] weeks ago I reached out to Avery Mitchell and Raffaele Di Giorgio and asked if they were interested in forming the Executive Protection Leadership Forum to solidify this movement towards righting this Ship.  They both agreed and the plan and mission statement was set with ATAB backing us.

In the meantime I reached out to my mentor, long-time friend and colleague Paul Viollis, CMAS of the Security Brief to see if he would support this effort.  It suffices to say that Paul has always been a huge support and advocate of mine and without hesitation jumped in with both feet.  We agreed on a radio interview which I wanted to share with my blog subscribers ——> HERE.  Once we posted the podcast on Facebook pushing the ATAB certs and our agenda we were immediately met with old regime mindset of those who would like to keep things “as is”.  Understand this, that organization never met the specific needs of the executive protection standardization until the ATAB CEPS and CMEPS certifications became live.  Then as an attempt to rise up to the standard they came up with a two [2] day certificate. For years the touted CPP has been the go-to certification however the EP industry is vaguely recognized in that certification.

ATAB

ATAB has been consistently in front of the risk that we as EP professionals face from the Core EP skills to dealing with Ebola or the unusual laws we face while traveling abroad.   ATAB has more CAS’s than ASIS has CPP’s. The original ATAB board was comprised entirely from ASIS volunteer leadership not to be in competition with ASIS but to compliment it with providing training and services that ASIS did not.  ATAB spent 2 years with the top EP minds in the business developing the curriculum and examination materials and has continued to evolve as new risk emerge. ATAB has been told over and over how refreshing it is to have current and applicable training and not old government training from 30 years ago.

The ATAB Executive Protection program is the best that I have seen anywhere. Here are a couple of comments that have been made by recent participants.

From a Navy Seal
I received all of the presentations. I have to say that these are very impressive. After reviewing them they are spot on. The information in these slides are very comprehensive and in my professional opinion smoke the majority of other certification programs out there when it comes to the training and review materials that are recommended/provided. These fill the gaps of ASIS and ABCHS training material with a more focused approach to what is needed in preparation of a tactical stand point. Coming from a SRF/BRF and non-compliant vbss background along with SOCOM I have to say that these are full of knowledge needed for a base understanding to develop an SOP template.
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From a retired E8
Your presentations are light years ahead of ***, *** and any other formal executive protection school when compared to their content.
I would like to get the Active Shooter Course under my belt; please sign me up whenever you have time.
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From a Marine Gunny that was in charge of the security detail at an American Embassy

Yes I reviewed the entire package. Having recently completed the *** online requirements, the ATAB presentations make *** look like kindergarten. It was very clear from the first presentation, all material is current and extremely relevant. I am fortunate to have been allow entrance into such a professional organization.
Safe travel my Friend.
God Bless & Semper Fi!
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From a Department of State officer that worked with Diplomatic Security Service.
That’s very interesting – we never saw anything akin to this level of detail while I was involved with the DSS – this would have been a wake-up call for a lot of the staff and the security. Using real life visual aids is also a lot better than staged photos – I pay a lot more attention to this than a bunch of stock photos put together.  I’m loving the detail here – a lot of this is stuff I’ve learned both in classrooms, on the job and by myself, but I’m seeing new things in this as well, putting words to details I haven’t been able to articulate in either thought or words before.

You should know that ATAB is not trying to replace any organization or training program. They just offer an alternate advanced method in an attempt to bring our industry together to address the threats and risk of the future and not the past.  There are many organizations that require ATAB certifications and there are also government organizations that while they can’t formally require any private certification when 100% of their hires are CAS’s I would have to say that someone believes in it.

 

1 comment

  1. Mark

    Keep leading from the front.

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