John Smith joined Prudential in 1992 from the THORN EMI Group where he was Director, High Security, responsible for providing high security systems to banking and government clients, as well as the Security Consultancy and Security Services businesses. He has been in commercial security since 1978 when he left the British Army having served in general management and specialist roles. He is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and of Manchester University where he read psychology.

John is the current President of the International Security Management Association, a member of the Overseas Security Advisory Council (a business support organisation sponsored and funded by the US State Department) and a member and former Chairman of the Risk and Security Management Forum. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a founding Fellow of the Security Institute.

John’s portfolio at Prudential includes political and security risk, physical, operational and IT security, information risk, financial crime including money laundering control, anti-corruption, fraud prevention and investigation, disaster and crisis management, business recovery and privacy. His particular interests are international terrorism, pressure groups, information risk, incident and crisis management and the development of emerging leaders in the security profession.

“I got involved with Hostage UK because hostage- and kidnap-crises must be a subject of concern to any corporation working in regions where there is any level of risk. Duty-of-care lies at the heart of all security considerations, and corporations should be conscious not only of the needs of staff, but also of their families.”