The countdown is on for Global Security Exchange (GSX) 2026. From 14 -16 September, the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta will host the annual flagship event of ASIS International and the most comprehensive gathering of security professionals anywhere in the world. With attendees from 100 nations, GSX is less a conference than a full recalibration of how the industry thinks, operates, and prepares for what comes next. This year, attendees can look forward to more than 200 education sessions, organized across tracks that reflect the full spectrum of modern security challenges.
For a sneak peek at what's in store, we caught up with Brian Jantzen, Head of Strategic Engagement at AHNA Group, Jerry Heying, CPP, CEO at International Protection Group LLC, and Jerry Jacobs, COO at White Glove Protection, to learn more about their upcoming session: Steps To Apply the New ASIS Executive Protection Standard for Corporations and Service Providers.
Tell us about your presentation and why should security professionals have this topic on their radar?
Brian Jantzen: Our session walks through how to take the ASIS Executive Protection Standard from a published document to something that changes how a program runs. Executive protection has spent most of its history running on improvisation and survival — talented individuals reacting well in the moment, rather than systems built to perform consistently. That makes quality hard to prove and even harder to repeat. The Standard gives the profession a shared reference for building programs on structure, science, and technology, so that good outcomes become repeatable, reliable, and scalable rather than dependent on who happens to be on shift. That holds whether you run protection inside a corporation or deliver it as a service provider: the same benchmark lets a security director demonstrate the program's effectiveness to leadership and lets a provider show a client exactly what they are buying. In this session, we will cover how to start putting this into practice and where the profession is headed over the next few years. Security professionals should have this on their radar as this is the first formal Standard of its kind. Programs that adopt it early will set the expectation everyone else gets measured against.
What advice would you give security professionals interested in this topic?
Jerry Heying, CPP: Security Professionals and Directors of Security should be aware and interested in the new ASIS Executive Protection Standard for many reasons, namely to understand it’s value as a guide of setting up executive protection for their organizations key senior staff, and if they have a current system, to validate and verify that it meets the Standard. The Standard will help with “duty of care” concerns and to establish the framework to reduce or minimize potential liability concerns.
How do you see this issue evolving in the next 2-5 years?
Jerry Jacobs: Over the next two to five years, I believe the ASIS Executive Protection Standard will help move the executive protection profession from a largely experience-based discipline to a more consistent, risk-based, and measurable business function. For corporations, that means EP programs will increasingly be expected to demonstrate clear governance, documented risk assessments, defined service levels, protective intelligence integration, emergency planning, and continuous improvement. For service providers, the standard will likely become an important benchmark for how they design programs, train personnel, document operations, and justify recommendations to clients.
I also think we will see more alignment between executive protection, enterprise security risk management, corporate resilience, workplace violence prevention, travel risk management, cyber/privacy teams, and protective intelligence. The threats facing executives and high-profile individuals are no longer limited to physical proximity. Doxxing, online hostility, insider risk, geopolitical instability, reputational issues, and family/household exposure all influence the protective model. The Standard gives security leaders a common framework to evaluate those risks and build appropriate protective measures without defaulting to either overprotection or under protection.
In the next few years, I expect clients, boards, legal teams, insurers, and corporate security leaders to ask more precise questions: What is the risk basis for this program? How was the protectee population identified? What are the qualifications of the personnel? How are protective intelligence findings incorporated? What procedures exist for travel, events, residences, emergencies, and family safety? How is program effectiveness evaluated? The organizations and providers that can answer those questions through a standard-aligned framework will be better positioned to deliver credible, defensible, and scalable executive protection.
Why do you attend GSX?
Brian Jantzen: I attend GSX for the conversations that do not happen anywhere else. It is one of the few times each year the whole profession is in one room, from people running global corporate programs to the providers and practitioners who support them, and the exchanges in the hallway are often worth as much as the sessions on the schedule. I come to learn what peers are wrestling with, to pressure-test our own thinking against people who will tell me when I am wrong, and to keep the relationships this work depends on. Standards and tools matter, but protection is still a people business, and GSX is where you are reminded of that.
Jerry Heying, CPP: I have been an ASIS Member for more than 40+ years, and have attended GSX almost every year! I have spoken at the conference several times and had a booth for many years as well.
As a previous Council Vice Chair and Chair, and as a Community Sterring Committee Chair, it is essential to meet the members you work with in person, and those who are interested in those committees. At last year's GSX, we had a networking session with more than 125 members interested in Executive Protection, which was fabulous.
So first and foremost is the networking with old and new friends! The educational sessions offer new ideas from industry experts. I strongly suggest to all members to make every effort to attend GSX!
Jerry Jacobs: I attend GSX because it brings together the full spectrum of the security profession: practitioners, corporate security leaders, service providers, risk managers, innovators, and thought leaders. For executive protection professionals, that broader perspective is invaluable. EP does not exist in isolation; it connects to intelligence, investigations, technology, workplace violence prevention, resilience, crisis management, and leadership.
GSX is also an opportunity to learn from peers, challenge assumptions, strengthen professional relationships, and contribute to the advancement of the industry. With the release of the ASIS Executive Protection Standard, this year’s conversation is especially important because it gives us a chance to discuss not just what the standard says, but how corporations and service providers can apply it in the real world.
To learn more about GSX and to register, visit here. The ASIS Executive Protection Standard provides a structured framework to design, manage, and enhance programs that protect leaders and assets, offering actionable steps organizations can implement immediately. To learn more about the Standard and related content, visit here.
