In 2022, Malcolm C. Smith, CPP, of Qatar ascends to the role of president of the ASIS International Global Board of Directors. With more than 30 years of international working experience in security and risk management, he has been an ASIS member since 2004 and an ASIS volunteer leader for more than a decade.
Smith sat down with ASIS Security Snapshots host Chuck Harold to discuss his experience as a mentor, a mentee, and a security leader. Watch this video and read the following excerpt from the Security Management profile, "A Society of Belonging: An Interview with Malcolm Smith, CPP", to learn more about your 2022 president.
Malcolm Smith, CPP, started his security education early. When he was 12 years old, living in a neighborhood south of Johannesburg, South Africa, he learned how to assess risk to navigate between rival gang territories to run his business selling apples and peanuts at the local movie theater. In 1983, he joined the military and spent 18 years serving before pursuing his diploma in security risk management to become a private security professional in the early 2000s.
Smith credits his CPP certification for getting his foot in the door as a corporate security practitioner. The first questions the recruitment consultant asked him were if he knew ASIS, if he was a member, and if he was certified, Smith recalls. From that point on, Smith has been climbing the corporate security ladder across enterprises and regions. He currently works as head of risk management for the Qatar Museum Authority in Doha, Qatar, and he will take his seat as the new president of the ASIS Global Board of Directors in January 2022.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What sort of value has your membership and your CPP brought to you since you got that first corporate security role?
MS. I can give so many examples, but if I take one—just being able to tap into members is invaluable. When I was then the group head of safety and security for Nedbank, one of the four biggest banks in South Africa, the bank would send a group of top performers somewhere across the globe every year, spend a week just spoiling them, and we would have to conduct a risk assessment of the countries that they would visit.
One year, they were doing four countries at once, and I’m thinking I’ll have to send my team to conduct risk assessments of each country within a limited time. Well, I got the ASIS directory, went to the countries I needed and found two to three security directors, and I emailed them all at once to ask for help. The response was immediate.
We established the threat environment in those countries and discussed issues, and that’s how I compiled the risk reports for the events team. We made an informed decision; they deployed the 150 top performers to those countries, they had great fun, and they returned without any incident.
That time I had the directory, but the great thing about ASIS is now we have Subject Area Communities and ASIS Connects, so I can establish people’s credibility quickly and connect with them right away. They are always willing to help. I’ve never had anyone say, “Excusez moi, I cannot help.”
Your career has taken quite a track across many different countries, but at its root you are going to be the first ASIS international president from Africa. What does that mean to you and to the ASIS membership?
MS. I’m really humbled and honored to be elected by the board and the membership to sit as their president in 2022. To me it means a lot—I’ve been the first of many things in my career, but this is the pinnacle of being the first.
Now it brings also big responsibility, because I believe I need to showcase that ASIS has really made a difference when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I). The journey that ASIS has walked so far when it comes to DE&I, it’s now visible. I have traveled to more than 50, 60 countries on business; in Africa alone, I have 33 countries as my responsibility, and as global head, I had more. And I’ve seen how, as an African, you can make a difference.
In terms of being included as a volunteer leader, it started in 2011 or 2012 when I got an invitation to join the international strategic planning committee.
Invitation creates inclusion. I was invited to contribute. Then, when Dave Davis, CPP, called me into a room and said, “You know what, Malcolm, why don’t you consider joining the board? Your input around the table makes a difference from an Africa perspective. ASIS is thinking global, and we need these kinds of voices around the table.”
Since 2017, I have been sitting on the board, bringing that global—and also African—perspective to the table. I’m very proud of it, too.
Where else are you seeing DE&I being advanced within ASIS and where do you see room for improvement?
MS. In 2022, we’re implementing regional boards for two regions, North America and Europe. The four others (Latin America, Middle East, Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa) are currently named as regional advisory committees, and there’s a challenge there to bring them up to regional board status. I’m looking, of course, at leadership development for ASIS members.
We now have our mentorship program, and this is now key for developing leaders for the future. Regional advisory committees need a strong leadership pipeline to govern and drive those committees and get them ready to be boards. Maybe it will take three to five years, and this is where that same invite needs to go out: “We want you around the table.”
Read the remainder of this interview in the Security Management online exclusive article.
