Martin Smith

Martin Smith has had a fascinating and varied career in the world of espionage. He is one of Europe’s leading authorities on counter-terrorism, counter-fraud and computer security. His unique knowledge and skills are in enormous demand from commercial corporations around the world.

Martin gained his degree in behavioural psychology before spending nearly 15 years as a commissioned officer in the Royal Air Force, mainly assigned to counter-espionage and counter-terrorism duties throughout East and West Europe. After being awarded membership of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for this work, he left the Service to carve out a second career in the commercial sector.

He joined Touche Ross Management Consultants before becoming the Senior Director of Corporate Security for Kroll Associates, the world’s foremost commercial counterintelligence and security organisation. He then joined the Standard Chartered Bank as Head of Information Security before (in 1997) forming his own specialist consultancy The Security Company (International) Limited which today is one of the leading consultants of corporate security and compliance awareness in the world.

TSC’s award winning approach and communications expertise led to the development of a cost-effective hosted solution; i-wareness® Security, that successfully meets client’s security needs and legal responsibilities. Martin is an internationally recognised author and speaker on his subject. Over the years he has presented at all the leading world security conferences. These have included:

• Conference on Islamic Banking and Finance, Bahrain
• European Commission, Luxembourg
• Computer Security Institute Conference, Washington DC
• Adam Smith Institute, London
• Middle East Financial Technology Exhibition & Conference (MEFTEC), Bahrain
• Gartner IT Security Summit, London
• CSO Summit Amsterdam

His papers and books have been published widely and he is a regular contributor to the many international news networks in Europe and the USA that seek his advice on a variety of security-related subjects.

Martin is also a renowned motivational speaker. He recalls the lessons he has learned during his career and relates them to the modern business world. He uses the techniques that he learned in order to survive on field operations to teach others how to survive in the office. In addition he is an accomplished after-dinner speaker, recalling many of the characters with whom he has served and from whom he learned vital lessons about getting the best from the team under the most difficult and demanding circumstances. He does all this with a refreshing, amusing and captivating speaking style, avoiding the prescriptive approach and making the subject interesting to everybody and relevant to the cut-throat world in which increasingly we operate.