Excellence in Leadership
Gene Smith, LPC, (Former) President, Loss Prevention Foundation
With almost forty years of experience, Gene Smith, LPC, has been a key leader in the industry as a loss prevention practitioner, an executive search consultant for the LP industry, and much more. In 2007, Smith became a charter member and president of the Loss Prevention Foundation (LPF), the international leader in educating and certifying retail loss prevention and asset protection professionals.
“I consider my greatest accomplishment in loss prevention is helping to build LPF in such a manner that it is respected for its quality of content, rigor, and implementation by following high credentialing standards,” said Smith.
Through his efforts, Smith has made countless contributions to the careers of retail loss prevention professionals individually and to the LP profession as a whole. In June at the 2017 NRF PROTECT conference, he was inducted into the National Retail Federation’s Ring of Excellence.
“To those looking to further their careers in loss prevention, I would recommend reading as much as you can about LP as well as the retail business, finding a good mentor, becoming a good mentor, and accepting the fact that it is your responsibility to educate and invest in yourself if you want to move forward in your career,” said Smith.
Nominations Are Encouraged
The LPM team is privileged to have a front-row seat to the very best in the loss prevention industry, providing a unique opportunity to present positive, productive ways to promote loss prevention, build successful and constructive partnerships, educate and inform the LP community, and support the thought leadership that drives us forward.
The LP Magazine “Magpie” Awards are a means to celebrate industry accomplishments on an ongoing basis, recognizing the loss prevention professionals, teams, solution providers, law enforcement partners, and others that demonstrate a stellar contribution to the profession. Gene Smith is among our July–August 2017 recipients.
We want this to be your program. Those of you working as LP practitioners witness these exceptional performances on a regular and ongoing basis, and we strongly encourage you to provide us with nominees for each of the award categories. We encourage creative nominations and want the program to cast a positive light on the many tremendous contributions of the loss prevention community. Nominations can be submitted via email to excellence (at) LPportal (dot) com.
Find out who else has been recognized in the July–August 2017 issue – check out “LPM “Magpie” Awards: Applauding Excellence.”