The start of the new year brings about some exciting changes with ISCPO’s leadership and board of directors.
Byron Smith, CFI, LPC, who has served as vice chairman for the past two years, will assume the chairman role. Presently corporate asset protection manager at 7-Eleven, Smith is a veteran asset protection professional with 29 years of experience building loss prevention and risk management teams for various retailers including Eckerd Drugs, Office Depot, Circuit City and 7-Eleven.
His experience has specialized in directing regional and corporate asset protection/loss prevention, distribution/logistics, risk management, as well as safety and corporate security. Smith has been an active member of other organizations, including the LPRC where he serves as on the board of advisors; the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), where he is involved with the Asset Protection Steering Committee; and the Houston Crime Stoppers and Texas Retailers Association.
New Chairman Smith says, “I have been involved with the ISCPO for many years, and it is an honor to now serve as the chairman and to work with an outstanding board. From the beginning, the ISCPO’s goal has been to promote, educate, and advocate supply chain security and protection through building strong networks and delivering exceptional leadership training, board representation, and industry support. With the nonstop growth and focus on e-commerce and its potential risk within the supply chain, the Board and I are looking forward to championing both loss prevention and security in e-commerce.”
ISCPO’s Annual Conference convenes March 6, 2019, in Dallas, TX. The two-day summit will feature a wide range of speakers, from both private-sector and public law enforcement including American Airlines, Deloitte, Amazon, Daimler, and Pitney Bowes, who will share how they’re staying ahead of the curve when it comes to mitigating risk and loss across their supply channels. With e-commerce now immersed across the global supply chain, LP and security professionals will learn how to be proactive in leading security transformation within their organizations.
“The ISCPO’s mandate in 2019 is to focus on e-commerce and to explore how it’s changing the LP landscape. As we incorporate an array of digital tools and real-time transportation technology to move goods through the global supply chain, how can we as LP and security professionals be proactive in leading security transformation within our organizations? What tools do we use to maintain transparent chain-of-custody in the e-commerce lifecycle from the initial buying process and the shipping of goods to returns,” adds Smith.
To that end, the ISCPO will continue to drive needed standards in e-commerce transportation security via its Carrier Security Audit & Certification program, an industry certification awarded to “final-mile” third-party logistics carriers who meet the ISCPO Carrier Security Requirements, a combination of successfully achieving compliance of industry standards, risk management processes and universal controls between customer and service provider.
Other board appointments include Wes Bank, LPC, with DHL, assuming the vice-chairman role. Bank is currently the director of loss prevention for DHL e-cmmerce, overseeing risk management, government regulatory, audit, investigations, and physical security. Bank has been an active ISCPO member for several years and chaired the committee that developed the ISCPO Carrier Security Requirements, the foundation of the ISCPO Carrier Security Audit & Certification program. He was instrumental in contributing to a successful launch of the program last year, with four carriers now carrying the ISCPO Carrier Certified seal. Carriers receive designation after undergoing a comprehensive due diligence process and analysis of various security standards necessary to ensure the integrity of goods flowing through the carriers and their clients’ extended supply chain.
A loss prevention practitioner since 1990, Bank previously held loss prevention management roles with Velocity Express, Office Depot and Jewel-Osco. He served on the Loss Prevention Foundation’s certification committee during the early development of the Loss Prevention Qualified (LPQ) and Certified (LPC) programs and had been a participating member of Merchant Risk Council, RILA and InfraGard.
Outgoing Chairman Rod Fulenwider states, “Byron’s track record and leadership skills are tremendous, and I look forward to continuing to serve on ISCPO’s Board of Directors and supporting Byron as he takes the organization to the next level. Byron is a true professional and visionary who is the perfect person for this phase of the organization.”
“Rod has done a great job as our chairman these past few years with both his contributions and direction. He will be stepping down and moving to a Board of Directors role,” adds Smith. “The organization would also like to thank Scott Cornell and Maurizio Scrofani for all their tremendous support, contributions, and dedicated work over the past couple of years. We were privileged to have these two veterans serve on our Board.”
For information about the ISCPO and its 2019 March conference, visit www.iscpo.org. Registration is now open at www.iscpo.org/conference