SIA New Member Profile: Rebel Global Security

New Security Industry Association (SIA) member Rebel Global Security is a trusted global security advisor to business leaders in critical industries. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and serves clients across the United States and around the world.

SIA spoke with Mark Freedman, CEO and founder of Rebel Global Security, about the company, the security industry and working with SIA.

Tell us the story of your company.

Mark Freedman: I founded Rebel Global Security in August 2022, six months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amidst rising geopolitical tensions and global security threats. As a former U.S. Department of State counterterrorism official and Big 4 strategy consultant, I could see that most businesses were woefully unprepared to protect their assets and navigate uncertainty in this turbulent global threat environment.

At Rebel, we help private-sector businesses reject old-school outdated approaches to security, such as an over-reliance on the “Three G’s” (guns, gates and guards), in favor of intelligence-led, proactive, whole-of-business strategies to mitigate risk and seize opportunity. We are leading the way in empowering private-sector businesses to protect themselves against major threats.

What solutions/services does your business offer in the security industry? And what makes your offerings or your company unique?

MF: We have two service lines:

• Security management consulting: We help clients optimize their security posture to keep pace with emerging threats. Our services include organizational security risk assessment and open-source intelligence analysis; security strategic planning, governance, monitoring and evaluation; and security program development in the areas of enterprise security risk management, physical security, intelligence, counterintelligence, travel security and insider threat.
• Geopolitical and national security consulting: We also help clients navigate geopolitical and national security developments to advance their business objectives. We offer analysis and global monitoring, provide senior-level briefings on hot-button issues leveraging our network of former ambassadors and CIA chiefs of station and help clients craft strategies to become more proactive in managing geopolitical and security risk.

We are uniquely focused, structured and resourced to help organizations enhance security, resilience and market position in the face of major global security challenges. We’re differentiated in a few ways:

• We provide high-touch engagement with our clients, working very closely with them through frequent strategy sessions to help them achieve their unique objectives.
• We specialize in looking at the big picture, examining strategic threats to organizations and assessing organizational structure, resource allocation and long-term posture.
• We are unique in our expert mix, allowing us to combine deep understanding of national security and geopolitical issues and expertise in security management and corporate resilience.

What is something we might not know about your company – or something new you are doing in security?

MF:We’re leading the way in bridging the gap between national security and corporate security. We are constantly expanding our network of former senior national security officials (from the State Department, CIA, FBI, U.S. Department of Defense and others) and leveraging their expertise to help private-sector companies confront today’s most vexing security challenges: terrorism and violent extremism, foreign nation-state cyberattacks, espionage and insider threats and the risk of war and conflict. We combine this with our team’s deep understanding of corporate security standards, guidelines and best practices to provide seamless, defensible and actionable advice to our clients.

What is your company’s vision, and what are your goals for the security industry?

MF: We are on a mission to level-up the industry’s understanding of the global security risk environment and help all stakeholders (end users, integrators, vendors, investors and beyond) integrate this understanding into their day-to-day operations. There is no longer any excuse for any company in this industry to not lead with an understanding of risk – whether that’s a chief security officer tasked with protecting assets from those risks or a security integrator providing products and services to address those risks.

What does SIA offer that is most important to you/your company? And what do you most hope to get out of your membership with SIA?

MF: SIA is a critical resource for helping security integrators and vendors understand the needs of customers and end users. Access to the connective tissue SIA provides is incredibly important for us as we look to drive efficiencies with our clients and across the industry. We hope to continue to get insights about customer demands and vendor offerings, and we hope to contribute to shaping those insights through our experience.

Any additional thoughts, updates or resources to share?

MF: We are frequent contributors to SecurityInfoWatch. You can check out a few of our articles here:

• The Security Vendor’s Guide to Threat and Risk
• How to Build a Security Program for the New Global Threat Environment
• A CSO’s Challenge for Building a Global Risk Strategy

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts and/or profiles are those of the authors or sources and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Security Industry Association.