Come Sail Away – Cruise to a Rewarding Security Career

Cruise tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry. It is no surprise given how many different itineraries are available, surely something for everyone.

As pandemic restrictions begin to lift, the cruise of a lifetime is what many people are planning. And when they do set sail, it will be due in large part to the security and safety organizations in the cruising industry that will have played an integral role getting everyone back on board.

SMR was invited to work with a world class luxury cruise line to help them develop and staff a leading global program. The cruise industry had ramped up at break-neck speed with security, risk and compliance challenges keeping pace with the expansion.

The Chief Executive Officer and the Vice President of Human Resources jointly spearheaded the project from our client’s side.

The CEO was a senior member at the helm of the world’s largest cruise industry trade association. He had a unique, broad understanding of the security program he wanted to create. He was committed to finding a candidate capable of developing a structure that would be viewed as the cruise industry model.

The SMR team worked with our client to craft a job description that ultimately became their Global Chief Security Officer. They wanted someone who had an expanded reach into global government agencies, and we tapped senior-most leadership and Cabinet-level secretaries as potential candidates for the position.

The role was a critical hire and the turnaround on both sourcing and interviewing candidates was accelerated. Our client was motivated: it was not uncommon for us to present a candidate one day and arrange for the person to lunch with the CEO the following day.

While SMR identified several high-potential candidates, the one who was ultimately successful in securing the job was a sailor at heart. Although he was the senior-most intelligence officer in the FBI, he also owned a boat and was personally very interested in sailing.

He accepted the position and went to work directly for the CEO. He built a world-class program for the organization and was so successful in the role that his portfolio expanded to include the EHS and medical functions.

Just as the cruise industry is happy to provide unique blended travel and entertainment experiences for its customers, SMR was thrilled to identify the perfect candidate, a combination of security professional and yachtsman.

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