Some of the photos taken at another successful ACS Business event

The Association of Security Consultants (ASC) is 25 years old in 2016, having been formed by a small group of experienced security professionals drawn from security, insurance, military and police backgrounds.

The current ASC chairman, Joe Connell, writes. Just to put the last quarter-century into perspective, ask yourself this question: ‘If, in 1991, you were told that you could save all your operational business information to the cloud, but need to protect yourself from cyber-attack, would you have dismissed the teller as a Sci-Fi fantasist?’ Possibly, but that’s how far we have come in just 25 years.

The 2016 Imbert Award luncheon, held at the Royal Air Force Club on 30 June, again proved a great success in bringing security professionals together. Matthew Fitton (Cranfield University) was the overall winner of the Imbert Academic Prize with his dissertation on British Counter-Terrorism Operations and International Law, tackling the controversial subject of Targeted Killing; Runners-up Claire-Louise Rushton (University of Leicester) researched and compared employed and contracted security personnel in the retail sector, and Kevin Larkin (University of Portsmouth) who research was on ‘The perception and mitigation of industrial and economic espionage on UK SMEs’. In the words of Lord Imbert all three finalists were winners and added the 'The Security Profession is the actual winner'.

The ASC is delighted to announce that patron and avid supporter of the Association, Sir Stuart Peach has been appointed as the next Chief of Defence Staff, head of UK's armed forces and also awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours list.