In The Boardroom With...

Mr. Marc Pearl
President and Chief Executive Officer
Homeland Security & Defense Business Council
www.homelandcouncil.org

SecurityStockWatch.com: Thank you for joining us today, Marc. Please give us an overview of your background.

Marc Pearl: I joined the Homeland Security & Defense Business Council almost exactly one year ago with an eye on assuring the public sector has a firm grasp of the role and responsibilities of the private sector in protecting and securing our country. Prior to joining the Council I was principal and chairman of IT Policy Solutions, a company I founded in 2003 to serve private sector organizations working with the public sector. While at ITPS , I was also executive director of the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition (CERC).

I’ve been in Washington, D.C. for nearly three decades focusing my public policy and government affairs experience on technology and cyber security policy since the mid-1990s. Before working with CERC, I was a partner and led the e-commerce policy practice at the international law firm, Shaw Pittman LLP and prior to that I was general counsel and senior vice president of government affairs at the Information Technology Association of America, one of the nation's largest and most respected digital economy industry trade associations. That in addition to my role as chief of staff and legislative counsel to Members of Congress, including former Rep. Dan Glickman, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, gives me a broad understanding of the workings of Washington, D.C.

SecurityStockWatch.com: What is the Mission of the Homeland Security & Defense Business Council?

Marc Pearl: The Homeland Security & Defense Business Council is a non-profit, non-partisan corporate membership organization whose principal representatives are responsible for their companies’ homeland security business units. The Council engages these senior executives and subject matter experts in our members’ organizations to assist in strategic thought leadership, solutions development and program planning. The Council’s work leads to the development and implementation of more effective solutions to secure America’s citizens and critical physical and cyber assets. Our members shape the strategy and future direction of our nation’s homeland security.
Our mission -- is to serve as a conduit to build stronger and more meaningful relationships between senior leadership in the public and private sectors. Our members work in concert with government officials and other community leaders dedicated to achieving a “culture of preparedness” in our nation.

SecurityStockWatch.com: What is your perspective on what the new Obama Administration may mean regarding the security industry, in general.

Marc Pearl: We are excited and encouraged by the Administration and its selection of Governor Janet Napolitano as Secretary for Homeland Security. The new Secretary has a tremendous responsibility but we believe that her experience as governor and understanding of the complexities of the issues in securing the nation make her an excellent choice. As a former governor she also understands handily the role of the private sector and we look forward to having a dialogue with her about how we can continue the cooperative and amicable relationships built to date.

Initially we heard rumblings from some now in the Administration that discounted the role of the private sector. I don’t believe that that attitude is pervasive but to those who do not understand our role, I would counter and say that there is a wealth of knowledge and experience amassed by private sector entities that have -- and continue -- to work in hostile territory. I believe the Administration should work with the Council to reach out and establish strong ties with our global corporate leaders who have faced these enterprise-wide challenges. I also believe that a tremendous amount of excellent work has been done to establish relationships and communications with the Department and that those links should not be broken. Between the economic downturn, the continued threat of attack and the numerous other priorities facing our nation, we need everyone on board and working together.There are many areas that may need improvement but we certainly caution not to “throw the baby out with the bath water.” We do not need to start from scratch, we need an honest national conversation about our homeland security priorities and direction to have a very strategic and focused plan for the future.

SecurityStockWatch.com: Please share with our readers your “blue-chip” membership list of supporting companies. Where can other companies learn about membership and sponsorship opportunities?

Marc Pearl: We are very active on numerous issues in homeland security – our members are some of the largest and most prestigious companies in America… ABS Consulting, Accenture, Access systems, ASRC Management Services, BAE Systems, Battelle, Bearingpoint, Bechtel, BeCrypt, Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI, CellExchange, CSC, Deloitte, DRS Technologies, DuPont, DynCorp International, Ericsson, Evan Scott Group, International,General Dynamics, IBM, ITT, Kadix systems, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Merrick, Nortel Government Solutions, Northrop Grumman, Oracle, Pitney Bowes, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Raytheon, SAIC, SAP, International, SoBran, TechTeam, Telos, Thales, The Avascent group, The Sentinel HS Group LLC, The Tauri Group, TMS, Trusted Computer Solutions, Tyco, and Unisys.

Throughout the year we host numerous activities: annual events such as our Partners in Preparedness conference with the American Red Cross of the National Capital Region, substantive panels through our Executive Brief series which focuses on pressing issues for the homeland security community, events and roundtables with the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. We are also the platinum sponsor for the American Security Challenge – an emerging technology competition that awards monetary prizes and contracts to the winning companies. Interested parties can visit our website at www.HomelandCouncil.org for more information about us and our events.

SecurityStockWatch.com: Please summarize for us your various Council, Federal, and Congressional projects.

Marc Pearl: We have several projects this year. Of course our top priority is getting to know the new administration and their priorities so we can offer our support and work with them to provide the private sector perspective on any challenges that lie ahead. We are issuing a transition document shortly and have also responded to Secretary Napolitano on her request for input on specific directives. Our responses are all on our website as well. Of course we have monthly government affairs committee meetings with Hill leadership and we also host our Executive Roundtable luncheons with members of the Administration.

We also testify before Congress and meet with members on topics of mutual concern. For example, last fall we testified before the U.S House of Representatives, Committee on Homeland Security on the contracts and acquisition challenges the Department of Homeland Security has struggled with since its inception. Essentially we argued that in the post 9/11 era, the federal government must be more mission and less process oriented. As your readers know, we cannot afford to allow bureaucratic hurdles derail the mission to secure our citizens and critical assets. The government must be as nimble as those who seek to cause us harm, and to utilize the vast resources and expertise available from and with the private sector. Only through open, honest, and accountable relationships can such responsiveness and efficiencies be achieved. That is pretty much our message throughout -- the mission of the Council pervades all of our activities, and that is to establish stronger and more meaningful relationships between the public and private sectors…

SecurityStockWatch.com: Are there any special events you care to mention?

Marc Pearl: Well, both the Partners in Preparedness Program and the American Security Challenge are coming up in May and we’d love to see the homeland security and security communities support these events. The first seeks to assure that the private sector is prepared for any emergency that would disrupt their business operations. The other, of course, nurtures and supports emerging technologies and speeds their commercialization. We believe both are pretty critical to the future security and resilience of the nation.

SecurityStockWatch.com: What resources are available for the security community on www.HomelandCouncil.org?

Marc Pearl: We are actually revamping our website completely and will be unveiling the new site in March.  We then will have numerous resources including white papers; video and podcasts of our events; announcements of new position statements; a newsletter; and calls for involvement from the community.  We are working on numerous issues:  supply chain security, integration of physical and logical systems, good government, cyber security among many others.  We’d invite your readers to visit the site and sign up in our community list by requesting more information about the Council.
We also author the “Industry Advisor” with GSN magazine that provides some private sector perspective on homeland security issues.  We’re quite happy with that partnership.

SecurityStockWatch.com: Thanks again for joining us today, Marc. Are there any additional subjects you’d like to talk about?

Marc Pearl: Just that I appreciate our partnership as well and I look forward to hearing from your readers and others about how we can best shape the nation’s homeland security policy to assure a resilient economy and society.  Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you.