On June 14, 2017, Flag Day in the United States, the ProActive Risk Management (PARM) Advisory Board held its first meeting. The board is comprised of key defense and intelligence technology leaders with successful commercial experience who understand the arduous process and challenges of risk management and security. They represent the “Five Eyes,” which refers to an alliance for joint cooperation comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For that reason Flag Day was a great occasion to kick-start our collaboration team.
I am always amused when prospective clients ask for a no cost “quick hit” to prove the value of our services. Well, I don’t deal in magic dust. Our approach focuses on building an effective strategy for long-term success, not just a quick fix. To strengthen that approach we’ve formed a team of prudent professionals, who rigorously study the issues to provide concise, honest assessments. Our conversation is straight forward and low key. We seek solutions, not public notice. Reputation in this profession relies on robust knowledge and integrity.
In the Risk Management and Security fields, talent is key. For that reason, in addition to establishing a robust industry-leading Advisory Board, we have created a consultant platform of determined and bold Subject Matter Experts. We are able to form teams at the local, national, or international levels that self-organize to persevere through any challenge to deliver results. PARM’s business model is technology agnostic and deep in consultants. Our common goal is to create a world-class risk management and security ecosystem tailored to address the specific needs and budget of each of our clients.
Because of the ever-increasing speed and complexity of global technological change, certain expertise is thin in organizations that seek risk management and security products and services. For that reason, such organizations have a greater need to partner and collaborate with industry leaders, creating a great opportunity for PARM. On the other hand, there are a bunch of effete charlatans that try to take advantage of clients with the cunning and deceiving tactics of an artful impostor. Because of their exaggerated claims that their unique product is a solution for any challenge, industry has developed a general distrust of solution providers. PARM addresses that industry distrust head-on, by providing a solid past performance record and a renowned Advisory Board:
Dr. Annette Sobel, MD, PhD; Army Major General; Pilot; Texas Tech University
Ms. Michele Westlander-Quaid; NRO CTO, DNI Deputy CIO, Google CTO
Ms. Susan Munn; Canadian Royal Mounted Police; Royal Bank Chief of Security
Dr. Paul Scully-Power; Mathematician; Navy Officer; Astronaut; CEO; UN Advisor
Dr. Linton Wells; Navy Officer; DoD CIO
Dr. David Matsumoto, Psychologist, Professor SFSU
Mr. Donald Codling, USMC; FBI Cyber
Mr. Melvin Cordova, Executive Vice-President
The Advisory Board‘s primary objectives are to:
- Provide strategic guidance on PARM’s business model to increase company performance, profile, and valuation.
- Provide guidance on addressing specific PARM client’s priority problem sets.
It took many years to develop the trust and relationships with the Advisory Board and consultant members. They are industry technology champions and pioneers in security and risk management who are no longer willing to wait for the establishment and culture to change. Instead, they plan to lead.
PARM’s approach to security places emphasis on intelligence tradecraft. The key reason is that in intelligence the focus is “left of the boom.” Basically anticipatory by design, in order to prevent any surprises by adversaries. A secondary emphasis is that we accelerate the full process of transitioning capabilities to operational use, without all the dysfunctionality of conventional methods, in order to deliver critical capabilities to decision makers, before such capabilities become available to our adversaries. Our team of proven leaders have “fire-in-the-belly,” is agile, expeditionary, versatile, and willing to take risks to achieve mission impact. We have the tenacity to crush obstacles in the transition of mission critical capabilities for high stakes environments and our talented field personnel keep businesses safe. Here is the number one lesson I learned: We are in a knowledge-intense completion era. Whoever connects the dots, creates knowledge, and achieves a decision cycle faster than the adversary wins!
PARM seeks to address the most difficult security problems of humanity with technology, tradecraft, and services. We desire to work with enthusiastic and very forward-leaning organizations.
Benoit Grenier, PARM co-founder and CEO, said in the initial Advisory Board meeting that the board is “charged with keeping PARM in a culture of innovation in people, organizations, operations, and technology; to support people who innovate, those creative figures who are willing to try new things, fail fast, and iterate; and also to ensure that we’re always doing everything we can to stay ahead of potential adversaries and the competition.”
The Advisory Board and consultant platform is headed by Melvin Cordova, Executive Advisor of PARM.
