Martin Smith

Former RAF fast jet pilot, counter espionage officer, and distinguished spycatcher, Martin Smith has had a varied and interesting career, rivaled perhaps only by 007 himself. Martin relates his experiences in both Cold War and more recent hostilities in a hugely interesting and humorous way. He has become one of the foremost advisors regarding counter terrorism and industrial espionage to companies and governments worldwide. “How is it that hunting for the oxymoron in military intelligence can take a whole army of officers an entire career?”.

Martin’s style is that of the raconteur, his stories are insightful and hilarious, poking fun at some of the craziest scenarios that paranoia, deceitfulness and circumstances have produced.

Martin gained his degree in behavioural psychology before spending nearly 15 years as a commissioned officer in the Royal Air Force, firstly as a jet pilot and then assigned to counter-espionage and counter-terrorism duties throughout East and West Europe. After being awarded the MBE for this work, he left the Service to carve out a second distinguished career, this time in the commercial sector. He joined Touche Ross Management Consultants before becoming the Senior Director of Corporate Security for Kroll Associates, the world’s foremost commercial counter-intelligence and security organisation. Martin set up the specialist consultancy The Security Company International. He and his specialist team help major corporations in the financial, manufacturing and aerospace sectors around the world to prevent industrial espionage and to put in place their fraud prevention and e-business security strategies.

Martin has a refreshing, amusing and captivating approach to the dirty world of espionage and corporate crime; he recognises that it is viewed as something that “happens to someone else”.

Martin has presented at all the leading world security conferences, and to NATO Chiefs of Staff and to the Directors of the European Commission. His papers have been published widely and he is the author of the acclaimed IBM-sponsored book Commonsense Security.

He has written recently on e-business security and cyber-terrorism. He is a regular contributor to many international news networks in Europe and the USA that seek his advice on a wide variety of security-related subjects.