#148: America's Grey War - Former Boeing Chief Security Officer and President of Hostage US Dave Komendat

National security isn’t led solely by government entities and the military. Public-private sector partnerships often drive many of our national security decisions. 

To dig into the importance of the private sector in defense of America, Fran Racioppi sat down with Dave Komendat; a 36-year Veteran of Boeing; one of the world’s largest defense contractors and a critical component of America’s economy. 

Dave retired after serving as The Boeing Company’s Chief Security Officer, where he ensured the safety and security of over 170,000 employees and $77 Billion in annual revenue. 

Dave and Fran discussed how private companies partner with the US government, how security has evolved since 9/11, and how to build a culture of security in our companies and as a nation. They also break down the magnitude of Boeing, its impact on the aviation and defense industries, and the future of aviation security across a multitude of threats. 

Dave is also the Chairman of Hostage US, a non-profit supporting the families of American hostages and those wrongfully detained, as well as hostages and detainees when they return home. They take a few minutes to unpack hostage diplomacy and how America’s adversaries are using unlawful detention as a tool to compete with American power abroad. 

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The opinions presented on the The Jedburgh Podcast and the Jedburgh Media Channel are the opinions of our guests and creator and host Fran Racioppi. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Green Beret Foundation and the Green Beret Foundation assumes no liability for their accuracy; nor does Green Beret Foundation endorse any political candidate or any political party.

Highlights:

0:00 Introduction

2:16 We’re in a grey war

5:52 The Chief Security Officer

7:33 Assessing risk

15:12 Public-Private Security Partnership

20:24 Starting as an intern

24:13 Building a successful team

33:05 Leading in a massive organization

37:15 Embracing a security culture

39:50 The relationship between safety and security

46:36 Duty of care

50:45 The rise of insider threats

55:22 Boeing on 9/11

59:15 Airplane cyber-security

1:04:23 Next generation of security leadership

1:10:34 Hostage US

1:20:00 Daily Foundations of Success

Quotes

• “I think we’re in a grey war.” 
• “The Chief Security Officer at most corporations is a thinker. They’re a strategist. They’re a risk manager.”
• “You can’t go into a CEO everyday and the sky is falling. You lose your credibility.” 
• “Different leaders have different risk tolerances.” 
• “Be empathetic with people doing jobs that don’t get a lot of fanfare.”
• “The longer I was in a leadership role, the more I valued when people told me ‘that wasn’t very good.” 
• “We ran security like a business. We tried to demystify what we did.” 
• “I didn’t want to be viewed as a necessary evil. I wanted to be viewed as a necessity.”
• “The worst thing you can do is deliver a product that’s already been compromised to the warfighter.” 
• “If you only call people when you need something, you don’t have a relationship.”