Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence Announces Launch of ‘Protective Intelligence Honors

In recognition of the pioneers and thought leaders who have driven new shifts and novel practices, development of innovative solutions, and are contributing to, influencing and advancing the physical security and protection industry, the Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence unveiled its “Protective Intelligence Honors” program.

The “Protective Intelligence Honors” will each month recognize groundbreaking professionals across two categories:

• Pioneers, recognizing those who developed and/or trailblazed the application of new physical protection models, methods or areas of protective knowledge; innovated a protection solution and/or drove new shifts in thinking or approaching protection and;
• Thought Leaders, celebrating veteran practitioners and established experts in the field who are actively contributing to and advancing protective intelligence industry knowledge and careers.

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Protective Intelligence Honors recipients range from military, law enforcement and counterintelligence experts to global corporate security innovators at the forefront of protective intelligence. Physical security threats today are reaching unprecedented levels, spurred by extremism, COVID-19, racial justice and geopolitical issues, and protective intelligence powered by technology is being used to actively identify, investigate, assess, watch and manage physical threats to prevent major crises.

“Failure of imagination leads to most disasters, thinking that it’s impossible they might occur. We are honoring the men and women whose remarkable vision, insight, courage and leadership have kept countless lives safe and are influencing an industry shift to a proactive, always-on physical security approach in the public and private sectors,” said Fred Burton, Executive Director of the Ontic Center for Protective Intelligence. “The impact of these honorees on history, how we conduct our lives today and the future cannot be overstated, and we are indebted to them for all they have done and continue to do to keep us from harm.”

The inaugural Protective Intelligence Honors Pioneers include:

• Clint J. Hill, Retired U.S. Secret Service – A U.S. Secret Service Special Agent from 1958 – 1975, serving five presidents — Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford — Hill was in the motorcade in Dallas on November 22, 1963, assigned to protect First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Hill will forever be remembered for his brave and swift actions as he leapt onto the back of the presidential limousine in an effort to protect President and Mrs. Kennedy while shots were being fired. He is credited with saving Mrs. Kennedy’s life.

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Born January 4, 1932, Hill was adopted as an infant by Chris and Jennie Hill who raised him alongside his adopted sister Janice in the small town of Washburn, North Dakota. In 1954, he graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, with a degree in History and Physical Education. He intended to be a history teacher and athletics coach, but was immediately drafted into the United States Army, where he served as a Special Agent in the Army Counter Intelligence Corps.

In 1958, Hill applied and was accepted into the U.S. Secret Service as a Special Agent in the Denver field office. A year later he was assigned to the elite White House Detail protecting President Dwight D. Eisenhower. When John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960, Hill was assigned to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s detail, and he remained with Mrs. Kennedy, Caroline, and John Jr. for one year after the assassination.

Hill was reassigned to the White House in November 1964 and eventually became the Special Agent in Charge of Presidential Protection during Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. When Richard M. Nixon became president in 1969, Hill was the Special Agent in Charge of Vice Presidential Protection with V.P. Spiro Agnew. When Hill retired from the Secret Service in 1975, he was the Assistant Director responsible for all protective forces.

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Hill’s career and actions have been recognized worldwide. He is a guest speaker at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and continues to participate with present day Secret Service personnel in discussing protective activities and procedures. In December 2013, the U.S. Secret Service honored him at the James J. Rowley Training Center with a permanent bronze plaque next to a street they named Clint Hill Way.

• Meredith Wilson, Founder and CEO, Emergent Risk International, LLC (ERI) –
  Wilson has over two decades of experience in international environments, the energy sector, Fortune 500 corporations and the U.S. intelligence community. Her firm ERI empowers companies to address the impact of geopolitical risk on their business through intelligence, consulting, training, data and analytics. Earlier in her career, Wilson served as a Defense Intelligence Officer in the Pentagon and then became one of the early innovators of private sector intelligence analysis. At ConocoPhillips she created the company’s first dedicated geo-political and security-focused risk intelligence function. Wilson went on to create a similar function for Kosmos Energy, before founding ERI in 2014. Wilson was a founding member of the Private Sector Intelligence Council (PSIC) and is a Founding Board Member of the Association of International Risk and Intelligence Professionals (AIRIP).
• Cynthia Hetherington, Founder and CEO, Hetherington Group – Cynthia Hetherington, MLS, MSM, CFE, CII is the founder and president of Hetherington Group, a cyber investigations consulting, publishing, and training firm. With over two decades of expertise, Hetherington is a leader in due diligence, corporate intelligence, and cyber investigations. She is the author of three books on conducting cyber investigations and annually trains over 7,200 investigators, security professionals, attorneys, accountants, auditors, military intelligence professionals, and federal, state, and local agencies on best practices. She shares her expertise in this increasingly data-intensive, cyber focused-world through the publication of an industry newsletter, an online blog, and by hosting the annual OSMOSIS Conference. Hetherington leads national and international investigations in corporate due diligence and fraud, personal asset recovery, and background checks. With a specialization in the financial, pharmaceutical, and telecommunications industries, her cyber investigations have recovered millions of dollars in high profile corruption cases, assisting on the investigations of the top two Ponzi cases in United States history.

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