Kim Petersen
Kim Petersen has over 30 years of experience in the fields of transportation security and counterterrorism, including subspecialties in physical, personnel, and information protection; safety and security in the maritime, railway, and energy industries; and counterterrorism and intelligence operations. He is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on maritime security and counterterrorism and has conducted assessments in over 90 countries.
Mr. Petersen was the founder and CEO of Mobius Security Group and its several specialized subsidiaries—SeaSecure, RailSecure, and EnergySecure. These subsidiaries became the leading security consultants to the maritime, railway, and energy industries, respectively, and allowed the parent organization, Mobius, to offer its clients an array of complementary security solutions. Mr. Petersen built Mobius Security Group into a premier transportation security consulting firm, with annual revenues approaching $10 million and with projects throughout the world. TranSystems purchased Mobius Security Group in February 2007. Mr. Petersen is a Principal at TranSystems, as well as a member of its Board of Directors and the President of the Security line of business.
Following university, Mr. Petersen’s career in security began as a Captain in the US Army’s Special Forces, where he specialized in special operations, unconventional warfare, and counterterrorism. He was later recruited to serve on the senior staff of former US Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger from 1978-1980 and again in 1985-1986. Between this period, Mr. Petersen served as the Director of Security for former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig.
His government service includes tenure as a federal law enforcement agent, with undercover experience in domestic antiterrorism investigations. He has been an advisor to several federal agencies and served as a senior staff member in both the US Senate and US Defense Department in the areas of national security and intelligence.
After several years with the US Government, Mr. Petersen created the nation’s first water utility security services company, HydroSEC, in a joint venture with the Aquarion Corporation. HydroSEC became a leading adviser to the US Government on the vulnerability of water utilities to deliberate attacks by terrorists on public water supplies. Mr. Petersen served as HydroSEC’s Chairman and CEO until 1989, when President-elect George H. W. Bush appointed him Chief of Security Operations for the Presidential Transition—reporting directly to the former CIA Director of Security. Mr. Petersen was later dispatched to conduct security surveys of critical infrastructure in Kuwait during the first Gulf War prior to the ceasefire.
Following his tenure with HydroSEC, Princess Cruises recruited him in 1995 to create what was later acknowledged as the leading international security and counterterrorism program in the passenger ship industry. Following this success, he went on to Renaissance Cruises where he developed a similarly successful program. During this period Mr. Petersen was elected a Governor in the Maritime Security Council, an international body that represents almost 70% of the world’s merchant shipping. Within two years, he was elected as the Executive Director, a position he held for nine years until 2006, when he retired and was appointed Governor Emeritus.
Since the mid-1990s, Mr. Petersen has found time to serve as a senior instructor in maritime counterterrorism at the US Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, as well as a visiting professor at the UN’s World Maritime University in Malmø, Sweden. For over a decade, he has taught maritime terrorism and seaport security to the US Navy, USCG, Army, FBI, foreign law enforcement and intelligence services, and numerous state and local police departments and seaport authorities. In recognition of his global work in maritime security, in 1997 Mr. Petersen was given the first and only award by the US Secretary of Transportation and its Director of Intelligence and Security for “promoting maritime counterterrorism and raising the standards of transportation security throughout the world.”
To meet the growing safety and security needs of the seaports and shipping industries, in early 2001 Mr. Petersen created SeaSecure, which became the largest maritime security company in the United States. Building on the success of SeaSecure, Mr. Petersen founded SeaSecure’s sister and parent organizations, cultivating an impressive domestic and international client base for each company. All told, Mr. Petersen’s companies performed hundreds of security vulnerability assessments in dozens of countries, with clients that included governments ranging from the US to China, Jordan to Turkey, Djibouti to Haiti, as well as some of the world’s largest seaports, shipping companies, and cruise lines.
Mr. Petersen is a sought after international lecturer whose writings have been published in many periodicals, journals, and books. He has been featured on numerous news programs, such as CNN, BBC, NPR, Fox News, CBS’s “Sixty Minutes,” and ABC’s “20/20.” He has also appeared before the US Senate to give expert testimony on critical legislation and counterterrorism issues. In recognition of his expertise, in 2002 he was appointed to the US Senate Port Security Working Group.
In addition to his duties as the Governor Emeritus of the Maritime Security Council, in 2002 Mr. Petersen was appointed by the Secretary of Transportation to sit on the Marine Transportation System National Advisory Council, and in 2003 he was appointed to the Department of Homeland Security’s Area Maritime Security Committee for Southern Florida.