Big Interview – Chuck Andrews

March 30, 2023

Rebecca Spayne catches up exclusively with Chuck Andrews, CPP – IFSEC #1 Security Influencer, Global Security Advisor & Strategist, Founder of Friends of Chuck (FOC)

Could you provide us a background on how you got started and how you got to where you are today?

My story starts quite young at the age of 13, as I was a Law Enforcement Police Explorer riding around in a police car for six years, until the age of 19 when I became a Texas Lawmen! I logged over 4,000 hours on patrol and had the chance to learn early about policing, citizens, criminals and community! This was the foundation of where my career and mission began, the catalyst if you will, for both Chuck Andrews and Friends of Chuck (FOC). I spent a career in Law Enforcement in both Texas and Colorado, ending my career full-time in Law Enforcement as a Chief of Police. But, while in my law enforcement career I ran my learning and off-duty work in the security industry parallel, including obtaining my CPP in ASIS International as a crime prevention officer. I leveraged my security training and experience as both a law enforcement officer and security person to eventually achieve two CSO roles in my career and eventually developed Friends of Chuck (FOC), which is based keenly on relationships in the Security & Law Enforcement community around the globe. For years, I’ve been advising companies and/or sitting on boards focused on growing security innovation and technology – and companies for that matter – all while growing Friends of Chuck to become the world’s largest security networking group!

You were previously named IFSEC #1 Global Security Influencer, how has this impacted your career as an influencer?

As everyone should know, you have no idea if you’re even being considered for this distinguished designation by IFSEC, and then, BOOM… They notify you and then you start to see your network grow and other opportunities open! Because the Friends of Chuck (FOC) name is known in the security industry, this designation gave even more credibility to the brand with more exposure and ironically, by timing, fit into the book I was writing at the time – Yes, S.I.R – perfectly! The combination of the designation and the book have more than tripled my exposure, based on LinkedIn analytics alone… to paint a picture using LinkedIn, I can’t even answer all the messages being sent to me on a daily basis!

What is Friends of Chuck (FOC), and how does the network benefit the industry?

This is best answered by telling you to do a couple of things because seeing is both believing and understanding… go to the FOC website and, if you own an iPhone or Android, go to your store and download the FOC app! When you arrive, it will tell you the entire story and then some. But, in short… FOC is a unique security networking group I formed over 15 years ago and organically grew, built on relationships in the security industry. In more detail, Friends of Chuck (FOC) is a professional security network group that exists for the purposes of networking, locating employment, exchanging business opportunities, discovering new emerging security technologies and sharing the information that FOC members like you, your companies and your organisation need to know! The FOC is an extensively broad network of 100,000+ Friends of Chuck security professionals across the globe…

Read the rest of this exclusive interview in our latest issue here.