William Daniell

What makes you optimistic? I am very fortunate because I love what I do, and so do my colleagues who make up the Longport leadership team. Aviation is definitely an addiction.

How do you describe your company’s purpose? The company mission:  ‘Prevent acts of unlawful interference with Civil Aviation.’

What are you most proud of with regard to Longport? Seeing our staff set up operations: Argentines in Curacao, Haitians in Argentina, Colombians in Dominican Republic and Ecuadorians in Panama, and so on. They are able to adapt and operate in any environment. I am also intensely proud when I see a manager who, in the course of the past 10 or 15 years, has risen from security agent to his current level. This is a combination of their dedication and hard work, and also because the company has assisted him along his career path with training and support.

What do you believe sets Longport apart from its competitors? Focus. We are an Aviation Company for Aviation Companies.

Thinking about your client base and looking into the future, how do you see their expectations of Longport changing? The requirement won’t change – carriers will always want compliance, consistency and competitive pricing.

The key focus for Longport, going forward? AVSEC, AVSEC and AVSEC.

Five years from now, what do you want the company to be like? Our business strategy has three parts that I hope will continue to grow not just over the next five years, but also over the next 50 years.

1. Relationships: security is about trust and you can’t have a relationship without trust. We want to be the trusted AVSEC company for global carriers, airports and authorities.
2. Consolidation: a single dialogue for many stations is operationally effective and commercially efficient. As a result, we will be adding more locations and I look forward to entering new continents.
3. Technology: technology will increasingly liberate our staff from routine tasks better performed by machines. For example, registering people entering an aircraft or checking the date on a passport. As one major carrier security manager put it, security staff should be ‘looking and seeing’ – not with their head down, filling in paperwork.

How does Longport give back to the communities that it works in? Longport performs a very important role in preparing young people for life. Often we provide our staff members’ first job. Of our employees, 60% are women. We teach our staff how to dress for work, how to apply training and work habits – arriving on time and following orders, and so on. Most of our staff move on after a while – after all, not everyone can be a manager – but most move on to better things.  They frequently mention that the skills learned in Longport have served them well.

What does Longport bring to the Chelsea Group? Established in 1993, we have strong foundations that we have built up on over the years. Our solidity is one of our strengths that can only complement the other offerings of the group.

• CEO of Longport since 2008.
• Originally started by William as part of Defence Systems, William led the acquisition of what is now the Longport business out of ArmorGroup in 2004.
• 1993-2004 Managing Director Defence Systems Latin America. William grew the business from USD120k a year only in Colombia to over USD24m and started up Defence System subsidiaries in Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil.
• 1992-1993 Lloyds Insurance Broker for NCC Special Risks.
• 1981-1991 Officer British Army: Cambridge University, 1st the Queens Dragoon Guards Regimental Duty, Grenadier Guards Northern Ireland, 22 Special Air Service worldwide Special Forces service.