Mark Barnes: The Entrepreneur

Mark Barnes has taken a passion for learning about business and security and made himself into a respected leader who can convey security's value to his executive team

June 01, 2005 — CSO — Chat With Mark Barnes for more than a few minutes, and you'll hear words like value and revenue and ROI. It would be easy for the casual listener to mistakenly think that he hails from finance or sales or some other business function in which execs sprinkle those terms about like salt on a fast-food french fry.

In fact, Barnes is one of the new breed of security honchos who are as comfortable chatting with a CFO as they are investigating a warehouse theft. "I'm a security guy that cares about business and the numbers. You put a P&L in front of me, and my eyes don't roll back in my head," he says, with more than a hint of pride.

Barnes, director of safety and security at the sprawling Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina since 1995, has been the key player in shifting the department from its traditional focus on security guards and perimeter protection to loss prevention and risk management. Along the way, he's earned management's respect. "He's able to manage a very effective security and loss prevention function while very much focusing his department on providing guests with great service," says Prem Devadas, managing director of the resort.

This profile details how Barnes combines an extensive knowledge of corporate security with a well-honed set of management chops to make security more than just a cost center on the balance sheet.

Security Opportunity Knocks

A drive around the resort with Barnes reveals that, frankly, there are many worse places to work. Winding roads are bordered by palmettos, crape myrtle and live oaks draped with Spanish moss. Saltwater marshes and ponds dot the landscape, and alligators lazily sun themselves on banks. "I've actually lassoed a couple of them," says Barnes (to move them from harm's way, not for sport, he adds). The resort boasts five championship golf courses (Kiawah hosted the 1991 Ryder Cup), a large tennis complex, soccer fields, sandy beaches and bike trails. The security department patrols the island, checking on facilities and private villas, and responds to emergencies and the occasional skinned knee from a biking accident.

Barnes planned on a law enforcement career right out of high school in Maryland. His dad and his grandfather were his role models. His dad served in three separate branches of the military, worked at a newspaper, then went to seminary and became a priest. His grandfather was a cop in Richmond, Va., for 32 years. Barnes ended up going to school for one year at Memphis State University, then he joined the Army National Guard in Tennessee before switching units and moving back to Virginia. He applied for some police jobs while working in a carpet warehouse, but realized that he could make more money as a retail floor-covering salesman, so he put law enforcement on hold.