Charitable Risk: Security Challenges of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Denise Barndt, director of global security for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, discusses the risk and challenges of security for a high-profile philanthropic organization

By Joan Goodchild, Senior Editor

October 05, 2009 — CSO —

Everyone loves the good guys, right? So if you are head of security for a philanthropic foundation, you probably have few concerns. As director of global security for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation based in Seattle, Denise Barndt says "No way." Each day, she is responsible for overseeing security operations for the foundation, which has several programs in support of global health, global development and US programs initiatives.

In addition to Seattle, the foundation has offices in Washington, DC, London, New Delhi, India and in Beijing, China. Global travel security concerns are just the beginning. Barndt recently spoke with CSO about the security plan for the new headquarters building, which is currently under construction.

Artist rendering of the future Gates Foundation headquarters

Give us a layout of the missions and security operations of the different locations you oversee as director of global security.
All of our offices are networked and all locations head in here to Seattle. The Global Security team and I have visibility of what is going on in all of the offices as well as our global travelers. So there is continuous monitoring for our global operations.

In Washington, DC and in Europe, the programs are more about advocacy. They are about our alliances and the collaboration we do with public policy and forwarding the mission of the foundation. In India, the emphasis on staff there is on HIV/AIDS advocacy and education and prevention. It is the same mission in China. We are working with the Chinese government on their strategy for outreach, testing and prevention. We work directly with those governments.

Our staff doesn't do direct service and deliver. We fund through grantees, but we aren't in direct service. While we have staff that travel frequently, we are not so much boots on the ground. Instead, staff are helping determine what is the strategy for our funding and doing due diligence around who we are funding. We have a contract with these folks so they are making sure those deliverables and milestones are met and provide assistance to fulfill that grant.

Are there unique security challenges in each location?
Not particularly. What I've been trying to drive is consistency of security so that our staff and visitors have the same look and feel of ubiquitous and unobtrusive security no matter where they are in our offices throughout the world. There is also an understanding that each office has local conditions they we need to be respectful of as well.

We have design and technical standards for all of our offices. Each has a security design that is similar to ours here at headquarters in Seattle. It's the same envelope at every building. That includes access control, CCTV, a reception function, a guest management function. The full range of standard physical security features (Also see: The CCTV Project Planner)