Today marks the 25th Anniversary of Connley Walker.
Connley Walker was established by Simon Walker in August 1996 and started as a small sub-consultancy providing security expertise to ICT consultants. Soon after, we began delivering services directly to end clients.
Our first office consisted of a rented desk in Collins Street. Our consultancy experienced significant growth in the years following our establishment and quickly grew to 12 full-time staff.
After the Global Financial Crisis, we re-focused our attention to reduce the interdependencies required to provide our services. This involved the restructuring of Connley Walker’s assets, methods, and strategies. The new business model significantly improved our ability to operate during external disruptions (such as the GFC).
In 2019, Connley Walker became a family-owned and operated business with the onboarding of Simons’ two children (Ben and Jazara) and his wife (Mayya). The transition to family-owned and operated provided a level of stability that is rare in the security industry.
In early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic reached Australia, our post-GFC restructuring allowed us to continue to provide services without any significant disruption. During 2020, we observed that many industries were undergoing substantial changes to align with ongoing restrictions. While industry changes were being made, we noticed that many of the barriers to international projects disappeared. We gained clients in Saudi Arabia, Canada, UK, and New Zealand, all using remote video conferencing. We have conducted over 30 security risk assessments in the last few months in Australia during lockdowns by using remote video technology. We regularly collaborate with team members for one major project in South Korea, UK, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
In 2020, we upgraded our ISO certification in Quality Management. We also achieved ISO certifications in Information Security, Safety Management and Environmental Management. We are now the only specialist physical security consultancy in Australia to achieve JAZ ANZ Information Security Management certification.
With the new energy now being injected into our company, this is our new beginning. We look forward to continuing to grow for the indefinite future.
The scope of our certifications encompasses our complete range of services including independent consultancy, audit, design, project management and risk management services for communication, information technology and security.
This achievement was one of our key objectives for 2020 and follows on from our previous AS/NZS ISO 9001:2008 certification and our AS 4801-compliant Occupational Health and Safety Management System.
These internationally recognized certifications will ensure that we will continue to meet the needs of our clients in an environment of continuous improvement.
Ben joined Connley-Walker Pty Ltd in 2019 as a Registered Security Consultant. Ben has a Bachelor of Science (Security) & Diploma of Security & Risk Managment.