Ilias Afrikh

Enterprise Security & Risk Management Leader with 10+ years of experience in highly regulated, international environments. Proven track record in enterprise security governance, risk mitigation, compliance oversight, and stakeholder coordination across government and corporate ecosystems. Extensive experience managing large-scale security contracts, leading multidisciplinary teams, and advising senior leadership on security, resilience, and operational risk.

Multilingual (EN / FR / NL) with strong exposure to supply-chain-adjacent operations, audits, and compliance-driven decision-making.

Enterprise Security & Governance Lead | Local Guard Force Coordinator at U.S. Department of State – U.S.

Embassy

Brussels (2017-07 – 2025-07) • Led multi-site physical security operations across 9+ facilities, coordinating security systems, infrastructure changes, and site services to keep operations secure, safe, and compliant during transformations and new deployments.

• Directed daily security operations for 126+ staff across multiple buildings, balancing incident response and service continuity with longer-term improvement initiatives in a high-compliance environment.
• Established governance routines (control rooms, dashboards, recurring reviews) to monitor security service levels, escalate risks, and align local site priorities with regional and corporate security objectives.
• Partnered with senior leadership, facility owners, external authorities, and security vendors to plan and sequence security-related change initiatives, clarifying scope, risks, dependencies, and expected outcomes for each site.
• Acted as central coordination point between operational teams, contractors, and support functions, translating complex technical and security requirements into clear workplans, briefings, and communications for all stakeholders.
• Prepared security, risk, and operational status reports and decision notes for leadership, enabling risk-based decisions on timelines, investments, and trade-offs during major infrastructure and process changes.
• Facilitated cross-functional workshops and coordination meetings to align stakeholders, resolve conflicts, and secure buy-in for new security controls, procedures, and ways of working across multiple locations.
• Supported commissioning of new command-center, security system, and infrastructure projects by coordinating test plans, validating system performance in real-life scenarios, and confirming that security and safety requirements were met before go-live.
• Led operational readiness reviews covering people, process, and technology, ensuring guard staffing, training, SOPs, and contingency plans were in place prior to the introduction of new tools, services, or layouts.
• Designed and documented security operating procedures, quick-reference guides, and reporting templates to help front-line teams adopt new systems and workflows consistently across sites.
• Provided on-the-ground coaching and support during rollout of new security capabilities, collecting feedback, identifying adoption blockers, and feeding lessons learned into continuous-improvement actions.
• Managed performance of a multi-site security and services contract using SLAs, KPIs, and structured business reviews to drive compliance with quality, safety, availability, and security targets.
• Coordinated vendor activities during security system installation, infrastructure transition, and steady-state operations, ensuring work was planned and executed with minimal disruption to critical business operations.
• Led audits, inspections, investigations, and root-cause analyses after incidents or performance deviations, translating findings into concrete corrective-action plans and tracking implementation to closure.
• Identified process, tooling, and coordination gaps across sites, proposed pragmatic security and operational improvements, and followed through on implementation to improve service reliability and stakeholder experience.
• Developed structured security procedures and documentation sets (SOPs, checklists, incident reports) to support operational readiness, maintenance coordination, and infrastructure integration across multiple locations.
• Produced operational and compliance reports for senior management, consolidating security and performance data from different sites to highlight trends, emerging risks, and optimisation opportunities.
• Assessed operational and security risk exposure associated with infrastructure and access changes, recommending mitigation measures and prioritising actions based on impact and likelihood.
• Captured and shared documentation, asset information, and lessons learned from major changes and incidents, building a reusable knowledge base to support future transformations and improve resilience.

Security

Operations & Compliance Officer at Securitas Belgium (2016-01 – 2017-03) • Operated within a high-compliance, regulated security environment, supporting access control, incident response, and emergency procedures.

• Gained foundational experience in audits, SOP adherence, and authority coordination.

Key Account

Coordinator – Automotive Supply Chain at DHL Global Forwarding (Brucargo) (2013-01 – 2014-12) • Coordinated time-critical automotive supply chains across EU–MENA routes.

• Worked closely with customs, handlers, and compliance stakeholders to ensure secure, traceable, and SLA-driven operations.
• Built early exposure to supply-chain risk, compliance, and operational resilience.

Diplomatic Security Service – Embassy Security Management Certification – U.S. Department of State (2017-08 – 2017-08) How to Be a Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) – U.S. Department of State (2017-09 – 2017-09) Counterterrorism Awareness &

• Crisis Response Training – RSO / Liaison Program (2019-01 – 2019-01) Contract Surveillance &

• Quality Assurance Methodology (QASP) – U.S. Department of State (2019-05 – 2019-05) Physical Security &

• Infrastructure Protection (Advanced) – U.S. Department of State (2022-06 – 2022-06) Classified Access Control &

• Emergency Evacuation Protocols – RSO Joint Training (2019-04 – 2019-04)