Mr. Randall was nominated for the award in connection with his development and harmonisation of a major public-private initiative - Project Griffin - aimed at supporting both business and citizen communities whilst providing additional resources to the public police forces. In addition to now being a UK wide resource, the Project Griffin has been taken up in the USA (Project Shield), Australia, South Africa and Hong Kong.

Mr. Don Randall commented: "This is really a splendid piece of news and a complete surprise. It will be my honour to accept".

The basic objectives of Project Griffin are the following:

- In times of catastrophe, private security steps up to supplement the resources of the police (barrier duties, etc) thus allowing the police to focus on critical tasks.

- On a weekly basis, thousands of private security officers and police share intelligence on criminals and the criminal modus operandi they are interested in identifying.

- Counter terrorism surveillance training is delivered by police resources to private security officers as part of the project and feedback on suspicious movements is provided by private security officers to their local coordinator.

Whilst there have been local projects of coordination between public and private security, this is the first global footprint that has been developed with the highest levels of support within the government and law enforcement community.

The ASIS International European Person of the Year Award is presented each year to recognise outstanding accomplishments advancing the security profession in Europe. The nominee should be highly regarded in Europe and known to be a strong contributor to the improvement of the standing and image of the security profession. Last year's winner was Mr. Wim Philippa, secretary general of the European Roundtable of Industrialists.

The award will be presented to Mr. Randall at ASIS International's 7th European Security Conference which will take place in Barcelona on 13-16 April 2008.

ASIS International's 7th Annual European Security Conference will feature 33 high-level educational sessions. High quality presentations developed by and for security professionals will cover the entire spectrum of security topics ranging from workplace violence and corporate intelligence to the effects of bomb blasts on people, buildings and businesses as well as fraud risk management strategies. It will be a unique opportunity to connect with both public and private sector leaders from around Europe and the globe and to discover how they are confronting today's security challenges.