Thornton Tomasetti, the international engineering firm, has established anOperational/Technical Security Services (OTSS) sectorto complement itsWeidlinger Protective Design practice. The newly formedgroup provides a widerange of cutting-edge security solutions to architects, business owners, developers and public agencies to combat a variety of natural and human-caused hazards. Recently retired US Army Colonel Bill Edwards has joined the firm as a vice president in the Denver, Colorado, office to lead the teamandgrowthe OTSS service offerings across the firm.

During his 27-year military career, Edwards has held numerous leadership positions, including commanding a battalion in Iraq for 14 months. Edwards has extensive experience in such areas as strategic planning, intelligence gathering and analytics, inter-agency communications, policy development, technical transformation, contract negotiations, budgetary oversight, team leadership, staff training and decision support. He has managed complex, multi-million-dollar projects in the United States and internationally, designed security solutions and upgrades to new and existing infrastructure, provided structural hardening, ingress and egress routes, defensive positions, surveillance and counter-surveillance systems as well as established guard mount procedures and patrolling operations.

Thornton Tomasetti has an extensive portfolio of high-profile protective design and physical security projects around the worldspanning decades. The new OTSS team is composed of proven leaders in counter-terrorism, counter-theft, cybersecurity, and electronic and physical security with more than 80 years of collective experience providing security services.Utilizing leading-edge technology, OTSS takes a holistic approach to security services,ensuring clients that their critical assets and investments are protected. OTSS provides threat and vulnerability risks assessments (TVRAs) backed by analytics, structural blast analysis and 3D building information modeling (BIM). Determining the best technological security solutions for projects in any environment, the team gives clients a detailed understanding of their security posture and, most importantly, ways to mitigate identified risks and vulnerabilities.

Among the services OTSS provides are:

• Analytics-based security cameras
• Advanced facial and iris technology
• Aggression and gunshot analytics
• Machine learning analytics to detect potential threats
• Electromagnetic pulse and anti-eavesdroppingcapability
• Drone Detection Technology
• Publiclyavailable information and sentiment analysis
• Advanced multi-factor authentication access control
• Advanced long-range perimeter security and detection

“Thornton Tomasetti’s Operational/Technical Security Services provides the next level of professional security solutions,” Edwards said. “The team’s strength is demonstrated by our agility, expertise and ability to begin work immediately on any project, anywhere, that requires an integrated approach.We aim to provide a holistic security services offering that is unmatched in the current commercial space.”

About Thornton Tomasetti

Thornton Tomasetti is a leader in engineering design, investigation and analysis serving clients worldwide on projects of all sizes and complexity. Through its 10 complementary practices, Thornton Tomasetti addresses the full life cycle of a structure. We have supported clients working in more than 50 countries, with projects that include the tallest buildings and longest spans to the restoration of prized historic properties. Thornton Tomasetti comprises more than 1,200 engineering, architecture, sustainability and support professionals who collaborate from offices across North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.