Hillard Heintze Recruits Thomas N. Kasza as Managing Director of Strategic Client Relationships

CHICAGO, Dec. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Hillard Heintze announced the creation of a key new senior leadership position – Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Strategic Relationships – and its appointment of Thomas N. Kasza, a seasoned executive in strategic security planning and execution, to this important role.

This strategic development reflects the maturation of two trends that have strengthened significantly over the last several years: (1) a shift in the firm's customer profile toward clients relying upon more than one of the firm's services over successive years, and (2) a higher and growing concentration of engagements as a full-service trusted advisor, especially to CEOs, CFOs, COOs and CSOs as well as corporate board members and other senior executive leaders of major U.S. and global corporate enterprises.

Kasza will focus almost exclusively on attending to the firm's strategic relationships – on collaborating with clients, as individual decision makers, or as multi-expert solution teams – and then working with the rest of the Hillard Heintze team to align the spectrum of their experience and knowledge behind what the firm's clients are trying to achieve.

"I've known Tom for nearly three decades," said Arnette Heintze, the firm's co-founder and CEO. "In fact, not only have our respective careers unfolded very similarly – across senior leadership roles in both the public and private sectors – but Tom was on my team when I headed up the Secret Service's office here in Chicago and then took over that role when I retired from the agency. I have tremendous confidence in him on many levels, including his perspective as one of this nation's most talented and accomplished security strategists and leaders. But most of all," Heintze added, "I like the partnering ethic that he brings to the executive decision makers and their teams that depend critically on our services – and the level of assurance he instills in them that the right actions are and will be taken on their behalf every single time, over and over again."

For more than two decades, Kasza served in the U.S. Secret Service. Following his appointment to the agency's Senior Executive Service, he was the Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago District from 2003 to 2005, responsible for all criminal investigations, protective and intelligence activity of U.S. Secret Service personnel in one of the agency's five largest offices. During his tenure, Kasza oversaw extensive investigations into areas such as financial institution fraud, cyber crime, infrastructure protection, and threats made on the U.S. President by groups and individuals.

Kasza's Secret Service assignments included the protection of four U.S. Presidents. While serving in the Presidential Protective Division, Kasza provided daily close-proximity protection for Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Kasza planned and coordinated protection and supervised domestic and worldwide security advance teams ensuring a secure travel environment.

Following his retirement from the Service in 2005, Kasza was Chief of Staff to the CEO and Chief Security Office for a financial services company with $15 billion in assets under management, serving on the company's risk management committee as well as supporting its compliance, IT and corporate audit functions. He also led a security and cyber intelligence business and served on the board of directors for a company specializing in providing risk management solutions for events, businesses and family offices.

"I must say," said Kasza, "I've been observing now – from the outside for several years – the ethic, momentum and enormous enthusiasm of the Hillard Heintze team to achieve excellence in everything that they do. And having been on both the buying and providing side of strategic security and investigative planning and execution for literally my entire career, I know exactly what can be achieved when you're working with the best people in the industry. I'm thrilled to be right here, working shoulder to shoulder with this team."

About Hillard Heintze
Hillard Heintze provides the strategic thought leadership, trusted counsel and end-to-end services that help leading public and private corporations as well as government agencies and major public service organizations advance best-in-class security strategies and investigations to protect and preserve the safety of their people, property, performance and reputation. For the last three years, Hillard Heintze has been recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of America's fastest-growing private companies – and ranked on the annual Inc. 500/5000 list as No. 242 in 2009, No. 583 in 2010, and No. 764 in 2011. The company has also been acknowledged by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) as #6 on its 2011 list of the 100 fastest-growing inner city firms in the United States.

SOURCE Hillard Heintze