John Torres leads the global footprint of the Security and Technology Consulting Practice at Guidepost Solutions.

His background includes more than 27 years of experience providing investigative and security management for the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice in numerous senior leadership roles.

His extensive investigative and security experience provides him with a unique perspective on matters related to risk mitigation, anti-money laundering, security assessments, investigations, crisis management, cross border security, event security, federal consulting and government compliance.

What is your backstory?
As a career federal agent who rose through the ranks over 27 years, my experience uniquely positions me to help solve our clients (individuals and companies) most difficult needs. My career has progressed through many stages.

From my earliest days of interviewing amnesty applicants under the Immigration and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 in Austin, Texas to interviewing the hardened criminals at the Los Angeles County Jail intake in 1988,

I knew that my career would be an interesting journey.  By 1990, I was assigned to a highly decorated plain-clothes undercover counterfeiting task force with the US Secret Service for four years.  I was then transferred to a human smuggling/trafficking group for another year to round out my time in Los Angeles, which included working the Los Angeles Riots and being activated to support first responders during earthquakes and jury verdicts (Rodney King, OJ Simpson, etc.).

At that point, I made the leap into management and transferred to Burlington, Vermont where I helped create the Law Enforcement Support Center which today serves as the nerve center for the Department of Homeland Security’s law enforcement communications with local law enforcement.

In 1997, I accepted a promotion to work in the newly created National Security Division in Washington, DC to work as an INS special agent assigned to FBI headquarters.  I supported and led teams related to the East Africa Embassy Bombing, the Manila Air plot to bomb multiple airliners of the Pacific Ocean, the Khobar Towers Bombing, the Ahmed Ressam plot to bomb Los Angeles International airport during the millennial, and the bin Laden/al Qaeda investigation.

In 1998, our unit was renamed the Usama bin Laden (UBL) unit at FBI headquarters, where I remained until I accepted a promotion and transfer to lead agents in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

In the aftermath of 9/11, I was reassigned to FBI headquarters to assist with the global investigation into the terror attacks. At that time, I was very busy as I was also directing agents for security at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002.

I was promoted soon after to lead agents in my hometown of Chicago which is where I thought I would finish my government career, until the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003.  I was asked to be on the transition team in Washington, DC to stand up ICE and six months later was assigned as the Special Agent in Charge of Newark, New Jersey.  We worked many high-profile cases in New Jersey before I was brought back to Washington, DC in 2004.

My career at ICE headquarters led me through many assignments including overseeing smuggling and public safety (drugs, guns, gangs, sex predators, war criminals and human traffickers) to running the Enforcement and Removal arm of ICE (immigration deportation, fugitives, criminals).  I was later named the acting Director of ICE during the presidential transition from President Bush to President Obama in 2008-2009.

For nearly four years, I was the Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Washington, DC until 2013 when I retired from my government career.

Since my retirement from government, six years ago, I have been with Guidepost Solutions utilizing my unique experience to help clients in avenues of security design/consulting, compliance and investigations.  Several matters have been very high profile and challenging, while others uniquely complex on a lesser scale. Being able to resolve their issues has been rewarding to all of us at Guidepost, and even more satisfying to our clients.

What was it that you were trying to accomplish?
Keeping our communities safe and protecting people from being victimized.  Today, we guide our clients to mitigate potential risk; or mitigate the consequences of a challenge that they are facing.

What was your external struggle? Your internal struggle?
My external struggle was similar to my peers in law enforcement.  Obtaining resources under limited budgets to provide sufficient tools to support our teams.  The problem was inherently similar at the local levels compared to the grand scale of running an agency.  Obviously, the funding levels were different.

My internal struggle was work-life balance.  I spent many weeks and months on the road-focused on high-profile investigations which could have resulted in imminent harm to the community.  Those situations made it tough to balance a healthy lifestyle.

What was the wall or problem you hit that made you become clear on your “thing?”
In 1999, I was asked to lead the INS response for the Railroad Serial Killer investigation. Rafael Resendez-Ramirez was an FBI top ten fugitive after murdering numerous victims who lived near railroad tracks and trains where Resendez had stowed away.  These victims were located across the country.  I was in a staff meeting on assignment in Dallas, Texas when we were briefed that Resendez had been arrested multiple times by the US Border Patrol (an agency within INS at the time) over the years, and as recently as the week before…after Resendez was designated a top ten fugitive.  Each time he was arrested by the Border Patrol, Resendez used an alias and was returned to Mexico allowing him to continue his killing spree.

What made this a problem was that the Border Patrol fingerprint system was a stand-alone system and not integrated with the FBI systems due to limited funding constraints. Because of my experience hunting down terrorists and working complex global manhunts, I was asked to lead the INS team in support of the FBI.  Ultimately, Resendez was located in Mexico and surrendered himself to the INS – Border Patrol at a Texas port of entry.  He was later convicted and executed for his crimes.  As a result of that case, the Border Patrol system is fully integrated with all law enforcement systems today.

What was the epiphany you had that made you understand your “thing?”
Later that year in 1999, I was back in Washington, DC in the bin Laden Unit when most of our unit was together at a Redskins game. All our pagers received an alert at the same time.  We were advised that there was a highly credible threat that Al Qaeda was going to attack the United States during the New Year’s Millennial celebrations. Needless to say, all of our holiday vacations were cancelled as we worked around the clock to identify and stop the attack.

I provided executive briefings to FBI Director Freeh and Attorney General Reno at all hours on behalf of our team as it related to an Algerian Smuggling network from Canada to the United States.

This network ultimately supported Ahmed Ressam who was arrested in Seattle with enough explosives in his trunk to blow up the Los Angeles International airport.  It was during this time that I realized that “my thing” was to be able to work calmly under intense pressure and provide reasonable and practical options to the executives so they could make critical decisions at high levels.

What was the plan you created that took you down this road you are now on?
My plan while I worked for the government was to build lasting relationships both internally and externally so that I could rely on my experience to help build a company like Guidepost Solutions.  I am enjoying my second act, so to speak.

What was the conflict you experienced along the way?
Every special agent must learn when “enough is enough”.  Investigations can take you down many rabbit holes that can delay the conclusion of that investigation. Many agents always want to chase the bigger fish when often times, there is pressure to get immediate results, both operationally and politically.  Learning to identify a point where you can dismantle an organization and positively impact the community is critical.

What was the achievement you had in the beginning? At the end?
One early achievement was successfully navigating through a trial for one of my first investigations 30 years ago.  The defendants were found guilty in Los Angeles Federal Court.  The judge had a reputation of being very tough against defendants and the government.

The prosecutor was very sharp and witty. Thirty years later, I am still friends with the prosecutor, David Scheper, who is a partner at his own firm in Los Angeles, Scheper Kim. That tough judge was sympathetic towards me in my first trial and shut down a few lines of questioning directed at me when I was on the witness stand. Today, the Honorable Manny Real remains on the bench in Los Angeles.

More recently, we have taken pride is helping clients solve their problems and reduce their risk. This includes getting clients removed from the terror watch list when they were erroneously placed on it; conducting internal investigations for companies to identify threats, theft and corruption; designing physical security measure for hospitals, data centers, skyscrapers, arenas and stadiums; and implementing compliance programs that have been recognized by governments as best practices.

What was the transformation you had?
The transition from government to the private sector was smoother than I anticipated.  Learning to be a patient listener is key to developing good client relationships.  This can be a challenge for some executives in the government who are used to directing people in a chain of command.

Also, having the resources of 20,000 employees and a $5 billion budget to working in a small to midsize private company (only four people in our Washington, DC office when I started) can be a wake-up call.  I relied on my experiences of building programs and offices with little or no support staff to successfully adjust to working in the private sector where you have to roll up your sleeves and be self-sufficient.