William F. Blake, CPP, CFE, President, Blake and Associates, Inc. is a native of Vermont, and a graduate of Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Police Administration. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Foundations of Education from Troy State University, Troy, Alabama.
He is a retired Chief Warrant Officer of the U.S. Army where he served as a Military Intelligence Special Agent and a Criminal Investigation Division Special Agent in supervisory and management positions. While a member of the U.S. Army, he was responsible for designing and implementing a revised and expanded curriculum for the criminal investigation course attended by members of the Department of Defense. As a military instructor for seven years, he was responsible for instruction in investigative, administrative and management subjects to investigators, managers and senior military officers.
Following retirement from the U.S. Army, Mr. Blake was employed as a security officer with a hospital before accepting a position as Security Manager and Investigator for a major bank. In this capacity, he was responsible for physical security, guard force operations, and investigations. Following a merger with another financial institution, he was assigned as a Regional Security Manager with responsibility for 35 locations.
Mr. Blake has more than 55 years experience in civil and criminal investigations, bank security, executive protection, loss prevention, disaster recovery planning, counterintelligence operations, security risk analysis, and security training.
Mr. Blake has been a presenter of security management and private investigation courses at numerous local, national and international conferences and seminars.
Mr. Blake has been designated as a Certified Protection Professional (CPP) by the American Society for Industrial Security and as a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
J. “Tripp” Mitchell, Chairman, Georgia State Board of Private Detective and Security Agencies has a career that spans many years in public law enforcement, security consulting and investigation. His early start in loss prevention and asset protection for two major Georgia retailers set the tone for his long term criminal justice career. He began his career as a police officer where he served as a patrol officer, field training officer and as a detective.
In 1997 he became a criminal investigator with the State Court Prosecutor’s Office and was eventually promoted to Chief Investigator.
He is a past President of the Georgia Association of Professional Private Investigators, the Georgia Association of Chief’s of Police, the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP), and is a proud member of the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS International) in which he holds the designation of Certified Protection Professional (CPP).
Mr. Mitchell is State certified as both a Senior Training Instructor by the Georgia Peace Officers Standards and Training Council (POST) and a classroom and firearms instructor with the Georgia State Board of Private Detective and Security Agencies.
He holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Columbus State University and has had extensive training in such areas as homicide, psychological profiling, stalking, investigations, security management, threat assessment, behavioral analysis, deadly force confrontations, and active shooter training.
In 2003, Governor Sonny Purdue appointed him to serve on the Georgia State Board of Private Detective and Security Agencies. He was the youngest member ever to be appointed to the board at 33 years old. He was re-appointed by Governor Nathan Deal for two consecutive terms and has been recently re-elected this year as Chairman of the Board.
Mr. Mitchell is an adjunct criminal justice instructor at various colleges and technical schools and an instructor at many regional police academies. He teaches a variety of courses that relate to law enforcement, security, leadership, liability, use of force and management. He also serves and participates in many criminal justice advisory capacities.
A Georgia Native Son, retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Michael E Mizell, spent almost 22 yrs in the US Army. He entered the Army after graduating from the University of Georgia in 1973, but quickly applied for and successfully completed Officer Candidate School, commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Military Police Corp. A short 21 years later, retiring from US Army d European Hqs, Heidelberg Germany, Office of the Provost Marshal. He was immediately hired in 1994 by the Atlanta Olympic Committee Security Group to be the Venue Security Manager for the 1996 Olympic Village (Georgia Tech campus) and completed a very successful games in September 1996. He accepted a position as a District Manager for Pinkerton Security as a prelude to the new regional operations manager position. Two years into the Pinkerton relationship, Michael Mizell left to go into private practice as co-owner of Millennium Security. Two years into the relationship, he bought out his partner and has been the sole owner of Millennium since.
Very active in efforts and associations to support veterans and their families, he is active in MilBuds, VetBuds, DAV, a life member of the American Legion, Post 201, a founding member of the Johns Creek Veterans Association and President for 2016 term. He has been personally recognized by the Georgia and National Offices of the American Legion for his support having received 6 Georgia Small Business Veteran Employer of the Year Awards, and 4 National American Legion Small Business Veteran Employer of the Year Awards.
Michael married to Laurel Eades Mizell of Atlanta, will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this September. They have four children, 3 sons and one daughter and 5 grandchildren, all living within 30 minutes of their home.
Grayling D. Livingston is the founder and president of Get A Security Quote (GASQ) the premier lead generation and referral services for security guard and patrol services. GASQ is a company that is specializing in lead generations and sales-support; focusing on satisfying the unique needs of the contract security guard industry, investigation services industry, and security consultant services. Prior to establishing his business in 2013 as an information-marketing specialist, Mr. Livingston served twenty years with the United States Air Force and ten years with the Department of Defense as a security specialist. He has over 30 years of diversified experience in the contract security guard force, resource protection, crime prevention, investigations, personnel, physical security and information protection field.
Mr. Livingston professional background includes positions as contract security sales manager, security operations manager in a manufacturing facility, and worldwide physical asset protection manager for a major web hosting and data management service provider.
Mr. Livingston studied Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland, Michigan State University, Alan Hancock Community College, and earned his Criminal Justice degree at ITT Technical Institute. In addition, he is certified as a Crime Prevention/Resource Protection specialist through Michigan State University Criminal Justice Department. Mr. Livingston is also a member of the American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS) Crime Prevention and Loss Prevention Council and American Criminal Justice Association (ACJA).