Ensuring Security and Service for Over 200 Years

Dating back to the 18th century, State Street Corporation is a leading provider of financial services. With a headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, State Street services nearly 10% of the world’s assets and operates globally in more than 100 geographic markets and employs approximately 53,000 worldwide. It’s Money Management Arm, State Street Global Advisors, created the first Exchange Traded Fund in the United States.

Stephen D. Baker CPP is the Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer at State Street Corporation and is the appointed executive responsible for the total Physical Security program across all legal entities, businesses and functions globally.

With 42 years of experience in the security industry, 28 of which have been spent at State Street, Baker has been able to be part of the initial build and continuous enhancement of the security program to achieve a “Best In Class result”. While there is always a balance of cost and risk, as a Lean Master, Baker is continuously looks for the most efficient ways to accomplish initiatives and prepare for the future. He credits his long tenured team of security professionals for making the Global Security vision a reality.

Security: How have you seen your organization change over time? How has your department changed?

Baker: The initial strategic changes to the security program began in 1996, when I first promoted concepts for technical program architecture with an inception through delivery model. This new approach was supported by the CEO at the time, who had a global mindset. It resulted in the security groups early involvement in company strategic plans and activities allowing security risks to be assessed at a very early stage. This approach evolved into Global Security having complete oversight and management responsibilities for all physical security programs across the company.

Like many security programs, further enhancements and attention on the security program occurred following the terrorist attacks on September 11th. As a Corporate Function, the security program continues to deliver effective security services that keep constituents front of mind. This includes clients, regulators, shareholders, employees and communities. Having early notice and continued support has allowed the program to best support the company’s overall operations while effectively addressing security risks with appropriate strategies and company resources. The use of technology and the information we collect on a daily basis makes it easier to accomplish a higher level of security and monitor site activities. The use of triggered scripts has also made it easier to communicate with staff via email if they need to take action or if security wants to provide notice of a security violation.

Security: What is a recent program you’ve implemented that you’re proud of?

Baker: We continue to drive innovations including next generation automation to expand our security service activities. However, I think I am most proud of the security team’s recent delivery of our New Global Headquarters in Boston. Using our inception through delivery concept, we were involved early on with our partners in Global Realty and IT in assessing possible sites. Upon site selection, significant work went into developing ground up design plans to ensure we met Security, Realty and IT standards as well as the needs of our staff in a post COVID era. This is done by using our security design criteria blueprint that has been developed over many years and is used for all new sites to ensure consistency in security design and fit-outs across the world.

The New Headquarters site was designed and built during the COVID period and although there were setbacks with shutdowns, disruptions and material shortages, the teams kept focused on delivering the site by prioritizing specific floors for occupancy as the Realty, IT and Security teams delivered on their design plans. The new Headquarters allowed Global Security to further enhance site security infrastructure keeping in mind lessons learned since our last corporate headquarters build 20+ years ago. I can’t emphasize enough how important the collaborative partnership with Global Realty and IT has meant to the Corporate Headquarters build and other critical initiatives.

Security: What’s something about financial security you wished more people understood?

Baker: Aside from being designated as Financial Services Critical Infrastructure, State Street is also designated as a Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB), a bank that is critical to the international financial system. As a G-SIB, State Street is highly regulated and that means that the security function needs to not only understand the laws and regulations in each country they do business, but also ensure performance for its operations and practices. Our controls along with several “layers of defense” create a continuous security assurance environment.

Effectiveness testing of security includes our internal team’s first line testing, a compliance oversight teams second line testing as well as testing from IT Risk Management and Enterprise Risk Management. Finally, there is a third line of testing by the company’s Corporate Audit function. While this may sound daunting, the positive effect helps Global Security ensure a well-defined, effective and mature security risk management program that continues to receive the resources necessary to maintain a strong security posture.

Security: How are you working towards the future?

Baker: State Street recently made several acquisitions in India that included the addition of a large number of personnel in a relatively short period of time. It is a challenge to onboard a large number of personnel from a Security perspective by any measure. Initial onboarding aspects like Background Investigations, Badging and Access Control programming requires significant coordination and resources to support the project plan timelines. Additionally, this initiative involves the search and buildout of six new sites across different parts of India with an aggressive schedule to develop the security designs, install and make security equipment, devices and control equipment operational. Each new site also requires the recruiting of staff, the onboarding of vendors, the development of an operational site security program, the development of a security transportation escort program and finally the coordination of health and safety programs with our partners in Global Realty. While this initiative in ongoing in some cities it has been substantially completed in others due to the hard work of many Global Security staff and its partners.

State Street Corporation is the second-oldest continually operating U.S. bank, meaning it has faced nearly every challenge the country has faced. With centuries of experience, it’s no surprise it has mastered the art of resilience in an ever-changing world.