#8 | Douglas Smith: How We Invented TSA PreCheck and Global Entry

Douglas Smith picked up the phone and called the CEO of Delta Air Lines. That call became TSA PreCheck and Global Entry.More on Douglas Smith and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/douglas-smithAppointed by President Obama as Assistant Secretary for the Private Sector at the Department of Homeland Security, Smith coordinated private sector engagement across all 22 DHS divisions, led delegations to more than 40 countries, and ran the interagency response that kept global supply chains moving after the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami.Here he tells the full build story of Global Entry: the throughput crisis at US airports after 9/11, the idea of shrinking the haystack instead of searching all of it, the call to Delta chief executive Richard Anderson, the premium-traveler insight that made the program sellable to the public, and the four ports of entry where it was first tested.He also explains how the emergency alerts on your phone were built with the wireless carriers, why he once found one of his own DHS memos sitting in a three-ring binder in the UAE, where cyber risk actually concentrates in a supply chain, and why dismantling the government's critical infrastructure advisory councils should worry the private sector.Douglas Smith is the Global Head of Public Affairs and Managing Director for the Middle East and North Africa at The Nuclear Company. He previously served as Assistant Secretary for the Private Sector at the US Department of Homeland Security under President Obama, and has spent 30 years across national security and business.KEY MOMENTS00:00 "They were true patriots"03:41 Global Entry: shrinking the haystack07:15 The part government could not do10:21 Why throughput is a security strategy13:37 Who actually runs the government26:17 Where supply chain risk concentrates31:38 Cyber defense: small firm or giant34:32 Dismantling CISA and the councils40:59 "Data wins the war"43:59 AI, and what a father worries aboutNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.