Cass W. Leaton

Cass W. Leaton is one of this country’s leading physical and technical experts in developing comprehensive security plans and countermeasures for the protection of our nation’s most critical infrastructure as well as high-profile individuals and the venues they visit – from President Obama’s election night rally in Chicago’s Grant Park to the NATO Summit in Chicago in 2012.

At Jensen Hughes, Cass has conducted security assessments at a variety of private and public venues. He has served as a trusted security advisor to major corporations and high net worth individuals. Among them, retail facilities, corporate office spaces, warehouse and distribution centers, medical campuses, universities, convention and sports venues, energy sector production facilities, law firms and financial institutions.

During his 27-year career with the U.S. Secret Service, Cass managed the physical security for all Secret Service facilities in 12 states and Canada. This included all aspects of design, contractor bidding, installation oversight, acceptance testing and subsequent maintenance of systems including access control, CCTV, intrusion detection and chemical, biological and radiological countermeasures. Cass was also responsible for conducting annual Technical Security Reviews of all systems in the agency’s offices within this region.

Cass supervised and managed the performance of vulnerability assessments and the coordination of emergency response to provide a technically secure environment for the last five Presidents, Vice Presidents and foreign heads of state, including President Obama’s transition headquarters and residence, the President of China’s and President of Israel’s visits to the U.S., the International Achievement Summit, nuclear plants, oil refineries, automobile factories, embassies and convention centers, as well as the domestic and international locations of the G-8, G-20 and APEC Summits.

Cass also served as the Technical Security Division Lead on National Special Security Events, which required integrating the skills of numerous federal, state and local agencies. He served as Team Leader for technical security countermeasure surveys for the President and Vice President that was performed at the White House, Old Executive Office Building, New Executive Office Building, the U.S. Treasury Building, hotels, private residences and other highly sensitive government facilities. Cass received TSCM training at the Interagency Training Center and the National Intelligence Academy.

In 2012, Cass became the Chief of Critical Infrastructure and Technical Security for the Cook County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and was immediately involved in the planning for the G-8 and NATO Summits being held in Chicago. Prior to joining the Secret Service, Cass served in the U.S. Army as a Presidential Radio Technician for the White House Communications Agency where he was responsible for coordinating a team to provide a reliable radio frequency network for the President, Vice President and the Secret Service. Cass is a past member of the National Technical Investigators Association and was selected as one of five subject-matter experts nationwide to develop test criteria necessary for national certification. Cass has been affiliated with the Great Lakes Bomb Technicians, National Centrex Users Group and the DMS-100 Users Group and is an alumnus of the Center for Creative Leadership and National Intelligence Academy.