Life Safety Alliance Announces Inaugural Legends Class, Establishing the Security and Life Safety Profession’s Highest Honor

The Life Safety Alliance has formally established what it calls the highest honor in the security and life safety profession, unveiling the inaugural class of its Legends Program, an elite group of practitioners whose work has fundamentally shaped modern security practice across the physical, cyber, intelligence, and governance domains.

Announced this week from Medford, N.J., the Legends designation is intended not as a career achievement award but as a permanent institutional recognition of individuals whose influence has altered the profession's trajectory.

Defining “Legend” in a Maturing Profession

Security and life safety have evolved dramatically over the past four decades—from guard forces and loss prevention departments to enterprise risk management, cybersecurity governance, and global resilience frameworks. According to LSA leadership, the Legends Program was created to identify those rare figures whose contributions transcend job titles, sectors, and eras.

Jonathan Perillo, Co-Chair of the Legends Committee, described the threshold this way: Legends are those “who turn the tides of theory or practice, whose stories are carried through generations, and whose efforts are frequently invoked to inspire greatness.”

In other words, this is not a hall of fame built on résumé lines. It is an attempt to define institutional memory for a profession that has often struggled to document its own intellectual lineage.

The Inaugural Legends

The 2026 inaugural class, listed alphabetically, represents a cross-section of the disciplines that collectively comprise today’s security ecosystem:

• Marene Allison
• Steve Bellovin
• Jason Brown
• Russell J. Cancilla
• Tim Crowe
• Sandi Davies
• Whitfield Diffie
• Eduard Emde
• Larry Fennelly
• Martin Gill
• Godfried Hendriks
• Sandra Jones
• Bonnie Michelman
• Ray O’Hara
• Don W. Walker

While their careers span different sectors, such as corporate security, cybersecurity, academic research, standards development, investigations, and enterprise risk, the common thread is transformative influence.

Some members of the class are widely recognized for foundational contributions to cryptography and cybersecurity architecture. Others have shaped physical security design principles, professionalized loss prevention, advanced investigative methodologies, and elevated governance and enterprise risk management to board-level disciplines. Several have built academic and research frameworks that underpin modern security science. Others have led professional associations, developed standards, or mentored generations of practitioners.

Collectively, the class reflects the convergence that now defines the industry. Physical and cyber risk are no longer siloed disciplines; governance and resilience are not afterthoughts; and research, education, and professional standards are recognized as central pillars of credibility.

A Profession Coming of Age

The creation of the Legends Program signals something larger than a new award. It reflects a profession that has matured to the point of codifying its own history and establishing clear exemplars of enduring impact.

Security, unlike law or medicine, has historically lacked formalized mechanisms to preserve its intellectual heritage. Innovations have often been absorbed into practice without widespread documentation of their originators. The Legends Program seeks to change that dynamic by formally recognizing the individuals whose work reshaped the field’s theoretical foundations or practical execution.

From early advances in cryptographic thinking that now underpin global digital commerce, to the systematization of loss-prevention and investigative protocols, to the integration of enterprise risk into corporate governance frameworks, the honorees represent turning points in how organizations protect people, information, assets, and reputations.

The selection committee emphasized that the program is designed as an enduring institution, not a one-time celebration. Future classes will be evaluated against the same high threshold established by the inaugural cohort.

“This first class establishes the standard,” Gips noted. “In the years ahead, the program will continue to recognize those whose work has shaped, and will continue to shape, how our profession protects people, information, organizations, and communities.”

Cross-Sector Impact

One distinguishing characteristic of the inaugural class is its breadth across sectors. The honorees’ influence can be traced across:

• Physical Security Design and Operations – Advancing methodologies for facility protection, integrated systems, and risk-based deployment.
• Cybersecurity and Cryptography – Contributing foundational concepts that secure modern networks and digital communications.
• Loss Prevention and Investigations – Professionalizing investigative standards and internal controls.
• Governance and Enterprise Risk Management – Elevating security leadership into strategic decision-making at the executive and board levels.
• Research and Education – Building the academic and empirical base necessary to legitimize security as a discipline.
• Professional Standards and Credentialing – Shaping frameworks that define competence and ethical practice across the field.

The class composition underscores a key theme: modern life safety is inherently interdisciplinary. The profession’s most enduring leaders have often operated at the boundaries—between physical and cyber, between operations and strategy, between research and practice.

Establishing a Benchmark for the Future

By launching the Legends Program, the Life Safety Alliance is also setting a benchmark for future generations. The organization emphasized that the designation is intended to represent an “order of magnitude” above conventional recognition—reserved for those whose contributions permanently altered professional practice.

In doing so, LSA is implicitly challenging the industry to think long-term about impact. Short-term innovation, quarterly performance metrics, or technological novelty are insufficient. Legends are those whose work stands the test of time and continues to influence frameworks, standards, and leadership models years—or decades—after introduction.

For younger practitioners, the program may serve as both inspiration and roadmap: enduring impact in security is built not merely through operational excellence, but through thought leadership, mentorship, research, standards development, and the courage to redefine prevailing assumptions.

Institutionalizing Recognition

Founded to advance the practice of security, safety, and risk management through research, professional development, and cross-disciplinary collaboration, the Life Safety Alliance positioned the Legends Program as an extension of its broader mission.

By formally documenting the profession’s most transformative contributors, LSA aims to strengthen credibility, continuity, and collective identity within the global life safety community.

For an industry facing escalating complexity, ranging from geopolitical instability and supply chain disruption to cyber-physical convergence and workplace violence, the establishment of a professional north star may be particularly timely.

The inaugural Legends are not merely recipients of an honor. They are being enshrined as institutional reference points; individuals whose careers demonstrate what sustained, field-shaping leadership looks like.

As the program evolves, future classes will be measured against the standard now set measurable, generational influence that reshapes how the profession thinks, operates, and protects.

For the security and life safety community, the message is clear. The profession now has its highest honor and a formal acknowledgment of those who built the foundation on which it stands.