THE IPSRM™ CREATOR
Stephen Beels
Thirty years spent finding out why physical security assessment has never had a shared methodology — and building the one it needed.
Stephen has worked in physical security, risk and resilience for more than three decades, beginning in specialist units of the Metropolitan Police Service addressing serious crime and counter-terrorism, before moving into security leadership, advisory and consultancy roles across critical infrastructure, financial services, higher education and other high-consequence environments. The last eighteen years have been spent in independent consultancy.
Across that career, he has conducted or reviewed more than 600 physical security assessments across the UK, Europe and Africa — work that, over time, surfaced the same problem repeatedly: not a shortage of technical knowledge, but the absence of a structured methodology capable of producing consistent, defensible outputs for the people who actually have to act on them.
“Throughout more than three decades of physical security assessment, I found that the greatest source of inconsistency was rarely technical knowledge. It was the absence of a structured methodology capable of producing consistent, defensible outputs for executive decision-makers.”
Stephen Beels · IPSRM™ Practitioner Handbook
IPSRM™ was built in direct response to that gap — not to replace the judgement of an experienced practitioner, but to give it a consistent framework to operate within. Stephen has served as a Board Director of the Association of Security Consultants and been recognised with three UK Outstanding Security Performance Awards.
“Stephen conducted security consultancy for FM Contract Watch from 2018 to 2026, covering security vulnerability assessments, security penetration audits and risk and threat reviews. This spanned a wide range of UK and international clients and premises — including prestigious sites in London, national infrastructure, the higher education sector, and high-end retail.”
“Stephen is professional and reliable in all aspects of his work. He has a deep understanding of site-specific risks, delivers well-considered recommendations, and produces excellent reports.”
Lynda Moore MSyI RISC · Managing Partner · Winner, UK Women in Security Awards 2024
Read the full case for why the methodology needed to exist:
See it applied to a complete worked example:
Vertex Method Ltd is an Accredited Provider with The CPD Group.
