Ashley Cooper is the CEO of the Paladin Group of Companies, one of North America’s largest full service security companies with offices across the continent.Ashley started working with Paladin as a security officer while he was completing his Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of British Columbia. It was through this experience that Ashley learned the business from the ground up, recognizing the importance of security officers to the success of the organization.Upon graduation, Ashley began managing the four-person company and then acquired it a short time later in what would be his first acquisition in the security industry. Today, the Paladin Group of Companies has over 24,000 service driven employees across North America serving a customer base that includes hospitals, airports, college campuses, governments, critical infrastructure, office towers, shopping malls, oil & gas facilities, hotels, residential high-rises, technology companies, and industrial / manufacturing facilities, among others.Since 2013, Paladin has been recognized as a Best Managed Company (formerly 50 Best Managed) through Deloitte where the company currently holds Platinum status. In 2013, Paladin was also named one of Canada's Top 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures through Waterstone Human Capital, a title that they still hold to this day. In 2014, Paladin won the Burnaby Board of Trade Business of the Year award, and throughout their history Paladin has won numerous regional and national awards for service and innovation through BOMA. Ashley’s personal awards include the Ernst & Young Pacific Regional Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2013, the 2014 British Columbia CEO of the Year award for mid-market companies, and the Most Admired CEO through Waterstone Human Capital.Today the Paladin Group of Companies consists of Paladin Security Group, Canada’s largest provider of innovative and high quality security officer services; PalAmerican Security, America’s emerging leader in the provision of high quality security officer services; Paladin Risk Solutions, the “go-to” company for investigations, risk management, security consulting, executive protection, and emergency management & business continuity planning; Concord Parking, a forward thinking and technologically driven parking management and solutions company; and Paladin Airport Services, one of the largest airport security services companies in the country.