Nashville Security Summit

Chris oversees business development and strategy for Hawque Protection Group, as well as technology innovation as CEO. Chris has over 15 years of senior corporate experience across private and public Fortune 100 and 500 companies, as well as federal government agencies. Mr. Rich is also a trained executive protection agent and received his training from one of the premier executive protection schools in the country and is also a Georgia State licensed private investigator. Chris spent the early years of his career with the United States Government and Chamberlin Edmonds & Associates (now Emdeon). Before joining Mercer, Chris had a 10-year tenure at Humana, where he held a variety of senior positions in Medicare, Corporate Real Estate and Mergers & Acquisitions. Most notably, Chris managed executive leadership relationships with Humana and led several large acquisition integrations (10,000+ employees, 50+ locations nationally). For his professional accomplishments and consistent community and philanthropic involvement, Chris was recognized and awarded the 2010 Humana Achievement Award. Chris has shared his powerful insight on the security industry as well as on innovative, community-based solutions to address crime in outlets and venues across the nation. He was recently featured in Forbes, FOX 5, CBS 46 and Hypepotamus. Mr. Rich most recently spoke on the panel for the Georgia Tech Smart City Conference around public safety and Atlanta’s first Smart City Expo Conference around his story and was also awarded and recognized as one of the 2019 InterCon top 50 technology visionaries for socially focused technology startups. Mr. Rich was awarded the US Business News Technology Elite Awards 2019 (Georgia) and the AIU University 2019 community partner of the year award. Most recently, his security firm, HPG was awarded the 2023 & 2024 Pacesetter Award for the fastest growing private self-funded company in Atlanta. He recently was also awarded the Civil & Human Rights Award from Teach US Justice for his efforts to help make undeserved communities safer. He is a current 2024 Leadership Atlanta graduate and also sits on the newly formed Georgia State Patrol Historical Society Inc., as a 2024 Board Member. Mr. Rich is also a Buckhead Coalition member and spends his free time with his wife and 8-year-old daughter that attends Westminster.