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Know your Institute
Know your Institute

2023 Gala Awards Dinner

18th April 2023

The Institute encourages and recognises excellence, as a part of its
commitment to professional development and raising awareness of
good security. For several years now, the Institute runs an annual Awards
Ceremony, where individuals and companies going the extra mile are
recognised, and where its own Awards are presented. Following on from
the Annual General Meeting on the 18th April 2023, we continued at the
Victory Services Club into the evening, where we held our Annual Gala
Awards Dinner celebration for 2023, attended by over 120 guests.

We were delighted to have been joined by the Military Wives Choirs
who provided our evenings entertainment, in the shape of a heartfelt,
meaningful and fitting tribute to our industry. A performance that was
very well received and appreciated by all attendees at the event and a
special thank you goes to Wendy Human, the Choirs, and their conductor
for the evening, for joining us and making the event even more so
memorable and special to those in attendance.

This year we also introduced various new awards, including EDI Initiative
of the year, Product or Innovation of the Year, Lifetime Achievement and
The Security Institute Award In Memory of ‘Odette Hallowes’.

The latter award is a tribute to Odette Hallowes’ also known as Odette
Sansom and Odette Churchill. Odette Hallowes GC, MBE, served in the
British Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. This
award therefore recognised an individual or team who have contributed
significantly to the security of others, even more so those that have
operated under the radar or without public recognition. We were
delighted to have been joined by Sophie Parker, Odette’s Granddaughter,
and an extended number of other family members to present the award
and share the evening with us.

The Odette Award was received this year by three recipients, Nick
Aldworth & Brendan Cox for their outstanding contribution to Protect
Duty UK, and ‘M’, who remains anonymous for reasons surrounding his
identity and the amazing covert work that he has provided to the country
in the length of his career. A full list of award winners can be found on the
next page.

The event was a huge success, as well as the addition of all of the new
awards and we really look forward to planning the event for next year.

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