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CNN Live At Daybreak

Discussion with New CEO of Argenbright Security

Aired November 12, 2001 - 08:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In the hotseat today, the new CEO of Argenbright Security. The Atlanta-based company employs 40 percent of the airport screeners in the United States. Since September 11th, Argenbright has been harshly criticized for lax training and numerous breaches of security. The former head of the company, Frank Argenbright, stepped down last week after a major and very public security lapse at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. There a man carrying numerous knives and a stun gun nearly got on an airplane. At Washington's Dulles Airport, a woman cleared three checkpoints with the wrong boarding pass. And in Grand Rapids, a screener was arrested for allegedly having a loaded gun. And in Pennsylvania, the company is in court over possible violations of a plea agreement.

New CEO David Beaton joins us now from Washington with more on how he plans to fix Argenbright's problems.

Good to have you with us. Welcome.

DAVID BEATON, CEO, ARGENBRIGHT SECURITY: Thank you, Paula. Nice to be here.

ZAHN: Well, I can't imagine what it must feel like to take on this job at a time when you're taking hits from all quarters, including congressional leaders. You know that Representative DeLay says that Argenbright showed epic incompetency.

How much pressure do you feel?

BEATON: Well, Paula, my 30 years experience includes 20 years in the British army fighting military aggression, including many years of tackling politically inspired terrorism, so I feel I'm the right man for this job. It's a big challenge, but I'm here to put it right.

ZAHN: I know that you wrote a pretty detailed letter to Transportation Secretary Mineta, where you laid out what some of the immediate changes were that you'd like to make. Can you quickly walk us through some of those this morning?

BEATON: Yes, indeed. There is a combination of new measures. Some of them are procedural. Many of them to do with the training and employment of our staff. The first thing, is we need good high quality staff. We started to raise the wages of those staff average of $6 to $8 to $9 to $13. That's already begun to have impact in terms of quality of the staff, and the retention rates, which have been a problem for this industry for many, many years.

ZAHN: Before you go any further, what evidence have you seen of that, that immediately that's already had an impact? Are you getting better educated people coming in, or what exactly is happening?

BEATON: Yes, we're attracting a higher quality of staff, and we're retaining those who might have otherwise gone to higher paying jobs, and that's very important, to get the continuity of the workforce, to show that we get the experience staff going forward, to deal with the higher level of standards, higher security measures which we want to see going forward from here. It's very important, in my view, that we raise the bar since the 11th of September, to new levels of safety and security, very much like the regimes in Europe and the Middle East, and indeed the Far East, where the security threat has always been much higher than that in the United States. And we very quickly -- and my job as CEO of Argenbright is very quickly to put accelerator down on making changes to the existing system.

ZAHN: At the top of this interview, we laid out what are described as some of the more alleged egregious actions on the part of Argenbright. Would you say that the main reason for those incidents was the low pay workers ere receiving, or is there another reason we should be looking to?

BEATON: Well, low pay doesn't help in terms of attracting good staff, but clearly, before 11th of September, the aviation industry was primarily concerned with a smooth-running aviation business, much less so in terms of high security. Everything has changed since the 11th of September. We're now moving to a high-threat environment, much like the experience elsewhere in the world, and the aviation security in the United States needs to adjust to that, and adjust to it quickly.

My role as CEO is to make sure that Argenbright plays a very full part in dealing with the war on terrorism.

ZAHN: Now that you have raised the salaries that many of your screeners will be receiving, do you have any idea of what percentage of your workers will actually stay on? Are there a certain number of employees you simply are going to just have to get rid of?

BEATON: The salaries would clearly help retention. The historic norms are we have staff turnover perhaps of 100 percent. That's industrywide. It varies from area to area. But clearly, any increase in salary, any increase in hourly rage rates, will have a beneficial effect, and we're beginning to see that.

ZAHN: And what is your strategy as you await sort of the final resolution on airport security by Congress? Do you expect that that ultimately will be federalized, or not.

BEATON: I think there's a strong role to play for federal authorities. We very much welcome stronger federal oversight, inspecting the risk assessment, deciding what level of federal security levels require, laying down the parameters, ensuring that those parameters are enforced, and removing companies who are unable to deliver against them. That is very the Middle East and European model has proven very effective there, over the last two decades. Countries in Europe started with a fully nationalized force, and they're -- after two decades, they've moved toward what has proven to be a much more effective process. That is a partnership between public sector and private sector, and I'm sure that Argenbright will play a full role in delivering against those going forward.

ZAHN: Mr. Beaton, you made reference to your long military experience in Britain. Is there an analogy you'd like to close with this morning as to how massive of a challenge you've got right now as you try to restructure this company?

BEATON: It's a large challenge, but I've met challenges like this before.

Clearly, we want to ensure that the American skies are as safe as possible. My view is that the American public should have confidence that providing they remain vigilant with themselves, providing they remain patient, because security measures are an interference with their expectations, but I think the America public are expected that, and they need to get used to it clearly.

My view, though, is what I told my family, keep vigilant, remain calm, be patient, the American airways now are safer than they've ever been since the 11th of September, and it's my job to ensure that they continue to become more safe, and I'll do everything I can to ensure that occurs.

David Beaton, new CEO of Argenbright Security.

Thank you very much for joining us, so fresh into this new job. Good luck.

BEATON: Thank you very much.

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