Bio
Henry DeGeneste is the President of his own security consulting organization. His firm, HDG Consulting, Inc., provides advice and assistance to clients on a broad range of domestic and international issues involving operational risk, crisis management, criminal justice management and public policy administration. With over forty years of experience in senior leadership roles, he is currently focused on providing strategic advice to corporations and institutions of higher education to manage risk and develop emergency and security programs. Prior to establishing HDG Consulting, Inc., he was a Managing Partner at Security Directors Advisory Group. He is presently a member of the Advisory Boards for Beechwood Capital Advisors and WorldAware, Inc. He has also served as an Advisory Board member for KeyPoint Government Solutions. Previously he served for fifteen years as Senior Vice President of Global Security at Prudential Financial, and was the Chair of the firm’s Crisis Management Committee. Prior to his tenure at Prudential, he had a distinguished twenty-three-year career at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, serving as the Director of Public Safety and Superintendent of Police.
Henry is a published author and guest lecturer at many colleges and universities nationally and internationally on crisis and risk management, emergency preparedness, international terrorism, transportation policing, aviation, rail and seaport security, and law enforcement management and ethics. He served for over seventeen years on the faculty of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. He is Emeritus Faculty on the CSO Executive Council specializing in crisis, risk management, and transportation policing. A trusted voice in risk management and law enforcement, Henry is actively involved in a wide variety of civic and public policy organizations, such as being a member of the Leadership Council of The Southern Poverty Law Center, and as a life member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, New York State Association, and New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police.
He is also the former Chair of the New York City Chapter of the American Society for Industrial Security, a former Commissioner of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, and a former Commissioner on the New Jersey State Department of Corrections. He also served as the President of the National Organization of Black law Enforcement Executives. He is a sustaining member of the Police Executive Research Forum. He is the Vice Chair of the Board of the National Policing Institute, Washington, D.C.
DeGeneste is active in the community through volunteer work and his service on several non-profit boards including but not limited to, the World Trade Center Foundation; The New York City Law Enforcement Explorers; Boys Choir of Harlem; Corporation for Justice and Opportunities, Inc.; Newark, N.J., Essex County New Jersey Offender Aid and Restoration; Chair of the Greater Ocala Community Development Corporation, Ocala, Fl.; Chair of the Marion County Florida Sheriff’s Citizen Advisory Committee; and Public Policy Institute of Marion County, Inc., Ocala, Fl.
He has received numerous awards for his volunteer and charitable work including the “Pride of New Jersey” award from Governor Thomas Kean, “Volunteer of the Year” from New Jersey Special Olympics, the “Whitney M. Young” award from the National Urban League, Two Harlem YMCA- Black Achievers in Industry Awards and the “Distinguished Service Medallion” from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, N.Y.
Henry earned his B.A. in Business Management from Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, and MPA from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, NY. He is also a David Rockefeller Fellow, a Leadership New Jersey Fellow, and a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Executive Institute. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner, is Certified in Homeland Security-Level III, and is a life member of the Criminal Justice Educators Association of New York State.