PETALING JAYA: The security industry has been a long-standing interest for Atlas Solutions managing director Clement Chew (pix) since his teenage years.
For the 31-year-old, the opportunity to join the industry came about in his university days when he started working at Manchester United and Man-chester City football clubs in the UK.
“From there I obtained a security license – a Level 2 supervision licence by the Home Office in the UK – and worked at football stadiums until I came back to Malaysia in 2014,” he told SunBiz.
Back on home soil, Chew found himself a position at the Performance Management & Delivery Unit (Pemandu) under the Prime Minister’s Department and he was part of the crime prevention division.
“It was really exciting, having worked on a lot of organised crime projects in integrated operations alongside the police and other enforcement agencies,” he said.
In 2016, he felt that he has helped and served the country enough. After conducting some market research, he found that there is a market for “bodyguarding” not just in Malaysia but in Southeast Asia.
“We also knew that there wasn’t a one true standard for the security services and that businesses are recruiting people from the police and the armed forces without any qualifications.”
Given the situation, Chew decided to obtain UK securities recognition, not only to conduct training but also to certify people with the “bodyguarding” certificate from the UK government.
“With the security course and certification we are offering, we could deploy these personnel to US and UK companies needing a high quality security services,” he said.
While Atlas Solutions has found its stride today, it was not always the case.
Chew noted that in 2017, the company does not even have an office and it was essentially a one-man show.
“At the time when we just had our UK licence, we were renting a virtual office for our business. Only when we ran our first close protection course in September 2017, then only I decided to have an actual physical office.”
However, things did not magically fall into place for the young entrepreneur. In 2018, Atlas Solutions only conducted three security courses and it did not have any international operations nor was it a contractor for any major institution.
“This year things started to pick up, we became a major UK contractor for a large security company. And due to that opportunity, business has been booming as our name has been spoken around,” he shared.
With that, Atlas Solutions has seen new business vertical as it blossomed into the most coveted boutique protection firms in the region.
“Clients come to us because we’re flexible and we give an outstanding level of quality in terms of our services and growth has been exponential,” said Chew.
Now, the company has expanded into risk advisory, in addition to the close protection services, security course and accreditation which it is now offering.
“This year, we’ve expanded internationally, we’re not only running training courses but also putting our people to work and were signing memorandums of understanding and contracts with major security companies in and around the Southeast Asia region.”
