He also faced another, equally important challenge: proving to this giant organization that security has bottom-line value. "I had to constantly prove that security isn't just guns, guards, locks and gates," says Kelly. He did this by improving security through centralization and automation and by creating metrics that made it clear to senior executives how security was helping them.

For example, he centralized the physical security function, which improved the protection of global assets without weighing heavily on each business unit's budget. Harsco's enterprise risk management system will soon handle all alarm monitoring, CCTV and access control functions around the world from one location.

As if all this wasn't enough, in 2010 Kelly was promoted to chief compliance officer and asked to build another global program, this time focusing on regulatory compliance and fighting corruption. Since then, Harsco has implemented a global hotline for reporting fraud, created the Office of Global Compliance, and conducted the company's first-ever cultural survey of its employees' attitudes about integrity and compliance. This has enabled each business unit to come up with plans to address gaps in their compliance programs.