Team Bios

 

Kent McDonald, Director of Security Operations

Kent is a certified instructor-trainer in police defensive weapons and tactics through Modern Warrior in New York, and is studying to become a Personal Defense Readiness Coach. Kent’s experience includes providing supplementary security for former US President Bill Clinton, and former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. In addition, he has accumulated over 3,000 site hours at every major event in Halifax since 2003, including private security for Motley Crüe, The Game, Chingy, Bob Dylan, Rihanna, Akon, Ozzy Osbourne, Lenny Kravitz and most recently he has provided personal security for Golden Globe and Oscar nominee Ellen Page and Johnny Reid.

He has been instrumental in the planning, development and implementation for almost every major event to come to the Maritimes including the Juno Awards, the ECMAs and the IIHF World Hockey Championships.

 

Gary Gallant, Operations Manager

Gary’s training includes an intensive, two-month, 300-hour loss prevention training program, and loss prevention work with Sobeys, Giant Tiger, Toys “R” US, HMV Records, and Shoppers Drug Mart. Passionate about all aspects of security, Gary is ideal as a front-line facilitator with both clients and employees. Gary’s responsibilities include scheduling, recruitment, placement and management of all employee issues.

During his time with Reliant, Gary has been personally requested by Gillette Entertainment and House of Blues to provide tour security for Rihanna, Akon, The Tragically Hip, Guns n Roses, Canadian Idol, and most recently, Ozzy Osbourne. Before becoming a member of Reliant’s management team, Gary performed as ‘Wildman Williams’ for Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation and Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling. Gary is an active member in the wrestling community often making appearances at schools to talk about drug awareness, education, and the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

 

Joe Baldwin, Senior Supervisor

Joe brings over 21 years of experience in security work, specializing in crowd access control. He is Access Control Personnel Certified and has acted as a site manager for Shadow on dozens of major contracts and events. Joe developed and implemented policies and procedures to achieve organizational objectives related to the security function and worked in cooperation with Halifax Regional Police Services on the provision of security for Shadow’s Clients. Joe has completed over 6,000 event security hours working nearly every event that has come to Halifax since 1991.

 

Chris Wilmot, Senior Supervisor

Chris has traveled the world as Nickelback’s head of security. Chris’s responsibilities within this role included providing the band with close quarters protection 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for a year and a half. He was also responsible to develop security and safety plans for every venue the band performed in around the world. His experience with Nickelback combined with his ongoing security work has provided Chris with over 10,000 hours of event security experience.

 

Fergus Cross, Senior Supervisor

Fergus is a widely recognized and respected figure with concert promoters throughout the country. Fergus has accumulated over 2,500 on site event security hours during his career, having worked such high profile events as Snoop Dog, Motley Crüe, Sum 41 and Brian Adams. He has also provided close quarters protection for Rihanna, Chingy and the cast of Canadian Idol. Up until 2008, Fergus has overseen two teams of 25 securing crowds in the tens of thousands at the Superbike competition in Shubenacedie. Fergus is a key part of the annual Juno Awards security team. Some of his training includes crowd risk analysis, threat and risk assessment, identification and pass verification.

 

Ryan Cosgrove, Senior Supervisor

As a senior supervisor, Ryan has worked in the security business for over a decade. Mr. Cosgrove has accumulated nearly 4,000 event security hours, working in a supervisory capacity at such shows as Nickleback, Guns ´n Roses, Pearl Jam, 50 cent, Avril Lavigne, Ice Cube, The Tragically Hip, and Smashing Pumpkins. He has performed close quarters protection for high profile clients such as Axl Rose, and Pamela Anderson. Ryan’s training includes threat and risk assessment, access control, pass verification, location monitoring and patrol procedures.

 

Karl Nordin, Senior Supervisor

Karl has worked in various security functions for over two decades. He has been instrumental in the development and implementation of deployments and safety plans for such shows as Backstreet Boys, Edge Fest, and Snow Jam, with crowds exceeding 30,000. Karl has worked tour security for Gillette Entertainment and provided security at events such as the Juno Awards, Smashing Pumpkins, Nickelback, The Tragically Hip, and the Tsunami Relief Benefit Concert.