by Mary-Kate Roan
Staff Writer
After nine years with the United States Secret Service, Brian Helbing decided to take a job with The Bolles School as the new director of security.
“I was ready for a change,” said Helbing of the move and the difference in scenery and objectives.
The Wisconsin native got involved with the Secret Service thanks to a purely random event.
“I was moonlighting as backstage security at the Nissan Pavilion in Manassas, Va. at a concert when I met a Secret Service agent,” said Helbing.
While speaking with the off-duty agent, Helbing discovered that there were a few job openings, and he jumped at the chance.
He went through the interview process (which is open to anyone from 21-37 years of age that will go through interviews, a background check and a polygraph among other things) and became a member of the Uniformed Division. According to Helbing, the Uniformed Division is the equivalent of the White House Police Force.
Helbing clocked in at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for two years before he decided to make a job-description change.
“I received training to become a special agent,” said Helbing. “They’re the ones that everyone thinks of (when they hear about someone being in the Secret Service).”
Helbing went to the Los Angeles office where he was assigned to the 2000 presidential campaign for George W. Bush and as an investigator. After that, he was assigned to former President Reagan’s Secret Service detail for three years.
“After Reagan died, I went to Milwaukee,” said Helbing.
While at the Milwaukee Resident Office, Helbing was assigned to the 2004 presidential campaign in addition to investigating counterfeit currency, fraud and threats made against the President.
Helbing was there 14 more months before making the decision to look for another job.
While being a special agent in the Secret Service was a great experience, he wanted something with a little more stability. Helbing missed holidays – “I only made it to about four Christmases and two Thanksgivings in nine years of service,” – and he missed having a regular schedule – “You could get called in at all hours,” said Helbing. “And it wasn’t rare to have days off canceled.”
One day while surfing on the Internet, he spotted a position available for the director of security at The Bolles School and as Helbing likes to put it, “The rest is history.”
“Brian is following through on concepts first initiated by Mark Stevens, our past security director, who left to pursue his own business,” said Jan Olson, the senior director of communications and marketing for Bolles. “Mark had enhanced our School Emergency and Safety plan and Helbing is making sure that plan is in place, effective and trying to make his own improvements where he deems it necessary.”
Helbing, an unmarried San Jose resident, has been here since June. While he doesn’t have a dog or any pets, he said enjoys the freedom. Who knows? He might even get a dog.
From moving around the world to protect various heads of state and international leaders to being the head of security at Bolles, Helbing likes the atmosphere and the people that he works with.
“At the football games, you of course see the parents and the kids there,” said Helbing of the tight community feeling at Bolles. “But you also see the staff members without kids or families of their own – or have kids but they go to a different school – supporting their students.”
He added that while in the Secret Service, there is a support system in place, but it’s not like being part of an institution like Bolles.
“I love it here,” said Helbing.
And he’s pretty sure his family loves the change too.
Maybe this year the entire Helbing family will be together and will enjoy some backyard football and homemade turkey on Thanksgiving.
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