Private Security and Full-Spectrum Resilience for Family Offices: A Conversation with Richard Roberts of MITMARK
Richard Roberts, Founder and CEO, MITMARK Group and Nemean Services
Episode 16 of the AYU Family Office Podcast
As family offices grow in prominence and their principals become more publicly visible, the security risks they face have grown commensurately. Physical threats, digital vulnerabilities, reputational exposure, and operational disruption are no longer abstract concerns for the ultra-high-net-worth community — they are live risks requiring professional management. In Episode 16 of the AYU Family Office Podcast, Gus Morison speaks with Richard Roberts, Founder and CEO of MITMARK Group and Nemean Services, about what full spectrum resilience means for family offices and high-net-worth families and how to build it.
What Is MITMARK?
MITMARK — derived from "military to market" is a full spectrum resilience firm founded in 2015 by Richard Roberts. The group brings together business resilience managers, ex-Special Forces operators, intelligence analysts, and military medics to deliver a coherent fusion of risk mitigation services to private families, multinational companies, and government agencies.
The firm's offering is built around the HISS platform: four risk vectors that every family office should have a structured response to — Health, Intelligence, Security, and Safety. Rather than treating these as separate disciplines, MITMARK's approach integrates them into a single, coordinated framework that mirrors how professional intelligence and defence organisations think about protection.
The Growing Security Threat to Family Offices and UHNW Individuals
Richard is direct about the threat environment. Family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals sit at the intersection of several risk factors that make them attractive targets: significant, often publicly known wealth; a private operating model with limited security infrastructure; and a lifestyle that involves predictable movements, high-profile social engagements, and international travel.
The threats are not solely physical. Digital vulnerability compromised devices, social engineering attacks, insecure communications creates entry points for adversaries that can escalate into physical risk, reputational damage, or financial loss. MITMARK's approach starts from intelligence: understanding who might target a client and how, before building the defences.
Nemean Services: Digital Asset Resilience
Nemean Services, which operates within the MITMARK group, focuses specifically on digital resilience including the cold storage and safeguarding of data and digital assets through a recovery-as-a-service model. As family offices increasingly hold digital assets and rely on cloud infrastructure, the need for air-gapped secure storage and robust disaster recovery capability has moved from niche to mainstream.
Nemean provides institutions and families with the infrastructure to ensure that access to critical digital assets can be recovered even in the event of a catastrophic systems failure, cyberattack, or geopolitical disruption.
Thinking Like an Adversary
One of MITMARK's defining principles is adversarial thinking: to protect a client effectively, you first need to understand how an adversary would approach them. This intelligence-first methodology borrowed directly from the operational frameworks used by Special Forces and intelligence agencies stands in contrast to the reactive, checklist-driven approach of most commercial security providers.
"We think like an adversary so our clients don't have to." The practical implication is a vulnerability assessment that goes beyond the obvious: mapping digital footprints, analysing publicly available information, stress-testing physical security arrangements, and identifying the gaps that a determined adversary would exploit.
When Should a Family Office Start Thinking About Professional Security?
Richard's answer is consistent: earlier than most families do. The common trigger is an incident — a threatening interaction, a kidnap attempt, a cyberattack rather than proactive planning. By the time an event occurs, the cost of preparation looks very different from the cost of response.
For families and family offices at the point of considering professional security, MITMARK offers a security vulnerability and risk assessment as a starting point: a structured analysis of the threat landscape specific to the family's profile, geography, and operating environment.
Listen to the Full Episode
Episode 16 of the AYU Family Office Podcast is available now on Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
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