James is the founder of Greyline Security, a company that tests how secure a facility really is—by safely attempting to get past its defenses. Through controlled simulations, his team identifies how someone with bad intentions might gain access to a school, office, or public space. Then they show staff how to stop it.

James brings over 15 years of high-stakes operational experience to his work. He served in the United States Marine Corps, deploying to combat zones where he was responsible for searching, securing, and moving through areas under real threat. After the military, he spent a decade as a government contractor continuing to support U.S. intelligence and military missions across nearly every major combat theater. These experiences taught him how threats behave—and how even the best systems can be bypassed.

Today, James uses those same skills to help organizations protect themselves by recreating the small lapses that real attackers count on—and documenting them so they can be turned into actionable feedback. After each engagement, he works directly with leadership and staff to deliver tailored training that strengthens awareness, improves decision-making, and works to help close the gaps that were exposed.

His approach, often called red teaming, is about more than just testing policies. It’s about walking through the front door and showing exactly where the human systems break down. In this work, the consequences of failure aren’t theoretical—they’re real, and they fall on everyone. Security isn’t just the responsibility of a policy or a system—it lives in the decisions people make every day. That’s why preparation matters, and why getting it right before something happens is the only safe option.