Meet Adam Stanley-Smith
Adam Stanley-Smith is a senior security and crisis management professional with more than two decades of experience spanning military operations, diplomatic training missions, executive protection, geopolitical risk advisory, and complex crisis response.
A former U.S. Marine Corps officer and combat veteran, Adam has led units in international and operational environments while managing multimillion-dollar training programs and large-scale assets. His experience includes a combat tour in Iraq, multiple deployments across Asia, and time in the Marine Corps Special Operations Command.
Following his military service, Adam served as a Special Skills Instructor under the U.S. Department of State’s ACOTA (Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance) program, training partner nation forces in Djibouti and Burundi on infantry tactics, engineering, and operational planning. He coordinated closely with host nation officials, U.S. personnel, and international stakeholders while operating under austere conditions and strict safety constraints.
From 2011–2021, Adam was Regional Director for EMEA at Ackerman Group LLC, where he led kidnapping and extortion response cases, conducted security audits, directed evacuation planning, and advised multinational corporations and high-net-worth individuals on complex security challenges. He regularly liaised with insurers, law enforcement, governmental actors, and international partners while managing executive protection operations and sensitive investigations across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He later joined the founding team of Torchlight, helping build a commercial intelligence capability integrating geopolitical analysis with advanced data-driven insights
Adam holds graduate degrees from NHH School of Economics (MSc), HEC Paris (MBA and MSc in Sustainable Development), and a BA from Virginia Military Institute. He is a native English speaker, fluent in French, and conversant in German. He supports Porta Strategies as a senior advisor on security sector reform, crisis response, stabilization programs, and protective operations.