Kenneth A. Bouche
Chief Operating Officer
The complexity can be daunting. When you look closely – really closely – at what it takes to manage many overlapping teams of senior experts continuously defining, delivering and enhancing best practices in strategic security and investigations for leading organizations of all sizes (and across sectors and industries), the mission can appear overwhelming. Few senior leaders do it well. Ken Bouche does it with grace – and executive instinct. As Chief Operating Officer, he oversees the day-to-day activities of Hillard Heintze and the alignment of its resources, expertise and capabilities with the evolving needs and expectations of the firm’s clients.
Over nearly two decades, Bouche has established a career as an executive leader and senior advisor at the forefront of applying best practices in technology, information sharing and intelligence to the highly specialized needs of the law enforcement, homeland security and justice communities. In addition to his executive responsibilities, Bouche leads the firm’s focus in two areas: (1) helping government clients (justice and homeland security decision-makers) understand and embrace strategic information-sharing opportunities to advance their missions of understanding trends, preventing crime and terrorism, and catching criminals, and (2) helping the firm’s commercial clients and partners align their value offerings and service delivery with the needs of specific public sector organizations.
Bouche is also a member the IJIS Institute’s Board of Directors. From 2001 to 2006, Bouche was the chairman of the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative. In this capacity, he served as a national leader in improving America’s information-sharing capacity and implementing post 9/11 intelligence reforms. Earlier in his career, Bouche served on the executive team at MyThings Inc., where he created and led the development of Trace, a searchable database of stolen, lost and seized property that provides sellers of arts and antiques with the highest level of due diligence against trading stolen property in the world.
Before developing Trace, Bouche dedicated 23 years to the Illinois State Police where, as Colonel and CIO, he was responsible for modernizing and standardizing the agency’s technology functions. In this capacity, he oversaw the delivery of critical real-time information to over 1,000 police agencies and 40,000 police and justice end-users on a 24-hour basis. Bouche also served as a Major/Commander responsible for advancing innovation and effectiveness in the operational areas of patrol, community policing, criminal investigations and specialty functions such as South Suburban Major Crimes Unit, the Public Integrity Unit and the Tactical Response Team.
Bouche began his career in the Air Force as a member of the Military Police. He holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a B.A. from Northeastern Illinois University. Bouche volunteers his time to select organizations, including the Illinois State Police Heritage Foundation Memorial Park, the Special Olympics and the Taproot Foundation.
