Kenneth A. Bouche
Senior Vice President
Kenneth Bouche is a highly qualified senior security advisor and executive leader at the local, state and national level in applying best practices in information technology to the highly specialized and often unique needs of law enforcement, emergency preparedness and crisis response. As a Senior Vice President at Hillard Heintze, 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 business partners align their value offerings and service delivery with the needs of specific public sector organizations.
As Vice President of MyThings Inc, the premier content provider to the online retail industry, Bouche 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. Responsible for growing the division from a venture-backed vision to a self-supporting global business, Bouche led the technological development with the FBI and 18,000 U.S. police agencies, online retailers art dealers and second-hand retailers. In 2008, CIO Magazine awarded Trace the 2008 CIO 100 Award, recognizing it for exemplifying the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in IT.
In 2008, CIO Magazine awarded Trace the 2008 CIO 100 Award, recognizing it for exemplifying the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in IT.
Before developing Trace, Bouche served 23 years with the Illinois State Police where, as the 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 SWAT and the Tactical Operations Group.
From 2001 to 2006, Bouche was the chairman of the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative, an advisory committee to the U.S. Attorney General. In this capacity, he served as a national leader in improving America's information sharing capacity and implementing post 9/11 intelligence reforms. In fact, many security specialists today believe that this committee’s greatest accomplishment was creating an environment where the voices of local law enforcement were, and still are, heard in the intelligence community.
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. In line with the values that have shaped his career – integrity, collaboration and a relentless commitment to advancing justice – Bouche dedicates his time to volunteer service across a wide range of organizations, including the Special Olympics and the Taproot Foundation. He holds a Top Secret Security Clearance.
