Ex-NYPD chief to serve on DWS Defense Systems' advisory board

It's not often that a Long Island company signs up a former New York City police commissioner and rarer still that a company can turn to a one-time Iraq interior minister for advice.

But a newly formed security-glass company, DWS Defense Systems, has found both identities in one man: Bernard

Kerik, who served as the city's top cop in the Giuliani administration, recently returned from Iraq, where he advised Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. civilian administrator, and served about four months as interim interior minister.

Kerik will be serving on the advisory board of DWS Defense Systems Inc., a new subsidiary of pink-sheet traded DataWorld Solutions Inc., which makes cable assemblies for electronics. DWS, meanwhile, will distribute, design and install ballistic and bullet- resistant glass.

How did DataWorld, whose shaky finances prompted it to sell a 10 percent stake to Chicago investment firm Augustine Capital Management just weeks ago, land the high-profile Kerik?

Daniel McPhee, DataWorld chief executive, said it took heavy banging on doors. Asked who else would be serving on the advisory board of DWS with Kerik, McPhee said it was still being assembled.

McPhee said the scale of the startup subsidiary worked in his favor in attracting Kerik, who is chief executive of Giuliani Kerik LLC, a security venture with former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

He wanted a small company that he could wrap his arms around, McPhee said. We're thrilled.

Kerik arrived in Baghdad a few days after U.S. forces took the city and sought to rebuild the country's internal security apparatus, including police, border patrols and emergency responders. The story of Kerik, who headed the police response to the Sept. 11 terror attack, could be headed to the big screen. Miramax Films bought the film rights to his biography, The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice. In the NYPD, Kerik made his reputation as a detective in an investigation of the Cali drug cartel.

On Sept. 8, DataWorld announced a plan to restructure and reinvent its image in response to the meltdown in the telecom industry. The plan includes refinancing to fund its financial filings and allow it to emerge from pink sheet trading and move to the over-the-counter bulletin board.

From 1990 to 2000, DataWorld's fortunes went south, with revenues falling from $47.1 million to $13.4 million. Adding to its woes, an April 2001 merger agreement with American Access Technologies, expected to be a white knight for DataWorld, was terminated three months later.

McPhee said DataWorld was moving into the security-glass business in response to the needs of its customers, which include Kodak, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Kerik is not the only former commissioner of the NYPD with a link to a Long Island firm. In May 2002, Kerik's predecessor Howard Safir joined the board of directors of Verint Systems, whose products allow law enforcement agencies to conduct video surveillance and intercept communications.