Built on Experience. Driven by Integrity.

Robert J. Kowalski brings more than 45 years of law enforcement and security leadership to Iron Gate Security Group. His career began on patrol in Forest Park, Illinois in 1980 — earning the Chief's Award for Valor before moving on to a 20-year career as a Supervisory Special Agent with the FBI's Chicago Division.

At the FBI, Robert founded the agency's first Identity Theft Task Force — still a national benchmark — and directed aviation security investigations that included 9/11 hijacker profiling and post-attack manifest verification. He led teams across counterterrorism, financial fraud, and crisis management, graduating from both the FBI Academy and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management Navigating Strategic Change program.

After the FBI, Robert served as National Director of Security for an 80-campus education network, Chief of the Security Division for DuPage County Homeland Security, Director of Public Safety for Cook County Health, and twice as Chief of Police — in Sauk Village, IL and Edgerton, WI. He holds an M.S. in Criminal Justice from Lewis University (Magna Cum Laude) and is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Robert's security expertise remains active. He organized the speaker program for the Jumpseat Council at ALPA's 69th Annual Air Safety Forum in Chicago (September 2025), coordinating presentations from John Pistole — the 4th Administrator of the TSA — alongside FBI special agents and intelligence analysts covering airport security programs, narcotics and human trafficking interdiction, and active shooter response.

Iron Gate is built on the conviction that organizations facing real threats deserve advisors who have operated at the highest levels of law enforcement and security — not consultants who learned the field from a textbook.