please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . june 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message the topic of this article may not meet wikipedia s notability guidelines for companies and organizations . please help to establish notability by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond its mere trivial mention . if notability can not be established the article is likely to be merged redirected or deleted . find sources guardsmark news newspapers books scholar jstor free images august 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message guardsmark was a major provider of security services in north america puerto rico and the united kingdom . founded in 1963 guardsmark was the fourth largest security company and the only major provider privately held by one family . the family run company employed more than 18 900 people with reported revenues of more than 510 000 000 .00 in 2005 . it claimed to be one of the largest employers of former fbi agents in the united states as well as one of the most selective employers in its industry . the firm marketed itself as offering more rigorous screening of applicants including in many states the requirement that applicants submit to a polygraph examination and a drug screen for illicit and prescription drugs before hiring . the firm also sought to enhance the image of security officers eschewing the alternative designation security guard . among guardsmark s distinguishing characteristics were its adoption of a formal code of ethics in 1980 and the recognition of president ira a. lipman and the company for leadership in the field of business ethics including receipt of the american business ethics award in 1996 . guardsmark was sold to and absorbed by universal protection service in 2015 . external links edit official website mark lipman 88 investigator who founded a private agency . the new york times obituary published may 25 1994 . 1 retrieved april 18 2015 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title guardsmark & oldid 735109553 categories security companiescompanies based in memphis tennesseecompanies established in 1963hidden categories articles needing additional references from june 2016all articles needing additional referencesarticles with topics of unclear notability from august 2016all articles with topics of unclear notability navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 18 august 2016 at 17 28 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view