Calabrese learned he was the recipient of the award in August and was flown to Dallas this past September where the Texas-based company honoured him with the Dennis A. Noggle award, named for the company’s former security director. Noggle was with the company for 20 years and worked until his last day when he lost his battle to cancer.

“He was so dedicated that even when he was getting towards the end and became too weak to drive, he would have someone drive him to work each day. He worked right up until the day that he died. He was a man who demanded the best in those who worked for him, including service providers,” says Calabrese who is managing partner and vice-president with King-Reed in Toronto.

Kimberly-Clark, a maker of health and hygiene products with locations around the world, has been a client of King-Reed for the last five years. The company does not have a corporate security department in Canada so relies on King-Reed for services such as fraud investigation, pre-employment screening, executive protection and other services.

King-Reed assisted the company when Greenpeace activists blocked traffic to its Huntsville, Ont. plant this past April. The factory, located about two hours north of Toronto, manufactures tissue products, including the Kleenex brand and Greenpeace was protesting the use of wood product from the Boreal Forest. King-Reed has also been retained by KC to handle situations such as high-risk terminations.

“Often they don’t know how the individual will react — it could be nothing happens but if the person has worked there a long time there is a concern they might return and cause damage. If there is any planned activity they call us because they are so far away,” says Calabrese.

KC’s global security department submits nominees for the award and a panel then narrows the list to three. They choose the winner based on "response time, method and quality of reporting, flexibility and consistent excellence and loyalty."

Calabrese's nomination was put forward by Mike Osborne, senior security manager with KC in Neenah, Wisconsin.

"Nino had handled incidents for us over the years and King-Reed has done an outstanding job and the guys who work for Nino are just terrific," said Osborne.

The award came with a trip to the company headquarters in Texas in September.

“They put us up in a beautiful hotel and they picked my wife and I up in a stretch limousine and drove us to a steak house where Kimberly Clark had a private room booked. There were approx 35 individuals from Kimberly Clark who were present for the award ceremony. This included some who came from other parts of the U.S. to be there and as far away as the UK,” said Calabrese.

Calabrese has been a licensed private investigator since 1984, specializing in the management of undercover operations, investigations into internal corporate theft and fraud, and organized crime investigations. In his career he has been successful in locating missing persons and was instrumental in breaking up one of York Regional Police Service’s largest international organized crime auto theft ring.