Ben Peacock, CEO, Lighthouse Information Services LLC

Grab a latte and pull up a chair and join us for a great interview with Ben Peacock, CEO, Lighthouse Information Services LLC

After years of working in the political field, Ben indicated that he decided it was time to do something different. He was recommended to interview for a position at InfoMart and enjoyed many years working in sales and marketing for them. Right before joining InfoMart, he worked for the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, and focused on Military Academy Appointments and Social Security issues. He smiled as he reminisced about his days in the political arena and having had the pleasure of working on numerous campaigns, with elected officials, and advocacy and lobbyist groups.

While he was at InfoMart, his dad retired from his career in the nuclear industry and started doing some PI work that included courthouse research. Ben eventually took the opportunity to work with his dad and they have been building Lighthouse Information Services, LLC ever since.

Focusing on the background screening industry, Ben noted that “Even as our industry has changed, I still like to think that what we do makes for safer work environments and helps ensure the safety and security of high risk populations. What we do matters and that’s not something we should not lose sight of.” He added, “In addition, I enjoy most of the people that we work with – not only those in our office, but our clients and our research providers.”

Turning our attention to Lighthouse, Ben shared that the mission of the company is “To ensure the safety and security of our clients, while providing them with a complete background investigation to help them in their hiring decisions.” He also proudly stated, “We have a biblical worldview and base our day-to-day operations and decisions on our relationship with Christ.”

Furthering the dialogue about the company, Ben said, “We are currently in the beginning phases of an overhaul of our research provider network, which will result in improvements in turnaround times, accuracy and rates – primarily in our home state of Georgia. As everyone knows, Georgia is a difficult state to conduct research in and these changes will be significant for our clients.”

The key message that he wanted to share about Lighthouse is that “we do what we say we do – we actually go to the courthouse and search the records at the local level. I often recommend clients to review TAT and hit ratios in GA counties. If either is really low, you’re probably not getting what you think you’re getting.” Ben added, “We have conducted courthouse research for over 15 years and even as the industry continues to change, we still try and do what we’ve always done. We work hard, are honest with our clients and research providers, and try to always do the right thing. As more and more companies go away from ‘feet on the ground’ research, we know that the most accurate search is done at the courthouse, so that’s what we’ll continue to do.”

Looking into my proverbial crystal ball, Ben’s view is that “With all the changes that have occurred in the industry over the last 10 years he is sure there will more challenges down the road including more regulation and unfortunately, more litigation on companies that don’t focus on accuracy as their priority.” He pondered and then added, ” I hope we’ll see a resurgence in quality research providers as companies start going back to the source for their information as opposed to other sources.”

Turning the conversation back to him, I asked if he had read any interesting books recently. He shared he had read ‘One Perfect Life’ by John Macarthur and that it is a really good read.

The person he would like to have spent some time with is very appropriate given we are in the midst of March Madness and that he is a self-proclaimed basketball junkie. He would like to have met John Wooden, the legendary coach of UCLA.

Finally, with our time together drawing to an end, he shared that given today’s climate of social media and how quickly people comment on things, his favorites quote recently has become, ” ‘Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.’

Thanks to Ben for a great interview and for sharing his insights with us.

Ben can be reached at wbpeacock@lighthouseinfoserv.com.

www.lighthouseinfoserv.com