Jeremy Brecher, 33
Jeremy Brecher
up like a sponge a
An entry-level summer job in college, at Diebold acquisition Antar-Com, hooked Jeremy Brecher on security with the technology: “It was tangible,” he says. “It was hardware and software, the whole gamut of technology.” It didn’t hurt, either, that his work at Antar-Com put him side-by-side with Fortune
500 companies’ IT departments, whose best practices he soaked s he learned to make security friendly to the operation as a whole.
He also knows from that experience that IT guys are “below the line,” Brecher says. “They’re a necessary evil.” But, in security, they can be above the line. “You’re the person we want to grow and have more of,” he says to potential IT hires, “and this gives you versatility, seeing all kinds of storage, servers, software—you get a bigger picture IT experience here in security.”
Brecher may indeed by a security lifer because here “you can have daily successes— you’re protecting your own family and friends. You could deploy a great web site, or a data center, but it’s so hard to have daily wins and physically touch it. In security, you are what you make yourself. Your vision can define something new.”
—L. Samuel Pfeifle
John Corliss, 39
John Corliss and Defender president (and 20-under- 40 alum) Dave Lindsay worked together in the 1990s. They’d fallen out of touch, but when he was mulling a move, Corliss called Lindsay. “He talked me into coming out to Indianapolis,” Corliss says. “I started here in January of 2006.”
John Corliss
installation and sal
The largest ADT dealer in the country, Defender has grown to
1,500 employees in 11 years. “We recruit a lot of young people in es,” he says. Defender has extensive training programs that encourage
career growth through personal growth (see accompanying story, page 1).
It’s an approach Corliss believes should be adopted by more companies who want to not only attract young people, but keep them as employees. “Many people have been here since day one,” he observes.
Corliss doubts he’ll ever “quit working” but when he does, he says he’d like to be remembered as a teacher. “I’d like people to say, ‘I learned a lot from John. He was able to teach me some things that made me be better person, helped me provide for my family, and help other people.’”
—Martha Entwistle
Cindy Harkins, 25
As if her day job doesn’t keep her busy enough, Cindy Harkins fills her nights working toward a degree at the University of Pennsylvania. What do her fellow students think of her as she studies everything from business to chemistry and biology?
“As a science nerd, I have this crazy urge to tinker and problem solve. The technical aspect of the industry satisfies that urge for
, “When you say security, they all think I’m a security guard and I
carry a gun,” she laughs. Yet, “the news is constantly flooded with stories about house fires and local robberies. Rarely is there any mention of the central station operator who dispatched the fire department in less than a minute and saved lives as a result. It’s important to make those achievements public.”
Cindy Harkins
me,” she says. But
Harkins’ achievements are worth acclaiming, too. She’s worked her way from summer office assistant in high school to being the central point person coordinating all of UAS’ many ongoing national account installations. Her focus on the customer has been vital in that rise: “It’s essential,” she says, “that customers walk away with faith in the rapport that we’ve established during the installation process.”
—L. Samuel Pfeifle
Jordon Brown
information takin
Brown, 36
t 14, Jordon Brown was already pulling wires for his dad’s security company. Not too many years later, he found himself managing his own central station in Arkansas.
He had always been fascinated by central stations, by “all the g place at one spot,” he says. “I was just always amazed that some-
body sitting in one spot could know everything that was happening about all these different accounts all around the world.”
Brown says to promote the security industry to young people, “We have to make it like an electrician’s job, where we promote in high school that not only is it a good summer job but a good career choice.” Brown volunteers teaching training and certification programs, has been lauded by the NBFAA for his work, and hopes to inspire other young people through education.
“When I’m done,” he says, “I want people to say, ‘I did a better alarm job from what I learned from Jordon Brown.’”
—Angelique Carson
Acy Forsythe
the industry’s nose.
A
Acy Forsythe, 33
cy Forsythe, a director-at-large for the Alarm Association of Florida, claims his entry into the industry was “a fluke.”
Forsythe began as an IT guy. “My wife moved to Austin, and I started working for a software company called ABM. They wrote automation software for central stations,” Forsythe says. The transition to operating a central was a natural one.
Forsythe says there is an untapped resource right under “We need to pull from all of those unemployed IT pros that don’t have jobs because of the dotcom fallout and overseas outsourcing,” he says. “The IT guys don’t know about this industry as an option … We need to recruit through IT trade magazines, because there is a pool there, and they are extremely unemployed.”
What does he want his legacy to be? “I’d like to be remembered at all,” Forsythe chuckles. “I’d like to be remembered for bringing new technology into the security industry … new technology that wasn’t thought of as being in the security realm.”
—Daniel Gelinas
Robert Hofmann
to Convergint as a
Robert Hofmann, 35
Robert Hofmann entered the security industry by way of Germany. A member of the United States Air Force in 1994, he was given a special duty assignment to work in the alarm zone, where his focus was on fire and security systems.
When he left the Air Force in 2000, it was a natural transition to work for an access control company, and eventually find his way business development manager.
Hofmann believes that to attract young people, this industry should look hard at the IT world. “Convergence, that’s a word that’s been thrown around the industry for a couple of years,” he says, “and as we go down that road, it’s important to attract some of the young IT professionals that are skilled and interested in IT.”
Hofmann hopes to give back to the industry at least as much as he’s taken out of it. “I still have a great mentor that mentors me once a week or whenever I need him,” he says. “He’s been such a huge impact on my life within this industry that I owe it to him to pay it forward and take the things I have learned and take somebody and give him or her the keys to success.”
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