Tracey Ritchie, 30
Tracey Ritchie
security since I’ve
Tracey Ritchie began her career in security as an assistant o the VP of sales at UCC and rose through the ranks. “I have a background in marketing and public relations, and it was through looking for a job in that market that I happened to stumble upon security,” Ritchie says “I’ve been with UCC for almost seven years now, and have learned so much more about been here.”
Ritchie sees security moving in a much more technology-oriented direction and feels the future of the industry will depend on promoting its cutting edge. “We’re already beginning to attract the young, savvy techie crowd,” Ritchie says. “As security gets more into stuff like video and moves more into technology, I think we’ll continue to attract young, bright minds.”
Ritchie, who serves on the board of the Texas Burglar and Fire Alarm Association, sees the importance of being involved. “I would like to be someone who has contributed to the industry as a whole,” Ritchie says. “I’d like to know I’ve contributed to helping our industry to grow.”
—Daniel Gelinas
Josh Timko, 26
Josh Timko
with his partner t
Josh Timko started in the security industry in 2003 as an intern, while pursuing a law degree in Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement at the University of Akron. He says as soon as he got involved, he was hooked for life. Helping people stay protected gave him more satisfaction than any other career path he’d thought of. So when the boss said he wanted out and was thinking of selling, Timko stepped up o purchase the company.
“I still get excited about all the new technologies and trends in our markets,” he says, and believes other young people could get excited, too. “You have to realize that most people do not go through high school planning on their future in the alarm industry,” he says, adding that it’s important the industry stress the endless possibilities that exist. Timko hopes his legacy is that he helped people feel safe and secure, and, “I want to leave knowing that every time I walked into a potential client’s home or business, I had an advantage over the next guy with my knowledge and ability to relate to the customer.”
—Angelique Carson
Curtiss
Weinstein, 36
Fresh out of the service, Curtiss Weinstein sold vacuum clean- ers door-to-door. “I was very good at it, but I hated it,” he says. He switched to selling alarms and, wanting to be an entrepreneur, became an ADT dealer. That was more than 10 years ein is president of Virginia-based Absolute Security, the second-larg-est ADT dealer in the country. What would he like to leave as his legacy? “Not a mess,” Weinstein jokes. He wants to make good decisions that’ll benefit his company and his employees. “I’m 36 years old, I haven’t scratched the surface yet. I’m still figuring out what I’m trying to build,” he says.
Curtiss Weinstein
ago. Today, Weinst
Weinstein is certainly doing his part to attract young people to the industry. Most of his 150 employees are young, and he’s hired and trained many in door-to-door sales, some who’ve stayed in the industry and others who’ve gone on to successful sales careers elsewhere. Weinstein says there’s no better “bootcamp” for business training than knocking on doors.
—Martha Entwistle
Lisa Roy
Airlines, going fro
Lisa Roy, 37
In Lisa Roy’s case, she did sort of go to college to be in the secu- rity industry. “Controls theory was what I was drawn to,” she says, having studied electrical engineering and joining up with Johnson Controls 15 years ago as an application engineer intern. Now, after a left-hand turn into sales and time managing the government vertical for JCI, she has a global team and lives on Continental m Louisiana to Wisconsin to points around the world.
The basic tenets remain the same, though: “It’s about how we might take a different approach to market,” she says, “coming from the customer perspective, driving their business needs instead of focusing on the technology.”
As the industry embraces this “revolution of what it takes to be a security integrator,” she predicts, “you’ll see a better caliber of person, one who can articulate the value proposition to a customer who wants new security technology to better run their business.”
“We haven’t explored security technology fully from the business side or the customer side, and I want to be around to watch that happen,” she says.
—L. Samuel Pfeifle
Aaron Wahrsager
Not everyone ha
Aaron
Wahrsager, 27
Yes, Aaron Wahrsager has security in his genes. His father Warren has been in the industry since 1977, “so I more or less grew up into it. I’ve been working here probably since I
was 12 or 13, in some capacity,” Wahrsager says. “I would go out
with installers as a helper to get a feel for everything.”
s the opportunity to grow up in the industry, however, and Wahrsager
feels more can be done to recruit new blood and fresh ideas. “I think the industry as a
whole needs to portray itself as a professional industry. Some people have an impression
that it’s a grimy, trunk-slammer industry,” Wahrsager says. “If people see a classier side,
they’ll be interested in it.”
Wahrsager isn’t anywhere near considering retirement, but when he does, his aspirations are simple. “When I leave this industry, I would like to think that I left it a better, more professional industry than when I got here,” Wahrsager says. “Overall, I want people to appreciate what I’ve done.”
—Daniel Gelinas
Woodhouse feels
Leanne
Woodhouse, 37
Leanne Woodhouse began her career 10 years ago with a then- nascent Secur Tek as a dealer channel manager. “I haven’t moved around a lot. I’ve been there from the beginning,” She says. the industry will face increasing difficulty attracting bright newcomers without proactive action. “I think if we want to get more young people we need to let them know that this is a career option—it’s not usually top of mind,” She says. “It’s working with community colleges or other educational facilities, where someone goes to get their low voltage electrical training, working with business schools, bringing in young people on practicums or internships.”
As for the future, Woodhouse is modest. “I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked with some great people,” she says. “I would like it if the people I’ve learned from were able to say they had the opportunity to grow or learn something as a result of working with me. It is a sign of my success when people that work with me become even more successful.”
—Daniel Gelinas
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