There I was thinking, what am I going to gossip about this month, when suddenly the phone rings and it’s all happening.
Now you may have already heard this as I am writing the week before IFSEC; but the gossip is that Gary Harmer is leaving Mayflex after six and a half years to become the new Sales Director for HIKVision. He takes up his post as of September 1, 2017. Gary and I go back many years as he was at Norbain for over 20 years. He was in fact my account manager when I worked for Rediffusion; now we are going back. I left as you all know and joined MVD and became Gary’s competitor; but we never fell out, as there was plenty of business out there for us to share, so to speak; not that it stopped us trying to steal each other’s customers. What is Gary going to do between now and September, who knows? I do know he loves his motor bikes so I would suspect a long trip out on that.
And straight after that phone call Marc Wesley called me to tell me that he is returning to Pelco where he was in 2011; he had served with them for four years before moving on; but it’s like your first love, it never dies, so he is very happy to be going back there and even started spouting on to me about how good their new products are, so he has certainly got the bug again.
Now I am not sure I can mention that Nigel Austin is leaving Norbain to go and work for Honeywell so I won’t say anything, ok; it will be our little secret! Nigel started in the industry with Sanyo in 2003, which only seems like yesterday, doesn’t it? but in fact its 14 years ago now.
I mentioned in my gossip before that Simon Shawley had gone to Genie well to give him his correct title he is their new Director of Business Development. Yep that means he is there full time.
Now the other stuff. Anthony King has gone from Kings Security in Bradford, not quite sure where but I bet he will be back! Meanwhile Bob Forsyth joins as the new CEO. They told me “After 30 years at Kings Security Systems, including three since PrimeKings became the majority shareholder, Anthony King has decided that it is time to leave the business. While this will be a loss, we are delighted to announce that Bob Forsyth has joined Kings as the new Chief Executive. Bob has extensive Business Services experience with Mitie where he transformed the security division from a manpower led service to a wide ranging technology business. Over an eight-year career as MD he took revenues to over £300m, becoming the second largest security company in the UK with a strategy of differentiation and technology advancement through a focus on risk, and integrated service delivery to a wide range of sectors.”
Here are CCTVdirect’s latest new starters. Chris Custus has joined as the Technical Development Manager. It’s his job to ensure that CCTVdirect are at the forefront of the latest technical support available, so I’m told. Sophie Haffenden is the new Corporate Account Manager, becoming the first port of call for new customers. This is just the beginning of all the changes at CCTVdirect so MD Mark Raine told me, wonder what else he has up his sleeve.
Talking about up his sleeve, I attended the Redvision product launch just recently, held in UBM’s swanky offices in London. They decided to get a magician Nick Einhorn to do the product launch which I have to say was very innovative and quite enjoyable. OK, so I did end up on stage with him and he did perform a trick using Professional Security Magazine. Yes, it was very good and no, I had no idea, and no, I wasn’t a plant in the audience. In fact in the afternoon earlier there was point where I was undecided whether to go, but just as well as I did. You can read more about the product on page 67.
Back to the gossip, Duncan Cooke has been appointed as Business Development Manager, UK and Europe for Stratus Technologies Inc. I first met Duncan at HID Global but he has had a career within the electronic security industry which spans 28 years. Duncan has held senior sales management positions for several companies, including Arecont Vision, HID Global, G4S Technology and Johnson Controls. He is another one of our industry’s good guys.
Now TJ in my office always asks me; where are the ladies in your gossip? Here you go TJ, TDSI has appointed Francesca Metric, pictured, as their new Marketing Manager. As well as heading TDSi’s marketing division, Francesca will be working with the company’s distribution and installation partners, in the UK and abroad.
And talking of ladies I am pleased to tell you that the nominations are now open for you to put forward women that you think deserve an award, and no I don’t mean your wives for putting up with you! The objective is to try and encourage more women into our industry, but it’s all about the nomination. It’s not about numbers of nominations, so the judges need to know what your nominated person has done, over and above what she is paid to do, and why you think they should win, and if I am honest putting in a nomination that she should win because she always has a smile on her face won’t do it. It needs to be exceptional, and you as the nominator need to imagine you are the only person that knows your nominee, it’s all about your nomination, as that’s all the judges will have to go on; so get nominating. The awards will be hosted by the NSI at a black tie dinner cruise in London on the Thames on September 14. Deadline to enter is August 11. And here’s the link.
