I write this in the middle of February, the day after the first Women in Security (WiS) awards done virtually.
I spent the evening at the Belfry where we delivered the WiS awards 2020. The Belfry had very cleverly turned one of their exhibition rooms intoa studio where they had lots of screens and everything, all brought together to enable us to do the ceremony. A massive Zoom call, to bring people into the one place, that went out live on Youtube. And our objective was to maintain that ‘celebration status’ that the awards give, and I think we achieved that. If you still don’t know the winners and you want to, visit https://professionalsecurity.co.uk/wis. Or indeed join the thousands who have viewed on Youtube.
Emotional
Bringing the people up on the screen was quite emotional. For those people, it was great; to see their reactions and to see them able to shrae their wins with their family and friends, whereas at the physical event they would probably be with business colleagues. One winner even had her pug dog, wearing a coat with a dinner jacket. It reminded me of Men In Black! But anyway, that was really good. I couldn’t stress enough, like Una Riley who actually opened the golden envelopes to tell me the winners on behalf of the judges, unfortunately we could only have one winner in each category. In my book they are all winners. To get somebody to write a nomination makes you a winner to start with, to be recognised by a peer, a customer or a manager is excellent.
Front line bravery
And the nomination quality this year was so high. As I said at the night, it was so difficult to come up with 15 finalists, and to get winners out of those finalists. I never cease to be amazed by the bravery that you see on the front line nominations. As with guys, they do incredible things – help to deliver babies at the entrance to hospitals, put themselves in between dangerous people and members of the public.
Thanks
The awards night was a challenge to do, but I think we managed to pull it off and retain the enthusiasm, if not gain enthusiasm. It was different – we had to send the actual awards by post, the winners couldn’t get to hold them on the night. You can see them behind me on the photo above. Quite elegant, aren’t they? And of course the recording’s now up there live for posterity, for anybody to go back and watch, and I dare say the winners will go back for the moment they were told, ‘it’s you’. Thanks for everybody’s input and compliments, it was great.
And now gossip
And now back down to earth and my gossip. There are still some people moving around, but it’s very quiet. Next month or whenever furlough ends is when you will see a lot of people needing work, not just in our industry, because companies will say they can’t bring people back. The news this month if you have not heard is that Jeremy Hockham the group Managing Director of Norbain Holdings has come to a mutual arrangement with the company to step down, while Mark Field has stepped in the role of Managing Director for Norbain SD. Mark has been with Norbain for just under 22 years, can you believe, so I would say that Mark is truly a loyal employee. I bet he never thought when he started all those years ago that he would ever end up with the top job. Mark was the Commercial Director before this recent promotion to the top job and I am told is now seeking a UK sales director, and I am sure he will welcome your application if you fancy taking it on. We wish you all the best, Mark.
An old friend of mine, Tom Jenkins, has launched a new company called ATAJ Security to offer turnkey security: project management, consultancy and physical security specification writing. Tom is the Principal Consultant and Director. His security credentials spanning 40 years have seen him advising at the highest levels, including the Royal Household, British security services and the Cabinet Office. He has been a speaker and trainer for the UK official Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) and the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO). He has provided training to the Military Police and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) among others. Tom is also a fully qualified master locksmith and has an architectural ironmongery diploma with the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers (GAI). As for security standards and product specifications, Tom can point to years of experience with the ASSA ABLOY Group – an Secured by Design member company – and Bramah Security. Tom has launched after partnering with ten UK security product manufacturers; of security doors, windows and locks and barriers. Tom’s own company joined SbD, and four of those partner manufacturers are also SbD member companies – Martec Engineering, Sunray Engineering, Selectaglaze Ltd and Tindall Engineering which integrates MICO High Security Locking Solutions within its products. Wish you all the best buddy.
Videx has appointed a new National Sales Manager. He is James Gray, who has been with the company for over a decade. He follows Neil Thomas who left the company after a 20-year career at Videx. Neil has moved out of the access control industry, re-locating to Cyprus. James is now responsible for the door entry company’s sales pipeline across the UK. He will manage and oversee regional sales managers, key account managers and sales estimators. James will also play a key role in developing Videx’s relationships with the company’s distributors, wholesalers and security installers.
Yale has appointed Lucy Hume as Marketing Executive. She’s taking responsibilities for day-to-day communications as part of the brand’s marketing team. A recent first-class graduate in Business and Marketing from Birmingham City University, Lucy also brings marketing experience at a graphic and web design company. Lucy said: “I am honoured and excited to have been given the opportunity to start my career at such a globally recognised brand as Yale, which has amazing heritage and is still at the forefront of the lock industry today.”
ECHO (Electronic Call Handling Operations) announced Mike Reddington, Chief Executive of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), has been appointed to its Board of Directors with immediate effect. This comes after Dave Wilkinson stepped down in December to focus on key activities in his ongoing role of Director of Technical Services at the BSIA. Dave was part of the duo alongside Martin Harvey who founded ECHO in August 2017, and cultivated the business concept from inception to the verge of full service delivery planned for early 2021.
Sadly I need to report that Peter Eyre, the founder of Abel Alarms has passed away at the age of 93. The Boss, as he liked to be known, had been reasonably well and quite active considering his age, until March last year when he caught a chest infection. After that his health started to deteriorate. He had carers coming in daily to look after him until the end. It was not covid-related. Peter was one of the first guys to break away from the national companies to set up on his own. He left AFA to start Abel. The company is being run now by Joel Mulloy who I believe is one of Peter’s grandsons.
