May I start by wishing you all a very happy new year, and I hope that 2014 is a better year than 2013, that your businesses grow in strength and in profit, and that your own lives become more exciting and that every thing you wish for comes to you.
Did you make any new year resolutions? I et you broke them already … yep, I knew you had but if you haven’t and it’s something I can share with our readers then let me know. New year and a new start for a few of you out there, so let me start by making some of you green with envy and letting the ‘genie’ out of the bottle and telling you that Simon Green has become the new sales director for Bosch. Yes Simon leaves Genie after almost 12 years having been in the industry since 1996. Yes, I know he does not look that old; and it seems he isn’t. To be honest I did wind him up once about his car being reclaimed, as his bald head was blinding people behind him, and I sent him a shower cap to cover up his shiny top. This was as a result of him winding me up about winning a prize at IFSEC which turned out to be a remote control for a TV – no not a television set, just the remote. What do they say? Revenge is sweet! Anyway after questioning my fatherhood he saw the funny side as that is the sort of guy Simon is. I am sure he will do really well over there.
Talking of Genie I spoke to Steve Baker (a massive Spurs supporter, which was an issue as I believe Simon was an Arsenal supporter) who told me that things were looking very good for Genie, he said he was sad to be losing Simon but he has moved away from the field rep model and is enjoying success with internal sales people. He was telling me he believes this is the way forward. Talking of sales directors, it seems that Neil Killock who was the sales director at the distributor ADI – UK and Ireland has been promoted to become the sales leader – UK, Europe and Africa for Honeywell. Neil was in post for some three and a half years and now leaves a vacancy for a very high powered job. I believe his replacement will be responsible for in excess of £100m of sales across the board, that is, CCTV, intruder alarms, access control and fire safety. Needless to say if you think you are up for that job, you need to contact Hemant Trevedi as he has the task of finding Neil’s replacement.
I mentioned last month that there has been changes at DVTEL. It seems that Chris Garden is now the new Managing Director for the UK, having been with the company for some nine years. Before joining DVTEL Chris was at Verint and I used to compete against him in my MVD distribution days when he was at Norbain. He has also appointed a number of people to join him and they are Hagay Avram – European Sales Director; Artem Arseni – business development – Europe; Carl Spencer and Matthew Jones – UK business development; Kayleigh Andrews – UK Internal Sales Support Manager. A few names you will all recognise there for sure. So a big team there now and I am sure that will make a massive difference; expect to see more of these guys.
Kirsty Elkin has joined Samsung Techwin as their IT channel manager for the UK and Ireland. Where do you know Kirsty from? She used to be at D-Link. Now not many of you will know this but Kirsty was an actor some years ago, so you may have even seen her on the TV?
I am also hearing rumours that Steve Green has moved from Vicon to join Mark Massie, at Avigilon. Steve started in the industry some 32 years ago; wow, that’s quite impressive Steve. Mark Massie tells me he has also recruited Cavan Kendall from Commend and Ben Killeen from GVD, the distributors in Ireland.
In brief we also have new people starting at Wavestore: Ian Denny who has come from an installer called Alpine Security UK Ltd. Sicura Systems has gone through a management buyout with Access Control Technology (ACT), the Dublin based manufacturer of access products. This follows the demise of Sicura System’s parent company – Vital Services Group.
Charity
Can I just thank everyone for their support at our annual charity dog night, this year we raised a massive £6,000 for the Worshipful Company of Security Professionals’ charities. Brian Hughes the Company Master (who you will recall Una Riley interviewed last issue) was there in person to receive the cheque and to tell us how the Company supports industry-related and worthy charities. For more images of the night go to the magazine website and click on the ‘gallery’ button. A special thanks must go to all those companies that supported us by buying a table, donating a raffle prize, sponsoring a race and putting their hands in the pockets. They are Selectamark, Tavcom, Innerrange, Dallmeier, Pelco, Anixter, Axis, Pyronix, Canon, JVC, Tyco Security Products, Samsung, CSL Dualcom, Risco, Xtralis, Video Technical, DRS Marketing, Exacq and Panasonic and all their guests.
Jim Trainer
Sadly a good old mate of mine Jim Trainer passed away last month. Jim worked with me at Modern Alarms all those years ago and ended up setting up the ‘care bear’ division with Mike Hawker’s son Simon. We called it that; it was a customer service department. He went on to set up his own company and was involved with a company that hired magicians for corporate events. Also Mike told me that Brian Austin also ex-Modern had passed away.
