April already, so that means a happy Easter to you all, and chocolate eggs all round.
After spending a few months gardening, decorating and becoming a great cake maker I am hearing that Simon Shawley is coming back to join us. Now it seems that the deal is yet to be finalised so I am not allowed to let the genie out of the bottle quite yet but trust me, as and when I can, I will.
Dahua have been expanding their team. Charlie James has been appointed Dahua’s Southern Area Sales Manager. With 29 years’ experience in sales of intruder alarms and CCTV, he was previously with Risco Group as Regional Sales Manager, and before that, UK Sales Manager with BT Redcare. And at the other end of the country, Jason Kinloch has joined as Area Sales Manager for Scotland. Also with 29 years’ experience in the security industry, James started as an apprentice engineer with the Scottish installer Pointer before holding a number of sales positions, most recently with Tyco Security Products and Abel Alarms. Likewise Steve Norman joins as Key Account Manager. This comes at a time when, Dahua says, it’s making significant investments in its UK business and is increasing its head count to more support for its distribution and integration partners. Steve spent three years as Business Development Manager at Chubb, and more recently worked at Hikvision in a similar role.
How many of you recall Steve Cleaver? He has joined Enigma Security Europe as National Sales Manager. Steve will be responsible for their manned guarding and security consultancy divisions. He has been re-united with Enigma’s owner Steve Green having worked for the Gloucestershire-based company as a consultant. Steve, Cleaver that is, used to be at Argos many years ago where I first met him back in my Modern Alarm days. He left there and joined the Turner Group so became a poacher turned game keeper, in other words instead of buying he started selling!
Karen Churchill, pictured, has joined Flir as their Northern business development manager (BDM). You may know Karen spent almost 13 years with Synectics before recently joining Xtralis. She has actually been in the industry as long as our magazine having started in 1990 with Interlogix, remember them?
Mike Kinder and Thomas Yeats joined Mayflex the Birmingham-based distributor of networked IP security related products in March. Each BDM holds regional responsibility, Thomas for Scotland, and North East of England, and Mike the rest of England north of and including the West Midlands. This adds to a London and desk based team.
Some sad news about John Benton, the first chairman of the Association of Security Consultants (ASC), who has died aged 91. John started at Chubb Lock & Safe and later becoming responsible for their western hemisphere business. Later he joined the Stratford Safe Co owned by Walter Runciman. At about the same time Runciman acquired John Tann the oldest safe maker in the UK where John became Managing Director. He was also a Director of Killby-Tann Security – a jointly owned company with Killby & Gayford. John gave his support and experience to many organisations such as British Standards (BSI) where he chaired the committee on secure enclosures, also the American Association for Industrial Security (now ASIS for short). He was a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and was made a Freeman of the City of London for services to financial institutions. After a spell with Schroder’s the bank, John turned to consultancy and in 1991 he, with Mike Cahalane and Mike Collier, set up the ASC, for independent security consultants. Initially with just seven members it now, some 25 years later, has over 200. John served five years as chairman. He was instrumental in many ways, helping to form the ASC, and his links with the political world led to him introducing early patrons Lord Nicholas Bethel and Sir Rhodes Boyson. After a fall on Christmas evening, John was admitted to St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington where he died. Our thoughts are with his wife, children and grandchildren.
On a happier note Peter French asked me to share this with you about his, SSR Personnel‘s, annual charity golf day. “Please join us at the Bentley Golf Club established in 1972 and designed by the Swan family. The club, purchased by the members in 2004, is now ranked as one of the premier clubs in the county. Bentley continues to host a number of county events including the Essex County Championship and is also a regular venue for the Essex Captains. The course has attained a silver ranking in the HSBC Regional Course Rankings. Laid out over an undulating terrain that has a wealth of mature, mixed species trees with many water features. The golf course extends to 6,703 yards (par 72). Hole 16 is their signature hole and is a par 4 with an acute dogleg to the right. You need to work hard to protect your par! The price will be £75 per player, with a concession for fourballs booked, at £260. If you would like to be part of this great event please complete the attached form. We look forward to welcoming you and your guests, the three course meal, prize giving and auction will take place from 3.30pm, and we will have meal only tickets available. We welcome auction or raffle prizes to ensure that we raise as much as possible for Embrace – Child Victims of Crime. Visit www.embracecvoc.org.uk.
