So here we are into November already. Where has the year gone? Be careful with those fireworks.
Let’s get stuck straight into this month’s gossip and start with Phil Doyle. Many of you have asked me if I knew where he had gone. Sure, I can tell you that he is now heading the Product Management of Video for Bosch Security Systems, in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Now I first met Phil in 2006 at a retail event when he was the Managing Director for the Tag Group who were very strong in the retail arena which of course is why Phil has many contacts in that area. He left there in 2008 to join Axis Communications as the MD for the UK and Ireland, and after a couple of years he was promoted to become the Regional Director for Northern Europe. In 2013 he left to join the installer Quadrant Security again as MD. He left there in June and by all accounts has the best garden in the High Wycombe area (something that will now prove very useful) where he lives, or should I say lived. Phil’s new role means he has moved to Eindhoven and his wife is due to join him there in the new year. Not many of you will know this but Phil’s wife is Canadian so has moved countries before, and when I found this out some years ago I also discovered that we have a common like of ice wine. What is that? I hear you cry. Well there are five seasons for wine growers to pick their grapes, you will have heard of late season wine for example, for ice wine this is the last season (fifth) when the grapes are at minus 38 degrees, they are kept at that low temperature and therefore when crushed there is no water in the juice, and it’s a very thick and sweet wine. No, not pudding wine that’s picked a season earlier and is a cheaper wine to buy. The best ice wine in my opinion is from Canada. Phil and his wife are also lovers of this wine so we are often swapping bottles. Yes the Germans do it also but they call it Eiswein. And turn to page 68 for my word on the Essen show.
Talking of Phils, it seems that Phil Campbell from the old distributor CCTV Center has joined Maxxess. Phil is to lead the UK and Ireland sales region. Now that Lee Copland has moved out to Dubai I can’t think of anyone better to run the UK operation for them, as we know Phil’s has been in the industry for some 30 years and is very well connected with the installers and integrators who Maxxess serve.
On another note Donna Butterworth has moved to COP Security. I know Donna but have never worked with her as they had left MVD after I joined it. I say they as Martin (Donna’s husband), Donna and about six others left MVD just before one Christmas to set up Network Video for Norbain, way back. That team also left there and set up the northern division of Vision link plus. Anyway, Donna has always worked in distribution and more recently was working at DVS in Wales. I would suspect that this is a good catch for COP.
Chris Pinder, pictured, has moved to trainers Tavcom to head their marketing and development. Chris is well known in the security industry, having been at the BSIA and NSI during a career which spans 17 years.
I have read on a popular internet site that Mark Hirst has left Samsung and gone back to Evolution.
The man from IFSEC
I saw Gerry Dunphy last month, the man from IFSEC; he told me that they have brought Firex, the fire safety product show, right into Ifsec for next year. In fact we will see quite a few changes. I have asked the UBM team to tell us more so that we can tell you. More about that next month so stay tuned.
Charity
If you have ever fancied having a go at your directors then why not disguise it as ‘all in the name of charity’. I’m not suggesting this was a at access product company TDSi, but Directors Adam Norris, Alan Hardy, Mike Sussman and Alan Burgess bravely took part in the ‘drench the directors’ event at the company’s Poole-based HQ to raise money for The Boo Charity 2020 Challenge. The directors let their colleagues drench them with water in front of the team at the Dorset office to raise money for the worthy cause.
Julie Davies OBE, Business Crime Manager at Stoke-on-Trent Business Crime Reduction Partnership wrote to me that she’s just completed a ‘There and Back Challenge’ in aid of Cancer Research UK. That involved trekking for 600 miles through the Pennines to Scotland and all the way back again, carrying 33lbs including all kit, climbing over 75,000 feet in all, walking for 33 days for up to 12 hours a day, sleeping in a tiny tent, and cooking all meals on a tiny stove. She says: We experienced wind, rain, torrential rain, hail stones, thunder, lightning, sun, cold – all but snow so we had it all …… You can help by donating – www.justgiving.com/rhian-davies18, or text FLAG54 to 70070.
Finally, we are holding our annual charity dog night on Thursday, November 27 and we still have some places left if you wanted to come along. It’s to raise funds for the WCOSP charity as we have done before. The Worshipful Company will pass proceeds to an industry-related charity, such as Child Vctims of Crime. It’s the same venue, Hall Green Stadium, Birmingham; let me know if you want to come along. My email [email protected].
