Here we are and February already. To all you romantics out there, and I know some of you are, do not forget that its Valentine’s month and get those flowers ordered. Don’t blame me if you forget as you have been reminded.
My challenge to myself this month is to mention as many companies as I can and as frequently as I can, you judge if I’ve achieved that. What gossip have we got for February? Are you aware that Mayflex have a new Sales and Marketing Director, yep they sure do and that person is Francesco Bellavia! Yep good old Frankie.
Now I first met Frankie way back when he sold his distribution business called Postfield Systems to Midwich Security, in 2013. He then went on to run the Midwich security division if that’s what they called it. He left there and joined Security Dynamics, then joined EET who then bought Oprema so he left and joined Nimans that then became acquired by Midwich – full circle for him. Anyway, he has been approached to join Mayflex so takes up his new role this month namely February. I took his picture at our Security TWENTY event in Glasgow a few years ago when Frankie was representing Security Dynamics, he was quite mesmerised by the stars lol. Just a note for the Mayflex guys, don’t ask Frankie to cut your hedges as he has a tendency to fall off the ladder! Yep that’s another story, one which I am sure Frankie is happy to share? Good luck buddy.
Now another surprise move is Kate Dawes who has left Paxton after almost ten years, to join the ever growing Eagle Eye Networks as the Area Sales Manager for the Midlands, and may I say what a great team Lynda Trivedi is building over there. Kate does not change jobs lightly as you may recall before joining Paxton, she had eight years’ service with Norbain, and seven years at PTS meaning that she has been in distribution since she started in 1993 when it was Robot! What ever happened to them? Didn’t they introduce the word “quad multiplexer” to our industry? I seem to recall that came up in a legal battle between borough councils when I was on that side of the business, let’s not name them but one council accused the other council of stealing words from a tender document one of those being “quad”. Last time I met up with Kate was at the first Women in Security golf day we held up at the Belfry outside Birmingham last summer. She got the bug so I understand is taking lessons! That reminds me that the similar event this year is on Thursday, May 16, and yes the Belfry are letting us return. Kate by then may well be a professional?! We will see.
Talking of Paxton, Andrew Tuck has joined Commend UK as their Customer Relationship Manager. Now Andrew was at TYCO that became Johnson Controls but before that he was at Paxton albeit briefly. I first met Andrew in the early 2000s when he worked for Honeywell.
Talking of Johnson Controls, Dominic Watson-Hayes has left CCTV Direct and joined Envision who are part of Johnson Controls; he’s working with Graeme McCandless and Chris Finney. Dom is also a former employee of Norbain, where he left and joined Ajax for nearly four years. I’m sure Dom will be great asset to the company.
Also in a new sales role is Glenn Fletcher, who has joined Veracity. Glen spent the last nearly three years working with Vivotek, you might recall late last year we featured Vivotek’s vendor day at Nimans in Manchester. I believe Glenn started in 2003 with Gardiner as they were then, now that sounds only a few years ago but it was actually 21 years ago, my how the time flies. Not sure where I got Glenn’s pic from but that is definitely Glenn on the left, at ST23 Dublin.
I’ve mentioned the mighty Norbain several times in this gossip column only because they seem to have become the training ground for many of us in the industry and I understand in some news that I’ve just received is that Rob Anderson is leaving Oprema and moving back to Norbain after five and a half years there. Rob left Norbain in November 2015 after having spent almost 21 years with them. So who said “the mother never returns to the nest”? Or that “the offender always returns to the scene of the crime!” I think this is great news for Norbain.
It looks like the winner of my little competition is Norbain with seven mentions! Now where do I send the invoice lol?
That’s it I’m off to Dublin to launch our Security TWENTY 24 shows, first at the Crowne Plaza Blanchardstown on Tuesday, February 6 – will you be joining us? Straight after that we will be moving to Belfast to a new venue where we are having a curry night on the Wednesday, before the show itself on the Thursday, February 7, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Want to join us? Then please do, because the more the merrier.
