Morning and can I wish all of you that celebrate it a happy Diwali, that’s the day I am writing this. Let me get straight into the gossiping, as we have few things to tell you about this month.
Firstly Steve Marshall is back! You may recall Steve left the industry for a short while after over 27 years at Norbain, to go and do property development. As what usually happens the industry pulled him back and he is now leading WCCTV’s (Wireless CCTV Limited) channel partners division. As Steve would say that’s “fantastic” – his word, that even he didn’t know he used in almost every sentence! Great to have you back Steve because it is fantastic.
Phil Tennent has joined Freevolt Technologies ltd as their international Business Development Manager. Now you may have seen Phil at Security TWENTY Heathrow early in the month, and you may recall Phil was in a similar role with TDSi; so he will no doubt be off visiting his overseas contacts to introduce them to his new company. Phil of course also spent a fair time at Norbain. Freevolt Technologies, formerly Drayson Technologies, is a UK technology company developing biometric smart card products for the access control, cryptocurrency wallet, healthcare and payments sectors. Freevolt is a suite of proprietary technologies that recycle and harvest radio frequency (RF) energy from radio transmission networks (such as NFC, cellular, Wi-Fi). Talking of Freevolt technologies I also understand that Reiss Spear has joined them as the UK sales manager focussing on their new distributors ie DVS etc. Reiss joins from IDIS where he spent over four years recently.
Talking of IDIS I understand Lynne Allen is leaving them to join HIKVision. Now Lynne has been in the industry since 2001 where she worked for VCL (Video Controls Ltd, remember them?). I first met Lynne when she was working for BC Technology (Aiphone) back in 2014. Good luck Lynne
Bert McGaughey who you may have seen exhibiting at ST Dublin in September, has left Satel after almost five years and joined EBS, they are a Polish manufacturer of smart security solutions (part of Alarm.com). Good luck to you Bert.
Now to Scotland, Billy Paton has joined Eagle Eye as the area sales manager for Scotland and Ireland. Billy has joined them from Videx but previously was with Secom. A poacher turned game keeper, eh!
Simon Hurst has joined Hanwha as regional account manager. He was at Motorola Solutions before but had also been with both Mayflex (for seven years) and Norbain for almost 13 years. It seems Norbain is the training ground for a lot of you, me included; sort of, as when I worked for Baxall ir was then owned by Norbain. Incidentally, and it’s an easy error to make, Motorola Solutions don’t like it if you say simply ‘Motorola’ when you mean them, because plain Motorola is a different company. Motorola Solutions last month rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, a great honour there I believe. Did you know Motorola Solutions has invested about $12 billion in organic R&D and acquisitions over the past nine years? You do now.
Talking of former employees of Norbain it is with a heavy heart that I need to tell you that Steve Payne has recently died from a heart attack. I am told he was only 49 and was in a hotel in Cheshire getting ready to run a marathon. Steve was in fact loved by everyone and I have never heard anyone have a bad word to say about him. I know his loss has hit his colleagues at Paxton hard as it will have his family. My heart goes out to them all and just goes to show that we should never take tomorrow for granted. Rest in peace my friend.
Abloy UK has appointed Cassie Wong to its Critical Infrastructure division, specialising in the telecoms sector. Cassie’s appointment broadens the skills and experience within the team and further strengthens Abloy’s position in the industry, says the arm of Assa Abloy.
The UK permanent perimeter protection solutions arm of Heras has made two appointments to complete a trio of Key Account Managers (KAMs), who are heading the company’s sales. Jacqui Walker and Phil Lafone join Luke Sanders as the company’s KAMs, with the brief to target sectors such as facilities management, utilities, integrators and distribution hubs. The company says they have already hit the ground running in leveraging opportunities to promote the permanent perimeter protection solutions that Heras can offer in the UK – with ranges including demarcation products, such as fencing; entrance control systems, such as gates, barriers and turnstiles; and detection systems, such as its perimeter intrusion detection systems (PIDSs).
Company news:
HID, the identity security product company, announced the opening of its new Logistics Centre in Shannon, Ireland (pictured left to right: Will Corcoran, Regional Manager Mid-West IDA Ireland; Björn Lidefelt, Executive Vice President and Head of HID; and Eoin Gavin, President of the Shannon Chamber of Commerce). The new facility is HID’s second largest Logistics Centre, supporting 55 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Another acquisition by Mitie Group plc; this time, GBE Converge Group (GBE), a independent provider of fire, security and information and communications technology (ICT), for a maximum cash consideration of £27m – an initial payment of £20m and deferred payments of up to £7m over three years, linked to performance. Last but not least, something that was talked about at ST Heathrow the other day, Bosch plans to sell most of its building technologies division’s product business: the video, access and intrusion, and communication business units, that employ 4,300 at 90 locations worldwide. Bosch is now looking for a buyer who will take on those three business units. Bosch is holding on to fire alarms, which is to be merged with the company’s integrator work on security, energy efficiency, and building automation. Bosch board member Christian Fischer said: “We want to become one of the global leaders for systems integration in building technology and to seize the favourable opportunities for growth in this market. To achieve this, we need to consolidate. This is why we will in the future be focusing on systems integration as our core business.”
