Wow, it’s almost Easter, which means lots of chocolate to eat … but some of you are in athletic training, so no chocolate for you. Who? I hear you ask. Well, it seems that a number of the guys over at Mayflex have gone MAD! Gary Harmer, pictured, has told me that a team of eight of the staff are going to walk 23 miles along Hadrian’s Wall to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society hence Mayflex Against Dementia (MAD). I didn’t have the heart to tell him that there was not much left of the wall! It seems that all the members of the team know someone with the illness so wanted to raise some money. The challenge runs – or should that be walks?! – on Saturday, August 2. They set off from Carlisle and exepct to take 12 hours. The team includes Gary Harmer, Director of Sales – Electronic Security (and the only male in the team?!), Anita Mistry, Director of Sales – Networking, Tracey Calcutt – Marketing Manager, Lyn Gale – Group Finance Manager, Liz Evans – Projects Manager, Amanda Sheppard – Projects Team Account Manager, Susan Janjua – Admin Support and Leah Atherton – Customer Services To sponsor the Mayflex team on their noble cause visit www.justgiving.com and look for ‘MayflexTeam’.
Christopher Valentino from IC Realtime is taking on ‘Tough Mudder’ on Saturday, April 26 to raise money for Help for Heroes. You may be unaware that Chris nearly lost his leg five years ago so being able to even compete in Tough Mudder is something incredibly important to him on a personal level. If you’re the muddy type take a look at his picture! If you go onto the www.eventbrite.com website, you are looking for Tough Mudder London West, and the ICRealtime UK team. And while you’re there give him some support which will help him reach his goal. Tough Mudder is indeed all about overcoming obstacles.
Of course the only exercise I need to get into training for is IFSEC, which is fast approaching. I normally walk about ten miles a day at that event. I never saw you at their launch the other day, at the new Docklands venue ExCeL, which I have to say was very informative. I have asked the guys for an article about how you can make the event work better for you. Talking of events I am looking forward to seeing you at our Next Security TWENTY 14 in Bristol. Now the only memorable thing about Bristol for me was that I had to drive there to sack someone a few years ago now! No I am not telling you who, but it was a long time ago. For speaker and other details see page 46 for the preview but let me point out that there are two Marriott hotels in Bristol, so make sure you come to the right one. Our venue’s postcode is BS1 3AD, the Marriott at Old Market near the Cabot Circus and Broadmead shopping centres, and not the one next to the cathedral and College Green. If you don’t see me inside the Marriott when you get there, it could be you’re at the wrong one!? And likewise I will be at Counter Terror Expo this month – plenty of speakers there, in fact turn to page 41 for more about one.
So to those movers and shakers. At the IFSEC pre-launch I bumped into John Davies from TDSi. He was telling me that things are going really well and he has recruited Neil Smiley as a software test engineer under the Knowledge Transfer partnership (KTP) scheme. John Davies said: “Part of the remit of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is to work with businesses and universities, placing associates to work on challenging high profile projects in the real world. Much like apprenticeships it is a win-win result for both the associate and the businesses involved. The associate has a chance to demonstrate and use their training and expertise whilst the business gains an individual with the best education and ideas, along with the enthusiasm to offer fresh ideas and approaches.” We have also used this scheme here at Professional Security. It’s a great way of bringing in talent that is outside your own field of expertise, and that is subsidised by the government money.
In brief
Richard Moore has joined Essentra (Securit World) as the new Director of sales but you can read all about Richard on pages 86 and 87. Darren Melia joined 360 Vision Technology on Monday, March 10 as Regional Sales Manager after nearly 13 years with Bosch. Intrepid have appointed Chris Gillam, as Operations Manager. Chris has had a career within the Royal Navy, having joined at the age of 16 as an aircraft weapons and electrical engineer, maintaining Sea Harriers. in 2001, Chris transferred to the Royal Navy Police (RNP) where he finished before joining the company.
AD group have been recruiting. Jamie Horastead is a new business development consultant, from Xerox; and Lorna Nairn, joins as product manager for the enterprise level Cloud NVR solution and Video Management software suite. Inovonics says it’s expanding in the UK with sales staff. The Colorado-based company recently hired Rob Scott as Southern UK Territory Manager. Rob brings 20 years of sales experience with a focus on security products in manufacturing and distribution markets. Previously he worked for distributor Norbain. He also worked for Honeywell Security and Rexel Senate Milton Keynes – Electrical Distribution. Scott is Six Sigma Green Belt qualified.
John Downie the wee Scotsman who had vanished for a few months tells me: “I am sure that you thought that I had disappeared, fell off a cliff or got hit by a bus, ha ha, but like a bad penny I keep turning up and here I am once more. Not sure if you were aware or not but after the acquisition of Codestuff by Digital Barriers I was put on garden leave last June until the end of my contract period and during this period I was under quite strict restrictions and covenants. One of the main restrictions that I was not allowed to have any contact within anyone within the industry. From the 28th February my restriction ended and I am free once more. yippee.” I am now with a Glasgow based company VMS UK ltd a manufacturer of Video Management & PSIM Solutions as their sales director.
And finally talking not quite of Scotland, but Northumberland, Shaun Cutler has left Raytec after being one of the founder members. Not only that he has decided to leave the industry. He told me that he was venturing into new areas and in fact had bought a Pele tower in Corbridge? Seems he is going to turn it into an event venue for weddings and the like. Sadly from my internet research a Pele tower is not big enough for us to hold a Security TWENTY event in but I am sure he will be back in the industry before too long, shall we open a book on it? We wish you well Shaun.
