Security Systems News

NOV 2017

Security Systems News is a monthly business newspaper that reaches 25,100 security installers, product distributors, central stations, engineers & architects, and security consultants. Our editorial coverage focuses on breaking news in all major se

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Michael Glasser, 34 North America security consulting manager, Microsoft Global Security/LMC Consulting Redmond, Wash. M ichael g lasser has always been around security. But his father, who has been working in security in Brooklyn, n .Y., for more than 40 years, told him as a kid—"Don't be an alarm guy; go work in computers." "So I started studying computers but the dot-coms fell and I couldn't get a decent job, so I started doing what I knew how to do, which is alarms," he explained, noting that he spent summers in his youth pulling cable and handing out brochures at ISC East for the central station where his mother worked. Today, g lasser oversees a team of about 12 responsible for security system installations and physical security planning for Microsoft n orth America. A self-proclaimed "tech nerd," g lasser said, "I am looking for things that don't actually exist today but are almost there—like fully software-defined readers so that we are not stuck with having to choose one brand of card. I would like to see us get to where we just pay licensing to whoever we want, and it is effectively just a software-defined radio that you can license with any technology you want." g lasser sees the industry benefitting from deep learning in the future, noting that business intelligence "is by far the biggest technology trend I see coming. I also see increased leveraging of video technology and data by allowing the cloud to process it." h e also predicted continued improvement of force multipliers in security, giving a security professional much more power through the use of emerging technologies such as robotics and cloud computing A big proponent for training and certification, g lasser is one of about 100 people to earn all three ASIS certifications. "I also have held a CISSP for over a decade and have SIA's CSPM. I am constantly working to improve myself."—Paul Ragusa Dave Harben, 35 Enterprise leader of asset protection, Ascena Retail Group Pataskala, Ohio A S T h E enterprise leader of asset protection for Ascena Retail g roup, Dave h arben works with a team to oversee a total of 4,800 stores. "My responsibility is leading a team of territory AP leaders as we basically develop and execute programs that build awareness, safety and integrity across our company. These roles are fairly new—they started back in January," h arben said. Ascena has a variety of different brands: dressbarn, maurices, Justice, l ane Bryant, Catherines, Ann Taylor, l oft, and l ou & g rey. "Each brand had their own asset protection and loss prevention security department," h arben said, and in January 2017 Ascena decided to streamline the process. " n ow, we cover all of the brands. … Most of our time has been [spent] pulling data together on what each brand was doing specifically and rebuilding a new AP program for a $7 billion company." h arben and his team members focus on giving the right education and information to store leaders, "so that even when we are not around, they know how to operate properly," he said. h arben added, "That leaves us time to focus on more of the bigger issues, whether they are stores that have high shrink, large internal or external theft investigations that we need to handle, large safety investigations that we need to have—it's just another way to be a little strategic with the assets that we have." h arben highlighted analytics—more specifically prescriptive analytics—as an up and coming technology, one that will help people to be more efficient. "You can get a lot of data from very different data pools, and you get a lot of information, and it gives you the ability to react very quickly," he said.—Spencer Ives Rob Creedon, 36 Assistant secretary for security and emergency management, MassDOT Boston T h E M ASSAC hu SETTS Department of Transportation covers different aspects of public transit within the state and it's where Rob Creedon first got started in the security industry. Creedon's department handles security and emergency management for the five divisions of MassD o T: the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the Registry of Motor Vehicles, the highway division, the aeronautics division and the MassD o T corporate division. These responsibilities include all security infrastructure projects—such as cameras, access control, fencing, security-related assessments as well as other items under physical security, Creedon said. The MBTA is a public transit system for the greater Boston area, including ferries, buses and a commuter rail system known as The T. "For The T, we're basically a … project management group for operations and the MBTA police, where we're really doing a lot of physical infrastructure installations," Creedon said. h e added, "For some of the other agencies, where they don't have law enforcement dedicated to them, we do have an operations desk that is more responsible for response for alarms, working with local law enforcement and dispatches across the state." Creedon got started in security by working on The T's Charlie Card, a system for paying fares started in 2005. "As part of the Charlie Card project, it was really the first security installation at the T where we were adding cameras, adding access control relative to the fare collection system and all of the infrastructure that went along with that." Creedon worked in IT management before returning to security at the MBTA and MassD o T, he said. Creedon highlighted video analytics as a promising technology, specifically in mobile video transferred over 4 g networks.—Spencer Ives Tyson Johnson, 34 Security systems project manager, Aurora Health Care Milwaukee T YS on John S on is responsible for security functions—including door access control projects and surveillance processes—throughout four hospitals in his specific region within Aurora h ealth Care. "A big thing that we're working on right now is the upgrade from our old surveillance system into the new g enetec system, so we're working with different vendors … and manufacturers," Johnson said; specifically, Aurora is working with Axis cameras and Convergint as an installer. Total, Aurora h ealth Care includes 15 hospitals, more than 150 clinics, more than 70 pharmacies and more than 33,000 caregivers. Johnson got involved in security through an interest in low-voltage systems. "I started off as a low-voltage technician for a local electrical company and got to work on a couple of cameras … that really got me excited," Johnson said. For a period of time, Johnson was involved in sales. The prospect of designing and planning a security system for Aurora is one aspect that drew Johnson to his current position, he said, describing it as "a total ownership of the system, instead of … like I had before, selling the equipment and walking away." In terms of new technologies, "I like focusing on cameras the most, and what I've been seeing with their thermal imaging and perimeter protection, also with the new PTZs … that [are] coming out," Johnson said. Additionally he also highlighted "the idea of cross-line detection and also people counting, so we know how many people can come in and out of the building at a given time. Those types of reports that we can get from different algorithms … they're pretty impressive." Asked about the future of the industry, "I think a standardization in education is going to be coming up in the next few years," Johnson predicted.—Spencer Ives Jessica Borst, 33 Security specialist – financial and data analyst/physical security services project manager, Ferguson Newport News, Va. J ESSICA Bo RST first started working at Ferguson in 2006 as an adminis- trative employee and her role has changed to cover various aspects for the company. Ferguson is a wholesale supplier for various markets, including plumbing, h VAC, lighting and waterworks, among others. Within Ferguson's security program Borst works with the company's field and facilities groups to ensure that new physical security projects are meeting requirements, "whether that's assisting them with alarm issues for existing services, or setting up new services, conducting walk-throughs virtually with the branches to make sure that the camera needs are being met before those services are installed." The company is switching vendors for background check and drug screening after 20 years, Borst said. "So, a significant portion of my day-to-day at this point is working with that vendor to set up the transition process," she said. "We have 1,400 locations and 24,000-plus employees, so, making sure that transition is smooth so that we can continue hiring and then make sure that … drug screening program is set up correctly, has been a massive overhaul." Borst sees data collection as an emerging technology for Ferguson. "We are huge into data mining and trying to use the information that's already out there in a way that can improve our overall posture," she said. Borst expects data will be more relevant to security in the future, such as in "continuing to identify areas [where] we can use data to pinpoint what we need to improve. The information's already out there; it's just a matter of figuring out a way to use that."—Spencer Ives Matt Cain, 38 Senior investigator—corporate security, Verizon New York W o R k I ng AS the senior investigator for one of the largest telecommu- nications providers in the world is something that Matt Cain said has been very rewarding. " o riginally, I wanted to be in law enforcement but I took a position in l P catching shoplifters while going to college and never looked back," he explained. "The more I learned about the industry, the more I learned I had a niche and I moved up very quickly." h e continued, "I've also had a lot of really good leaders and mentors along the way." At Verizon, Cain works with a team of investigators in the company's g reat l akes Market, covering approximately 300 stores in nine states. "We also conduct physical security assessments and provide a lot of training and support to our stores," he noted. "As you can imagine, there are a lot of moving parts at Verizon due to our size but we have a great leadership team and we all collaborate very well." In the area of new and exciting technology, Cain said he has always been interested in predictive analytics and the use of data. "Extracting what you think might be completely irrelevant information, plugging it into a model and eventually seeing a positive R o I can be pretty rewarding," he said. " u nfortunately for our industry, we can sometimes be seen as reactive versus proactive, but this technology can help change that stigma by getting in front of problems and being more forward thinking." l ooking to the future, he thinks there will be "quite a few changes in order to keep up with new technologies such as facial recognition, etc.," he noted. "I'm also interested to see how the Internet of Things (IoT) world plays a part in how things are integrated."—Paul Ragusa S e CU r ITY SYST em S N e WS November 2017 www.securitysystemsnews.com 20 under 40 29

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