Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/34202
SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS JULY 2011 www.securitysystemsnews.com 20 U UNDER 40 SSN 27 Alan Gilmore IV, 33 COO and co-owner, Gillmore Security Systems Cleveland, Ohio Alan Gillmore IV not only worked his way up to become COO of Gillmore Security, a third-generation family business—he also worked his way from the outside in. Gillmore says the CEO of the company, his father and now partner, Alan Gillmore III, “asked me to gain some outside experience before I came to work in the family business.” So the younger Gillmore spent 2.5 years as an investment banker before joining the Cleveland, Ohio-based company nine years ago. Then, he rotated through all the departments to thoroughly learn the business before becoming COO two years ago. As for his future goals, he says, “I want to maintain our core values and principles, providing a very high quality product and service, while at the same time continuing to figure out how to grow our recurring monthly revenue.” Gillmore says: “When people think ‘security,’ I want them to think, ‘Gillmore.’” To attract more young people to the industry, Gillmore suggests college recruiting—“promoting the stable nature of the business, its recurring cash flow nature,” and the fact it’s becoming a high- technology field. —Tess Nacelewicz Mike Melton, 29 President and co-founder, Security Alarm Now Gilbert, Ariz. The sales and marketing business that Mike Melton started when he was 19 led him and a partner to start Security Alarm Now. Melton says ClearCall Solutions, started in 2001, was also a dish network retailer for a TV service, with a business model similar to that of the security industry. “We saw an interest as we expanded to be able to bring on multiple products and services, and we found there was a lot of value in the security industry and the security product,” he says. Security Alarm Now has been an ADT dealer since starting in 2007, he says. “We’ve been growing pretty strongly and now we’re the eighth largest dealer,” Melton says. The company has 71 employees and does business in 12 states, he says. His future goals are to do business nationwide and activate 100,000 new systems annually within five years, up from the 13,000 to 15,000 activated now. Melton says businesses have to seek out young talent for the industry, focusing on those “who are very ambitious, have a really good business sense and are highly motivated and believe in the product.” —Tess Nacelewicz Ross Brandon, 31 General manager, co-founder, USA Security Eden Prairie, Minn. “Circumstance and chance” launched Ross Brandon into the security industry. “A family friend and my father wanted to start a [security] company, and they didn’t have the time to do it so they threw in some seed money and told me to go knock on doors,” Brandon says of the origins of his Minnesota-based business. Now the company does business in 25 states. “We’ve come a long way. It started with just me, and now we’ve got 11 employees,” Brandon says. “My goal has always been to surround myself with good people and I’ve always managed to do that.” “We started mainly with just video, and now we do everything from casinos to distribution centers, to the corner store [and homes], and we do access, fire and intrusion and all sorts of managed services on top of that,” he says. Brandon plans to develop his executive team so the business “can grow and operate without me being a cornerstone.” He said that once the executive team is “the best we can be ... we’ll grow as fast as we want to.” He suggests telling the truth about the industry to attract young talent. “Let’s face it, it’s fun … You’ve got megapixel cameras, you’ve got perimeter security … it’s not Dilbert in a cubicle.” —Tess Nacelewicz Chancy Pray, 37 Director of sales, southern region, National Monitoring Center Irving, Texas An interest in martial arts, law enforcement and technology led Chancy Pray to a security career. He studied Taekwondo as a youngster and his father was a former state trooper, so he considered law enforcement. But he liked technology too. Pray says, “When I found out there was a training course available for electronic security, I thought that may be a little bit of a bridge between the two. It would allow me to still feel I’m doing something good, but also work with some future technologies.” Now a 19-year industry veteran, Pray says, “I’ve enjoyed it and can’t imagine doing anything else. It’s an industry and a career that has so much potential still for advancement ... The industry itself hasn’t really penetrated half of the marketplace that’s out there, so there’s still a lot of room for growth.” In the future, Pray says, “I want to be remembered as one of those guys who continued the good traditions that the industry has had, and who still tried to create some new and better ideas.” The industry will naturally attract tech-savvy young people as it grows more high tech, he says. Pray, based at his company’s Irving, Texas facility, predicts, “In the very near future, if you’re not very tech-savvy, you’ll have a hard time finding a place in what we do.” —Tess Nacelewicz that surrounds you. 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