Top 50 Most Influential People in Security and Fire 2016
Ifsec Global announced the results about the top 50 Most Influential People in Security and Fire 2016.
Dr Mahesh Saptharishi, Avigilon’s chief technology officer (CTO), topped the 2015 rankings, but who triumphed this time around?
Joe Grillo, CEO, Vanderbilt Industries.
Joseph Grillo is a 30-year veteran of the electronic security and identification industries with a track record of successfully growing, acquiring and restructuring businesses.
In 1993 Joe was appointed National Sales Manager for HID Corporation. He participated in the management buyout of HID from Hughes Aircraft/General Motors in 1995. From 1995 to 2001, Joe became Vice President of Sales and Marketing, COO and eventually President as HID grew from a $15M card and reader company to the dominant $100M industry leader. He successfully led the effort to sell the company to Assa Abloy in 2001.
At Assa Abloy, Joe created and managed the Identification Technology Group, completing more than a dozen acquisitions, primarily in Europe. In 2005, he was promoted to Executive Vice President of the parent company Assa Abloy AB, and appointed President of its Global Technology Division, which included HID Global, Assa Abloy Hospitality and Besam Automatic Doors. In that role, he successfully managed the $700M division with 3,000 employees in 29 countries and completed many additional acquisitions. Joe retired from Assa Abloy in 2008.
In 2012, Mr. Grillo and his former colleague Will West formed ACRE, LLC as a platform to consolidate acquisitions in the electronic security industry, with a special focus on access control. They successfully acquired the Schlage SMS business from Ingersoll Rand – now known as Vanderbilt Industries – in September 2012 and then completed the acquisition of Mercury Security in May 2013, along with a third partner, Steve Wagner, the President of Mercury.
On 1 June 2015 Vanderbilt completed the acquisition of the Siemens Security Products business with Joe as its Managing Director based at the new headquarters building in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Joe graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance. He served as President and Board Member of the Security Industry Association (SIA) from 1998-2007.
Vanderbilt Industries will be showing developments across all three of their product ranges in access control, intruder detection and CCTV:
– An exclusive preview of Aliro 2 access control solution utilising a Mercury firmware platform, this exciting new system paves the way for Vanderbilt’s future migration strategy.
– Demonstrations of the highly successful SPC intrusion panel including the new SPC Connect – a cloud based innovation which enables users to customise how they view their system data and manage access rights.
A world debut for our new Eventys CCTV range – perfect for small to medium sized installations that require up to 20 cameras.
As Ifsec Global states, the top 50 rankings were decided by a round of public voting and deliberations from a panel of expert judges from across the security and fire-safety industries – including those with an interest in all sectors, not just access control, CCTV, intruder alarms and other physical security areas but also cyber security.
The list below features prominent thought leaders, pioneers in product development and entrepreneurs and executives who have overseen surging revenues, profits and market share.
2. Martin Gren
Co-Founder, Axis Communications
3. Dr Alison Wakefield
Senior Lecturer in Security Risk Management, University of Porstmouth
4. Professor Martin Gill FSyI
Director, Perpetuity Research and Consultancy International
5. Ben Bradford
Managing Director, BB7 Fire
6. Garry Evanson
Chairman of Security Institute
7. Tony Porter
CCTV Commissioner
8. Tony Porter
CCTV Commissioner
9. Dr. Mahesh Saptharishi
Chief Technology Officer, Avigilon
10. Jonathan O’Neill
Managing Director, Fire Protection Association (FPA)
11. Peter French MBE CPP
Managing Director, SSR
12. Simon Banks
Group managing director, CSL Dualcom
13. Mike White
Director at Hampton Security and Training Consultancy
14. Mike Gillespie
Managing Director, Advent IM
15. Martin Harvey
Euralarm
16. Don Randall MBE
CISO, Bank of England
17. Roy Cooper
MD, professional security magazine
18. Wilf Butcher
CEO, Association for Specialist Fire Protection (ASFP)
19. Chris Phillips GCGI FSyL
Counter terror expert
20. Nick Coombe
LFB
21. Per Bjorkdahl
Chairman, ONVIF
22. Steve Hamm MSc BEng (Hons) CEng FIFireE MIoD
Chairman and International President, IFE
23. Dr Mark Button
Professor of Criminology, University of Portsmouth
24. Keith Bloodworth
CEO, CNL Software
25. Jon Hall
QFSM Managing Director
26. Andrew Nicholls
Security Institute executive chairman and former head of security at Mitchells & Butlers
27. John Davies
Managing Director, TDSi
28. Colin Todd
MD, CS Todd and Associates
29. David Gill
Founder and MD, Linx International
30. Mike Tennent
CEO, Tavcom Training
31. Raman Chagger
Principal Consultant, Fire Detection, BRE Global
32. Jonas Andersson
Samsung Techwin senior vice president
33. Kate Clark
Managing director, Yale
34. Dr Debbie Smith OBE
Director of fire sciences and building products, BRE
35. Hu Yangzhong
HIKvision CEO
36. Paul Schelhaas
Managing Director, Sunstone IP Systems
37. Andy Williams CPP FSyI
Head of Corporate Security, Nomura International
38. Peter Holland
Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser
39. Adam Stroud
CEO, Paxton
40. Barbara Lane
Fire engineering practice leader, ARUP
41. Martin Plaehn
chairman and CEO, Control4
42. Bruce Schneier
Renowned author, speaker and “celebrity guru” (The Economist)
43. Dave Tyson CPP
President, ASIS International
44. Eugene Kaspersky
Chairman and CEO, Kaspersky Lab
45. George Oliver
CEO, Tyco
46. Alex Carmichael
CEO, SSAIB
47. Brian Martin
DCLG
48. Peter Poole
Sales director, IFSEC International
49. Wendy Griffiths
Executive director, CEDIA
50. Andy Blackwell
Head of corporate security, Virgin Atlantic
by The Editorial Staff
