HSM

There's been some management shake-ups within Cisco's physical security business. Here are the details:

Hirsch Electronics yesterday announced that Robert Beliles, co-founder of Cisco's physical security initiative and business unit, has been appointed vice president, enterprise business development. Beliles brings to Hirsch more than 11 years of product marketing and product management experience with Cisco. He is also the co-author of several networked physical security system patents-pending.

“The opportunities and benefits of networked physical security are enormous", observed Mr. Beliles. "I was very impressed by Hirsch's early leadership in adopting technologies, such as XML and encrypted end-point communications, which demonstrates that Hirsch is at the forefront of this next wave of convergence. As a result, customers not only benefit from products from a proven security vendor, they also enjoy the ability to build security systems with advanced technologies today."

And:
Agent Vi last week announced the appointment of Mark Kolar to the newly created position of vice president, channels for the Americas. He will build, lead and direct the company’s channel partner efforts and related programs in North, Central and South America.

Kolar joins Agent Vi from Cisco Systems where he served as director of physical security for worldwide channels. While at Cisco, Kolar founded and initially developed Cisco’s physical security go-to-market and acquisition strategies, and most recently designed, launched, and enhanced Cisco’s worldwide physical security reseller and channel program. His efforts included the implementation of processes to control and scale the deployment of Cisco's physical security solutions as well as the management of several large systems integrator relationships. Kolar brings 23 years of technology, business and networked physical security experience to Agent Vi.

There's obviously been a lot of talk about IT companies moving into the physical security space (IBM, EMC, Microsoft) but Cisco seems to have been the leader in this pack since its purchase of BroadWare last year. I wonder what this management shake-up means for the company's initiative in this space. Bob and Mark certainly have a lot of experience beneath their belts and I'm sure its a shame to lose that. But Cisco does still have Bill Stuntz, the former leader of BroadWare, helming the ship over there.

Anyone have any thoughts? How any of you been working with Cisco on any projects? How about installations — any out there?

A few months back I reported on a rumor that Dean Meyer was going to take over leadership of Pelco from Dave McDonald. That didn't "officially" happen as soon as I thought it would (Meyer was appointed to COO of Pelco, reporting to McDonald instead.)

But yesterday, the first rumor became official. Meyer is the new president and CEO of the company and McDonald will now serve as chairman of the board.

From the press release:
Meyer is responsible not only for continuing the transition and organizational refocus as a result of the recent Schneider Electric merger, but also for ensuring that the true business and value-creation opportunities are realized.

“I am excited about the challenges of this opportunity,” Meyer says. “Although it’s important to note that obviously we are part of a big corporate company with the Schneider merger, I also think it is equally important to protect those things that have made Pelco so successful in its own right – namely the customer service model, the community outreach, the employee empowerment. So I am very sensitized to the blend of shareholder accountability and the entrepreneurial core values of Pelco.”

Meyer began his professional career with Texas Instruments, where he spent 11 years in manufacturing, production control, material planning and assembly. In 1993, he joined Control Systems International, which would eventually be acquired by TAC and Schneider Electric. With TAC Americas, Meyer was responsible for a number of operations areas, including manufacturing, purchasing, sales, engineering and marketing. For the last seven years, he was president of TAC Americas and most recently he has served as Pelco COO since November 2007.

I just got word that Tim Whall has left Stanley/HSM to pursue other interests. Whall previously served as president and chief operating officer of HSM Electronic Protection prior to Stanley's purchase of HSM in January 2007 for $545 million. Tony Byerly, senior vice president of sales, marketing and national accounts, will replace Whall at Stanley.

Whall had been a fixture at HSM since he was hired by GTCR Golder Rauner in 2004 after it purchased the monitoring business from Honeywell. Whall worked with industry veteran Jim Covert to build HSM into a standalone business that today monitors approximately 170,000 accounts in North America.