YARMOUTH, Maine—Security Systems News’ 11th annual Women in Security December issue is even more special this year, as it was done in partnership with the Security Industry Association’s (SIA) Women in Security Forum (WISF).
Coming from a family with many members involved in law enforcement, Joey Rao-Russell, president and CEO, Kimberlite Corporation Sonitrol got into the security industry by accident.
Sometimes professionals don’t pick the security industry, it chooses them. As is the case with Shanna Gray, president of Gate Logic Security, who never aspired to work in the security industry to begin with.
Eva Mach of Pro-Tec Design, a 100 percent employee-owned company that specializes in security, credits her parents for instilling in her from an early age the absolute conviction that she can be whatever she set her mind to be and her husband with encouraging and supporting her all the way.
When asked what it has been like to work in a primarily male-dominated industry for the past 26 years, Convergint Technologies’ Kelle Shanks said being a woman actually helped her stand out.
After working with a manufacturing company for 7 years, having the opportunity to serve multiple roles, Donna Chapman, now of ASSA ABLOY, was seeking a new challenge with potential for career advancement.
Graduating with a computer programming degree, Maria Cambria, VP of demand generation for security, FLIR Systems, Inc. has worked in tech roles ever since. Her first job in the video industry was with a startup called NiceEye, where a mentor of hers worked.
Linda Ziemba remembers it well. It was 2004 and she was working in sales. She had just cold-called the VP of sales for a web security company, who told her about his company’s internet browser security product.
Although there have been many successful women who have helped and inspired her throughout her career, Kathryn Bartunek said that the first and most important role model was her mother, who founded her own network engineering, staffing and project implementation firm in 1989.
