Don Allan in at United

EDMONTON, Alberta--Donald Allan, formerly chief executive officer of Rentokil Initial Canada, is the new president of United Protection Services, a wholly owned operating subsidiary of United Protection Security Group operating guarding, integration and monitoring services throughout Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. He "became available," he said, after Rentokil Initial Canada was purchased by Garda World Security in March of this year. "I looked at the opportunity with United Protection and thought there was a very strong foundation, built up over the last 17 years," Allan said. "It's a good opportunity to take a moderate sized regional company and build it into something bigger and better." Allan has nearly 30 years in the security business, beginning as a police officer in Alberta, then working his way up through the ranks as first a security officer, then an officer trainer, then a sales person and eventually a senior executive. However, Rentokil Initial put its Canadian operations up for sale, Garda purchased its 12 branches and 4,500 officers, "and they decided at that point in time to go a different route in regard to management and several people were severed," said Allan. This allowed him to join United, which trades on the Toronto Venture Exchange and grew significantly over the past year. The company increased revenues 35 percent to $13,266,855 in 2005, moving from a loss of $553,852 in 2004 to a profit of $573,201 in 2005. Allan looks to continue this growth by focusing on the company's integration and monitoring arms. "We're realists," he said. "With limited manpower resources in some markets, the alternative is electronics. We want to take advantage of the variety of different services" offered by United's integration arm and the Edmonton-based central station, which is not currently UL-listed but is in the process of gaining UL certification. Specifically, Allan sees growth possibilities with virtual guarding and video verification services. "The potential exists to create a one-stop shop, primarily for Western Canada," said Allan, "maybe south of the border as well. I think there's a significant future in the automated technologies division ... we're looking for organic growth and acquisitions in that area."