'20 under 40' Class of 2018—Dave Sweeney

Dave Sweeney, 37

CEO, Advantech Inc.

Dover, Del.

Dave Sweeney is the CEO of Advantech Inc., a systems integration business headquartered in Dover, Del. Founded in 1990, and a member of Security-Net and PSA, Advantech serves the greater mid-Atlantic market directly, with multiple national and global customers through its Security-Net relationship, said Sweeney.

He noted that some of the key business sectors include education, detention and corrections, critical infrastructure, first responder, law enforcement and government, as well as commercial work of all sizes.

Sweeney got into the security industry through construction in the early 2000s, before coming to Advantech, where he has been for 11 years.

“I worked my way through the organization, through sales and engineering facets of the business, going from sales leader to COO and now CEO,” he said. “I also sit on the executive committee for Security-Net, as one of the leaders of the group.”

On the technology side, Sweeney said the company is “keenly aware of what is going on in this whole drone/robotics space. I think it is the next frontier as it relates to security, whether it is drone utilization for site surveys and mapping and just making our businesses better, or drones as a service for surveying customer's facilities, or drones for guard tour duty, which already exists and is gaining traction.”

He continued, “Drone detection, too, is important as we saw recently with the presidential assassination attempt in South America using a drone. Drone detection is a huge opportunity and people are not truly aware of the threat that exists and how vulnerable we are to a catastrophic attack via drone. The robotics side will become part of our security business if we want to continue to grow and maintain relevance in the market.”