'20 under 40' Class of 2018—Greg Ghirardi

Greg Ghirardi, 40

VP, strategic manager, physical security solutions, KeyBank

Cleveland

Greg Ghirardi started his career in security at MBNA America Bank. “I found it to be really interesting. So, I stayed in the security world,” he said.

When MBNA was acquired by Bank of America in 2006, he moved to KeyBank's fraud group. After working for about two years with KeyBank, Ghirardi said he “had the opportunity to follow a mentor into the physical security space and have been in that space for about 10 years now.”

Now, as KeyBank's VP, strategic manager, physical security solutions, Ghirardi said he is responsible for “all aspects of physical security with a focus on technology implementation for the organization.” Ghirardi manages the integration and monitoring relationship, which is sourced, the access control program, as well as some of the support functions within the group. “It's kind of a tech/operations role,” he added.

As far as new technologies, AI is one that's making waves, according to Ghirardi. “There's � a lot of talk in the industry right now around it, and I think there's a lot of potential there,” he said. While his group isn't incorporating much AI yet, Ghirardi sees that it would make the organization more efficient and enable it to better leverage its data. Specifically, machine learning is one trend that is poised to make a large impact, he predicted.

Security at KeyBank is much like it is in other industries: driven by cost effective considerations, according to Ghirardi. “There's always a balance, I think, of trying to implement new technologies and manage budget considerations. � You have to be as effective as possible with the dollars that you have to spend.”