“40 under 40” Class of 2019 — Laura Penrod, 39

For 20 years at Cooperative Response Center, Laura Penrod has helped people — a subscriber with a medical PERS unit, someone with a security panel and everyone in between. She began her security career as shift operator, moving into team lead and into her current position as central station coordinator. “I've experienced many different aspects of our central station, and witnessed first-hand and taken part in implementing changes as hardware and software progressions were made,” Penrod said.

On the daily, Penrod assists dealers with operational and customer service items. “I also assist central station operators with their questions; train new central station operators, monitor the quality of operator calls; and implement new service protocols and other assigned tasks from the central station ops manager,” she said.

In Penrod's opinion, trends are all about the end users. “I believe the end user likes to have some sort of control; they like getting the notification that something is happening,” she said, referring to anything app related for cell phones and tablets. “End users also want more control of their alarm system's features,” Penrod explained. “I see that as a good thing — the more dealers can educate their end users on system features and benefits, and how to use it, the better end user they become, which typically reduces the number of false alarms.”

Although IoT technology has been around for a while, Penrod said it's growing, and she sees this as promising as it may eventually make systems that use cellular the primary communication network.

As for recruiting talent, Penrod said to encourage young people who want to help others and make a difference by showing them this can be done through the security industry, an industry that is challenging and on the forefront of technology.