“40 under 40” Class of 2019 — Matthew Webster, 29

Matthew Webster's electrical trades/integrated cabling teacher at Ocean County Vocational-Technical School in Toms River, New Jersey, encouraged him to mix his IT background with the skills he was developing. “IT and electrical trades meshed so well in the security field, it felt like a natural fit,” he said. “I competed in New Jersey Skills USA [a national organization serving teachers and students preparing for careers in technical, skilled and service occupations], and after I took gold in the state, job offers started to come in.”

Currently, Webster works out of Koorsen's corporate headquarters, supporting sales staff during the presales cycle in system design and concept. “I'm also involved with developing training materials for our technicians to make sure they have a good grasp of the products and are following industry best practices,” Webster added.

As the access control niche has been developing away from proxy cards and into smart cards, Webster believes biometrics is going to change the future of the industry. “Better servers and cameras, and strong infrastructure is becoming more and more common; it's what is needed to run resource-heavy biometric applications, and make these 'top shelf' technologies more affordable and available,” he said.

Webster follows technology development in and outside of the security industry; he is intrigued by the development of drones. “I've been watching security software start to integrate CCTV, perimeter security and drones,” he explained. “Once this integration is completed and working reliably, gone are the days of 'can't get network out there.'”

The industry is seeing IT and physical security crashing together. “If security integrators embrace the IT side of the business, they can tap into a group of very talented, logically thinking groups of young professionals,” Webster said, adding that his main focus of study is Cisco, currently. Weston is the chapter chairperson for the Greater Charleston Chapter of ASIS, and has been involved with NCMS, Infraguard and ASIS for the last eight years.