“40 under 40” Class of 2019 — John Harrington, 34

As the Sr. Engineer and Team Lead for the Physical Security Technology and IoT Infrastructure for United Airlines, John Harrington's day-to-day responsibilities include building and maintaining IP cameras, physical access control systems and IoT/sensor device networks and systems. “That includes managing our team of engineers and soliciting feedback from our customers on their experience, and collaborating as a cross-functional team member for the development of 'IoT' at United Airlines,” he said.

Harrington said that his entrance into the security industry “came at a time where it started to become extremely apparent that OT/IT convergence was happening, and it was happening fast. While the aim is and always will be to provide systems that ensure the safety and security of our co-workers and customers, the ability to gain new insights from the data provided by these systems was a huge draw for me.”

He continued, “Video analytics, behavioral analytics via PACS systems — it's very exciting what this means to the security industry, and well beyond that for the airlines.” Some of the key trends for Harrington include intelligent video analytics (IVA), artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), advances in camera/sensor technology, as well as new players entering the market utilizing everything from cloud to blockchain technologies.

“I believe we've reached a point where IVA will start to play a major role in how we go about providing value and business intelligence to our internal customers — be it security, commercial or operational efficiencies to be gained,” he said. To find young talent, “lean heavy on the IT nerds!” said Harrington. “I say this because I come from the traditional IT world, and after being introduced to and entering the world of physical security, I realized how important much of what we do is — and for what reasons. It took the technology aspect of it to see the other side.”