40 under 40: Leif Boren, AvantGuard

For Leif Boren, it’s all about finding joy in helping others.

Boren, 31, is senior manager of dealer services for AvantGuard, a monitoring services provider based in Ogden, Utah. Originally from Vancouver, Washington, Boren is married to his best friend, Nichole, and they are parents to an “energetic” 3-year-old daughter, Edith.

Boren has been with AvantGuard since 2014, starting as an operator and serving in other roles as a team supervisor, a trainer, operations manager, and dealer services manager before taking on his current role as senior manager of dealer services.

“Day-to-day I strategize the direction of our offerings for our dealers, work with dealers to optimize their usage of our products, and resolve issues,” Boren explained. “I also manage the success and support staff for our traditional accounts and PERS (Personal Emergency Response System) and IOT (Internet of things) accounts, along with a technical team that performs account conversions and maintains our monitoring platform and automation.”

Boren attended BYU-Idaho and graduated with a degree in business management. It was during his time in college that he decided to pursue a career in the security industry.

“I was a college student in Rexburg, Idaho and had a young family. I was looking for a way to support my family and got referred to AvantGuard,” he said. “The culture and leadership of AvantGuard from the top to the bottom impressed me greatly and made me want to continue working with the company as long as I could.”

In addition, Boren noted that “I naturally love people and like to help people wherever possible, and that has led to me to my interest in this industry.”

Security Trends and Technology

Boren pointed out some of the top trends in security today, and how he sees these trends changing in the future.

“The market expansion of the residential security space by DIY (do it yourself) and self-monitoring has been interesting to see play out over the last few years,” he said. “It seems to be pushing many of our dealers to focus more heavily on the commercial installs. Video monitoring is also fascinating. It still is in its infancy in the sense that it is not very cost effective to monitor without a great deal of effort being put into the analytics. I think that there is ample opportunity to maximize the effectiveness of video monitoring as companies continue to develop and hone AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities.” 

In regard to some of the new and exciting technology in the security industry, Boren explained that “aside from video monitoring, and the AI behind the security that can provide, I would say the continued move toward IoT devices. As 5G becomes more readily available, the ability to send and receive massive amounts of data from individual devices could open the door for all sorts of integrations and use cases in the security space.”

This new technology will lead to more talented, diverse young people getting into the security industry, according to Boren. 

“As the security industry becomes more saturated with technology, there will continue to be a flood of new, bright individuals who are attracted to the industry,” he said. “I believe that the industry as a whole is alluring to young people because you can make a real difference in people’s lives, so when coupled with new and exciting technology, we’ll see a diverse young group of people entering the industry.”

Keys to Success

During these unpredictable times, Boren outlined some of the keys to success right now, both personally and in business. 

“I am trying to make it through 2020 like everyone else, but there are a couple of things that I have witnessed that have allowed for success with individuals and companies,” he explained. “The first of which is optimism and a positive outlook on challenging situations. We all endure challenges, but only certain people and companies come out on the other side of extreme hardships in a better place than they were prior, and to me, that has a lot to do with the mentality with which you live your life or run your business.

“The second principle that I have witnessed is preparing for the unknown by making good decisions when times are good. Whether that be paying down debt, having the right people in the right roles on your team, having enough cash on hand for an emergency or any number of preparedness mantras, thinking about those things and practicing them puts you in an advantageous position when things get difficult.”

Boren was extremely optimistic about the future of the security industry. 

“Things are changing for the better with the industry,” he said. “Our tools are getting smarter, faster, and better. The way we interact with customers is changing as well. Gone are the days of people answering phone calls, people simply prefer to be communicated with in a convenient and non-intrusive way.

“I also see more and more people wanting to do some sort of self-monitoring for their residential devices. It is the expectation now that people should have on-demand access to all of their devices and be able to interact with them at the click of a button. I am excited about the future of the industry as we become more customer and technology friendly.”