Convergint gets a new president

Ken Lochiatto is the new COO and president of Convergint Technologies, the Illinois-based systems integrator announced today. Lochiatto comes to Convergint from WMS Industries, an Illinois-based electronic gaming and amusement company, where he was EVP and COO, and for the past 18 months was been president of WMS Gaming, a main subsidiary of WMS Industries. While Locchiatto's background is not security-specific, he's certainly familiar with the casino vertical. WMS Gaming is a "$700 million supplier to the global gaming business.”

I had a quick chat with Convergint CEO Dan Moceri who said that Locchiato fills an open position created when Jim Botwell stepped down for medical reasons.

At WMS, Lochiatto is credited with driving improvements "in the company's processes to be more customer-centric, while nearly doubling WMS' revenues, operating margins and competitive positioning." Before joining WMS, he was with GE for 22 years. Most recently he served as Business Leader—Advanced Communications Systems, "a system integrator for the transit industry within the GE Transportation segment." Lochiatto has a BA in mechanical engineering from Rensselaeer Polytechnic Institute and an MA in industrial administration, from Carnegie Mellon University.

“Ken has a strong engineering background, [which is important] since we're a highly technical company, but the key reason we hired him is his excellent leadership skills,” Moceri said. “He'll support and grow our culture, which he fits very well.”

With Locciatto looking after Convergint in North America, Moceri will be able to “focus on strategy and acquisitions and continuing to build out a world wide or a global platform.”

In August, Convergint brought on a new capital partner [KRG]. “The result is that we have the opportunity to add an acquisition strategy to supplement our organic growth … which has been 21 percent per year organically,” Moceri said.

After the recent acquisitions of ICD, a company Moceri describes as the “Convergint of China,” and FSC in Canada, “the next thing we're going to do is go to Europe.”

Yes. Moceri is looking now for “the Convergint of Europe” to acquire and he says he's got some target companies.

The idea, he says is to “do all the things we do for our customers—Boeing, Capital One, Amazon, Dell—in their facilities all over the world. What we do in North America … we will be doing around the world,” he said.

2014 is looking to be a busy year for Convergint, Moceri said.