End Users '20 under 40' 2014—Paul McGinley

Paul McGinley, 32

Director of loss prevention, U.S., Dollar Financial Corp., Berwyn, Pa.

McGinley oversees a team of three LP regional managers and a loss prevention analyst. He is responsible for all physical security—“from top to bottom: access control, cameras, secure keyways, vaults and safes and bullet-proof glass”—at Dollar Financial, which is a non-bank financial services company that offers short-term consumer loans, secured pawn loans, check cashing and gold-buying services, among other services. He is responsible for 285 of Dollar Financial's retail stores and three corporate facilities nationwide, covering up to 900 employees.

What inspired you to get into the security industry?

I was in the law enforcement route while in college. I saw a job posting for an LP technical assistant for Dollar Financial. I went in for an interview and really got caught up in the physical security side of what the job offered. That's really where my passion is; the technology is so intriguing. I've been there ever since.

If you could have any technology you wanted, without regard to budget, what would it be?

It would be a fully integrated suite for access control, video and alarm. It would have total visibility into everything. I'd like full integration that could be accessed in the traditional way.

What's your biggest physical security challenge today, and what do you think it will be five years from now?

The budget. Things have gotten better over the past 18 months than they were three to four years ago, but we still weigh the pluses or minuses of how we're going to spend our money. Mainstream headlines, like those about active shooters, for example, divert executive attention from real world issues. Your risks of traditional domestic violence coming into the workplace are much greater. �But people are attracted to cool, new technology. We're lucky that is not the case here.� It really comes down to the traditional challenges, such as piggybacking, that we still need to concentrate on. That's where we're going to get burned. Five years from now, it will be about separating the wheat from the chaff. We're at a very interesting turning point in technology. We'll be looking at who is able to deliver on promises for their new technology. Who would have thought three years ago that the most reliable way to hire a taxi is through an app on your phone? New technologies might not come from Honeywell, who we know and we trust, but from some kid in Silicon Valley. We'll have to dip our toes in with new people who might not have a track record, but might have a fabulous new product. We're going to have to take risks. It's an exciting time.