End Users '20 under 40' 2017—John Baranski II

John Baranski II, 28

Senior physical security specialist, BNY Mellon

Pittsburgh

Although John Baranski II is the youngest SSN “20 under 40” End User Class of 2017 award winner, he has accomplished quite a lot in his career thus far.

While earning a degree in criminology, Baranski served in the Army National Guard, and did a deployment to Afghanistan his senior year.

“I have always had an interest in security and when I got home from my deployment, I wanted to get into security on the corporate side,” he explained. “I was fortunate enough to have a lot of good leaders teach me along the way.”

Baranski started his career as a security supervisor for two years at a hotel in Pittsburgh, “which was more focused on the physical security side,” he said, noting that he then worked for four years at High Mark, a healthcare company based out of Western Pennsylvania.

“At High Mark, I got involved in all aspects of security, which is where the majority of my experience comes from,” he noted. “I did a C-CURE 9000 upgrade there, a major project that took two years.”

In his current role, which he has been in for six months, Baranski deals with guard force management, and oversees project management locally while supporting global projects as well.

On the technology side, Baranski said one of the most interesting developments in the industry has been “the interface of access control and CCTV, which I think is going to start becoming more and more common with remote surveillance and mobile access.”

He also sees great potential for facial recognition technology and robotics.

“Robots are not practical at every site, but for places that aren't fully staffed and are running 24-7, like a data center, they can monitor temperature and air pressure, for example, and be more reliable than a human for certain tasks.”