Five Questions with Rich Reidy

Rich Reidy, acting security segment head, Siemens, recently chatted with Security Systems News about life, the industry and new trends that are impacting and shaping security today.
 
Are you married? Any kids? Pets?
Yes, I'm married, coming up on 25 years. I have two daughters, both of them in their early 20s, and, at present, I have two animals — a dog and a cat — but sometime in the relative past, we were a family that had five animals.

What's something your coworkers might not know about you?
I used to be a D.J.; it was a private business that I had in the 1990s with a partner. We would go out and do weddings, functions, big gatherings, graduations, things like that and I did that for about 10 years. As a D.J., you have to be flexible and have an eclectic collection of music — The Macarena, Hokey Pokey.

How did you get started in the security industry?
After college, I wasn't ready to sit at a desk, so I got into the electrical field as an electrician. Toward my mid-twenties, I started to realize, 'whoa, this is a young man's trade.” I had observed all the people I was working with and as they got older, they all had physical ailments — back and knee problems — so, I said, “alright, this was fun using my hands to build and make things,” but it's not a long-term thing for me. It just so happened, I got presented with an opportunity to go to work for an integration firm in Boston, and they needed somebody with an electrical license.

What trends are you seeing?
Data analytics. We have so much data out there. How do you capture that and then display it or have a conversation back with clients, analyze that data and turn it into actionable items. The other one is the cloud. Clients say, “alright, this should be advantageous to me but how do we move from on-site to off-site, and what's my savings?” Traditional sellers are trying to figure out how to repackage and present it.

What book would you recommend to others and why?
From a book standpoint, “Even Eagles Need a Push” by David McNally. It's about learning how to soar in a changing world and discover your true sense of purpose.