Integrators '20 under 40' 2016—Andrea Kuhn

Andrea Kuhn, 38

District general manager, Kastle Systems

Falls Church, Va.

Andrea Kuhn, district general manager for Kastle Systems—a full-service security company that specializes in managed services for commercial real estate properties—said she got into the security industry by accident.

“When I first came to Kastle 11 years ago, I was hired as an account manager and was able to work my way up to the district manager,” she explained.

What is exciting about working at Kastle “is that for the last 5 years we have had our finger on the pulse of where technology in our industry should go, so it is fun to watch all of those new products and solutions and know that we are on the cutting edge,” she said.

One of the things that she loves about the industry today “is how everything seems to be changing,” she noted. “Everyone seems to be aware that it is time for our industry to catch up, which is why it is so fun to go to some of these shows like ASIS and ISC and see some of this new technology.”

On the technology side, Kuhn said, “The biggest thing that we are seeing in the evolution of security is really around location-based services—being able to get down to specifics to where people are and how they use different spaces, especially how it relates to life safety and active-shooter situations that are unfortunately so relevant right now,” she said. “Being able to tell where people are in a given snapshot of time I think is going to be invaluable.”

Kastle Systems had about $85 million in revenue in 2015 and $5 million in RMR. Based in Falls Church, Va., Kastle has offices around the country including California, Chicago and Texas. It also has an office in Australia. The company has about 400 employees, 90 of whom are in New York.