Integrators '20 under 40' 2016—Ashwin Kataria

Ashwin Kataria, 40

VP, finance & controller, Securitas Electronic Security

Uniontown, Ohio

In his role at Securitas Electronic Security, Ashwin Kataria is the “finance go-to person for Securitas president Tony Byerly,” he said. “I am responsible for financial planning and analysis, which includes supporting sales with the financials for projects, deal analysis, as well as support for operations, including reporting and budgeting—anything the team needs from a financial viewpoint.”

He also played an “instrumental role from a financial perspective” in the $350 million deal that allowed Securitas to buy Diebold's North America-based electronic security division back in February of 2016.

Kataria joined Diebold in 2003 at its North Canton office, and was a financial analyst supporting the company's service business, moving on to mergers and acquisitions in corporate development, where he played a major role in closing out five to six deals at that time, an aspect of the job that he finds very compelling. He was named finance director for the Diebold Security team in 2013.

“I love the dynamic nature of the industry with so much happening, and so many acquisitions, and big players merging with each other,” he explained. “I also like that many people stay within the industry for a long time, and want to do bigger and better things, which inspires me as well.”

Kataria is also excited to be a part of a company at a time that it is seeing a “tremendous amount of growth and future opportunities,” he said. “Tony Byerly's strategies have been instrumental in that success.”

He continued, “We have the ability to do jobs on any scale, from smaller projects that require a day to jobs where we are involved for four to five years, which is the case with some of these big construction projects,” he explained. “On the security side, we do everything—video systems, alarm panels, intrusion, access control, integrated systems—and we have a coast-to-coast service and maintenance organization, and a state-of-the-art monitoring center.”