Women in Security Profile: Sheryl Pinckney-Maas – ‘I'm working to build partnerships and find customers’

YARMOUTH, Maine—Sheryl Pinckney-Maas is a straight shooter.

That trait helped her get to where she is today in the security industry, a successful entrepreneur, CEO and founder of Guardian Zone, LLC, the first company to produce a crowd and public safety mobile software solution for businesses, schools and venues allowing any smartphone user to automatically connect with on-site security officials. Pinckney-Maas considers it her job to be a visionary for her company.

Before Pinckney-Maas was an entrepreneur, she was a U.S. diplomat and senior commercial officer with the International Trade Administration U.S. Department of Commerce. She successfully served her country for 25 years living in China, South Africa, Mexico, The Netherlands, Jordan, and Peru. She has a keen sense of duty and pride in serving her country while understanding the challenges and inequality that still exist.

Pinckney-Maas is a Security Industry Association (SIA) Women in Security Forum (WISF) Power 100 winner (2023) and a SIA RISE TIME (Talent Inclusion Mentorship Education) mentor. She is also a member of the SIA WISF Steering Committee and serves as co-chair for that group's StrengthenHer Subcommittee.

Like many people in her field, Pinckney-Maas can talk about security solutions, partnerships, and networking all day long. And while being a straight shooter gets people's attention and moves conversations forward, that straight talk, she says, gives some folks in the security industry pause when the conversation is about diversity in their field.

Progress has been made for women and people of color in the security industry. But inclusion and acceptance of different voices from different backgrounds? That really hasn't happened yet in a substantial way, she maintains.

"It's been frustrating," Pinckney-Maas told Security Systems News, noting that a lot of experts in the field mistakenly consider themselves progressive in the area of workplace diversity.

"They assume that women make it through government subsidies and grants targeted for minorities," she said. "I've had that said to me directly numerous times. I say no, I get nothing. I'm out there every day working to build partnerships and find customers."

Pinckney-Maas added, "Some men champion women and people of color in the industry, but they are few and far between and they should be recognized. What I want to say to them is that if their own wives and daughters dealt with what women in this industry sometimes have to deal with, they would be up in arms. We are not asking for special treatment just a place at the table."

From a business perspective, Pinckney-Maas said, it makes sense when men tell her they feel more comfortable with "guys we know from working in the trenches." She has been told several times, "That doesn't make us racists."

"That is not racist," Pinckney-Maas said. "It's also not inclusive ... the problem is that there are no women in the trenches."

When interviewed by SSN two years ago, Pinckney-Maas mentioned Eddie Reynolds, president and CEO at iluminar Inc., as a role model who "has been very instrumental in helping my company navigate the security industry."

Recently she mentioned a female role model from her early 20s, Sandra Sheridan, a pioneer for women in the construction engineering industry in the Washington, D.C. region. Sheridan taught Pinckney-Maas lessons that carry over into the security industry, including this piece of advice: "Being a woman and soft is not a weakness but a strength. Always speak up and expect to be heard."

"Moving forward," Pinckney-Maas noted, "More women have to walk into the room where decisions are made. 'We have to normalize that. It's not a unicorn, it's a woman."