Bill Bozeman has announced that he will be stepping down as CEO of PSA Security Network after 20 years to make way for a younger generation of leaders to guide the integrator group. Upon hearing the news, I gave Bill a call for an informal Q&A session.
Security Business: Is this farewell to the industry for you?
Bozeman: No, this isn’t farewell to the industry. I still got some tread on the tires. I just know it has been a long run – 20 years – and the succession planning was my idea. I just thought it was a good idea to groom a whole new generation, which we’ve done. I’ve been thinking about this for a number of years…we have brought in several new players who are all in their early 40s who will be stepping up and running the company on a day-to-day basis, and we will be doing a search for the CEO job. Other than that position, we are promoting from within and I’m hoping eventually one of those young people would be CEO 5 to 10 years from now. But no, I’m not retiring, I’m just going to do some different things.
So what’s next for you?
I hope to stay on the PSA board. I love PSA, and I have accomplished what I wanted to at PSA. And I’d like to participate in some boards, strategy, vision, possibly do some investing in our space or in the medical managed services space. Cybersecurity is something I have a passion for and helping SIs develop their Managed Services Program as an advisor or a consultant.
Is there a timetable on the transition?
You look at the financial news and it says some CEO or CFO has just decided to spend more time with the family, and they are gone. Well, you don’t all of a sudden get rid of the CEO or the CFO unless the board is pissed – thankfully we don’t have any of that. So I have agreed to stay and depending on the new CEO and how much assistance he or she would like, that will determine the timetable. I’m in no rush; we’re in no rush. It is a three-stage process, and stage one concluded with PSA hiring a professional (executive search) firm called Kingsley Gate out of Dallas. They know our space really well and they are focused on C-level recruiting. Stage two is Kingsley Gate works with the succession planning committee, which could take anywhere from 3-6 months. Stage three is the actual hiring of the new CEO and me working with that new CEO to make introductions to all the connections I’ve made over the last year 39 years.
You mentioned the younger group PSA has hired, who are they?
Tim Brooks (VP Sales & Vendor Management), Anthony Berticelli (VP Operations), Chris Salazar-Mangrum (VP of USAV) and Candice Aragon (Director of Marketing) – they are all approximately the same age, they are all A players, and hopefully they will hang around PSA for another 10 years or so.
Do you see the PSA TEC event changing a bit as these younger people take leadership?
You’ll see that this year. We gave our next-generation leaders a lot of rope to make those changes this year. You will see a different TEC, a more open TEC – not the same thing over and over. That’s part of their responsibility.
Do you think there’s an adequate voice of the younger generation in this industry?
Sometimes I will go to a high-level conference talking about strategy and vision, and there are no young people – everybody’s bald and gray. PSA is looking to change that, and the industry in general probably should work a little bit harder with that. I don’t think the industry has done a really great job of promoting themselves to the younger generation. We’re trying to change that a tiny bit by doing that at PSA.
Looking into your crystal ball, if organizations like PSA and ESA and some of the others raise more young people into leadership positions, what do you think would change in our industry?
I believe that they would be a little more open minded to new business opportunities and new business challenges. Take managed services as an example – if you have been installing enterprise-level systems or standalone large deployments for 20, 30 or even 40 years, it is difficult to change. They will be more open minded to new technologies and new procedures – just new ways of doing everything, from finance to the way you recognize revenue, to how you how you sell to the end-users – all of that will change with the younger generation. They do think differently, but this isn’t to say that the old guys will never get it. I think one of the things that’s underrated or under-discussed and under-analyzed in our industry is how important finance is. We tend to talk about feature sets, technology, project management, job costing – which are all important – but very rarely can you sit down with a group of integrators and they talk about P&L and the balance sheet of finance. I think we will see that change with the young people, especially the smart ones.
Since I started covering PSA, you have spearheaded initiatives in cybersecurity, AV integration and managed services, just to name a few. Which of those really have staying power with security integrators?
All three of those, without a doubt, have staying power. None of those are a fad. My hometown (New Orleans) is shut down right now because of ransomware. You can’t do anything. Cybersecurity isn’t a fad, in fact, it is only going to become more of a challenge – and by the way, more of an opportunity. Managed Services is not going to go away. The SIs who survive will all be managed services providers in the not-too-distant future. If they choose not to, there’s a good chance they won’t be around. AV and security working together already is happening. They operate similar type business models, and it was a very good move for PSA. You could take it past that. We know that AI is a given; however, is it a given next week? Cybersecurity is a given right now; managed services are a given today; and pro AV is growing like crazy.
I know you’re not leaving right away, but are there any specific memories from your time at PSA that really kind of stick out to you?
When I first got going 20 years ago we were having some financial issues, and we were able to turn it around – which was very satisfying. Just building out the company consistently, growing year after year, and also the building of the people. Overall, just the professionalization of the organization is maybe the thing I’m proudest of. I hate to use a sports analogy, but I think I’m exiting kind of like Peyton Manning – you limp out of the stadium with the trophy and things are really going well. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished.
Paul Rothman is Editor-in-Chief of Security Business magazine. Email your comments/questions to [email protected].
