GE Security gets identified as an emerging business by parent GE

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. - GE Interlogix is gaining more than just a new name and home in Minnesota in 2004. It also has been identified by General Electric as an emerging business that could someday stand on its own. Early this year, GE Interlogix changed its name to GE Security and became part of GE Infrastructure, a group made up of small businesses “that are becoming nurtured to become a standalone platform,” according to Jay Pinkert, director of communications for GE Security. The reorganization is part of a corporation-wide restructuring at General Electric as company officials streamline the $130 billion company. That designation as an emerging business, said Jack Mallon, a security industry analyst, is further evidence of the priority that GE has placed on security. “When GE moved into the industry with the acquisition of Interlogix, that was the first indication of their focus and recognition of this trend,” said Mallon. “This latest reorganization further confirms that security is the place to be for the foreseeable future.” As part of GE Infrastructure, GE Security will be able to work with a certain amount of autonomy, said Pinkert. Instead of being more of a product-driven company, as it was under GE Industrial Systems, where company officials had to consider how the security business worked with other entities, GE Security will be market-driven. The addition of the GE Security name, said Brian Poggi, president of the Commercial Systems Group of GE Security, provides the company with strength in the consumer and end-user market. “Moving the name to GE Security opens up a lot of doors for us,” said Poggi. GE Security will also relocate from its longtime home in North St. Paul, Minn., where the company was once headquartered when it was known as ITI Technologies, to Arden Hills. The move coincides with the company’s lease expiring and follows a shift of 200 manufacturing jobs to a less expensive facility in Mexico, a process that began last year. GE Security will join GE Fanuc Automation, Sensing and Water Technologies to form GE Infrastructure, based in Wilton, Conn. The group will be headed by Bill Woodburn, while Lloyd Trotter, who headed GE Industrial Systems, is now president and chief executive officer of GE Consumer and Industrial. Pinkert said Ken Boyda will continue to head up GE Security.