'It's been fun'

ALBANY, N.Y.--What started out as a three-month stint for Charles "Chick" May as acting president and chief executive officer of IASG has ended up lasting nearly a year. "John Mabry, a real good friend of mine, was on the board of IASG," explained May. "He called and asked if I'd help out on a short-term basis, but it turned into a year." However, if all goes as planned, May's tenure at IASG will soon come to a close. "We filed our S4 filing and proxy statement [to complete the merger with Protection One] on January 31, and if they don't have any questions, hopefully in 90 days the transaction will close" (for more background on the IASG/Protection One merger, see February's Security Systems News). May said it's "99 percent sure that [the deal] will go through." Until that happens, he will stay at IASG headquarters in Albany, N.Y., and run the company until June. Still, "It's slightly different now that you know it's going to happen." Of his time at IASG, May said, "It's been fun ... when I went to IASG, I realized I missed some of the things that happen in a larger company." May, who during the course of his career has owned Smith Alarms in Dallas, run Wells Fargo, and was a cofounder of National Guardian, was no stranger to life in the fast lane of the security industry. "I think we fixed a lot of things at IASG in a short period of time," he said. "One of the reasons we got along with the people at Pro One so well, they had gone through some of the same things. Their solutions and ours were really similar. Everything meshed pretty well." May said Protection One is not allowed to run IASG or any of its subsidiaries until the decision comes down. "Once the deal is closed, I'll back out completely," he said, though he does have a consulting agreement in place going forward. Then it's back down to Florida, where May owns Alarm Partners and Monitoring Partners with long-time Texas friend Bob Leone. "Moving to Florida was fine--I was semi-retired and got married," he said. May started the company there in 2002 with Leone, "because we got bored--you can't play golf every day." What are the two things May has missed the most about his life in Florida this past year? "Besides the weather? My wife, Ibe," said May with a laugh. "She's not really crazy about all the traveling."