O'Leary new at Mace top

HORSHAM, Pa.--New Mace CEO Dennis Raefield is beginning to deliver on his promise to remake the company, announcing in November the hire of John O'Leary as Mace's new Security Division president. O'Leary worked for Raefield as vice president of sales for Honeywell's access control product line when Raefield was president. Most recently, O'Leary was security and privacy leader of IBM Global Services.

Speaking with Security Systems News in January, O'Leary said he has spent his first months at Mace speaking with the employees at both the Texas and Florida offices, talking about what the company should continue and improve. “Everyone thinks Mace has a great name,” he said. “They want to see us continue to grow the product line, do what we have to do to move into the future.”

Part of that effort will be helped by the hire of Joel Schaffer as director of product management, who was head of product management at Samsung|GVI and managed a product line at American Dynamics, along with acting as a consultant for a number of video surveillance companies, “developing and bringing new leading-edge products to the market,” said Eduardo Nieves, Mace vice president.

“He's been brought on to help us work on our product roadmaps,” Nieves said.

Echoing earlier remarks by Raefield to this publication, O'Leary said adding an access control line “is fairly obvious,” as a next step for the company, as is the addition of IP surveillance products, which Mace doesn't currently carry. However, “we're trying to think outside of the box from what we've traditionally done,” O'Leary said. “They'll be leading edge things that other people are not doing in the industry.”

Nieves also emphasized that Mace has cash in the bank and is financially very sound as a corporation. This allows the company to eye acquisitions as part of its growth strategy, with a central station being a possible addition.