Steven Walin in at GVI

CARROLLTON, Texas--GVI Security Solutions, North American dealer of Samsung Electronics and an integrator, announced Steven E. Walin has taken over as chief executive officer, effective March 6. He comes from GE Security Enterprise Solutions, where he had served as president since April 2003. Before joining GE Security, Walin was senior vice president with the security systems division of Siemens Building Technologies from 2001 to 2003. Prior to that, he was president and chief operating officer of Security Technologies Group from 1997 to 2001, when STG was acquired by GE. STG grew from $10 million in yearly revenues to $115 million during Walin's tenure. GVI chairman Howard Safir, who recently sold his own SafirRosetti to GlobalOptions Group, said in a press release that Walin's "experience at General Electric will serve him well at GVI." But it was Safir's partner and fellow GVI board member, Joe Rosetti, a former head of Kroll Associates, who brought Walin into the GVI fold. Rosetti is "somebody I have a long-term relationship with," Walin said in an interview. "We were together in STG. He approached me and said, 'This company, GVI needs some new leadership from the industry to take it on." Having spent close to three years at GE, in what he called "a fantastic experience," Walin said he "wanted to get into a more entrepreneurial opportunity with a medium- sized company." GVI did roughly $60 million in sales in 2004, the last year for which annual filings are available, mostly in the video surveillance space. Walin said the association with Samsung was attractive to him, that GVI was known in the industry for quality service and he was impressed by the people there. "Then I took a look at the business they've been doing in Latin America," Walin said, "which has been growing very nicely, and they had a great team down there, with a really strong leader based out of Miami." The Latin American opportunity appealed to his international business background. Other goals for growth, he said, include the IP video market, "but the market never moves as quickly as you think it will. Just speaking in the last few days with our customers, many of them are still very much in the analog space." Still, he admitted, "the trend is moving toward IP, we're going to play there, and we'll be a full-line supplier." Walin said he would need a few more months on the job before he laid out further goals for GVI.