“40 under 40” Class of 2019 — John Bazyk, 31

John Bazyk fell in love with video surveillance at the ripe age of 12 years, when his father would give him whatever wireless cameras he had laying around in his office. “At the time, he was making some of the most innovative, long-range cameras sold anywhere in the world and selling them to governments all over the world,” Bazyk said.

One of Bazyk's first projects was installing a wireless camera onto his remote-control car and driving it around the yard while he watched it on the TV.� At 16 years old, he started as an apprentice at Command Corporation, later on, moving, getting married and earning a college degree. He returned full-time just over seven years ago, and currently, as VP of Sales, he works to increase sales revenue. “Since we're a family-owned business, I am also involved in purchasing products from vendors and helping with anything any member of our team needs.”� Bazyk also just started a new company, Avalon, focused on DIY home security.�� When asked about industry trends, Bazyk broke them down into the following categories: big business wants big data; small/medium business want simple, integrated, affordable security systems; custom home builders want to offer home automation as part of their construction packages; and standard residential wants DIY solutions.

Bazyk sees the use of metadata and machine learning as the most exciting part of the security industry's future, but he estimates in 15 years, finding new, diverse industry talent will be a significant issue. “We need to help parents, young people and educators understand there's a lot of opportunity for young people who learn a trade,” he said. “We need to [also] do a better job streamlining the process of earning a trade license and get some standardization across the board to create more flexibility and reduce the massive barrier to entry.”