“40 under 40” Class of 2019 — Brian Coulombe, 37

Brian Coulombe's current role is split between project management and managing the operations of his group within Ross & Baruzzini. “This split allows me to stay close to the industry while continuing to engineer and manage amazing design and consulting projects, while also using my business school experience to help drive the organization,” he explained. “For me it really is the best of both worlds.”

His first job out of engineering school was as a field engineer for a company installing intelligent transportation systems in Florida. “I was literally hanging cameras on poles on the side of Interstate 4 in Orlando when I got a call about a security consulting firm looking for an engineer,” Coulombe recalls. “The firm was working on the redesign of the World Trade Center. I was in college during 9/11, and witnessed a number of classmates lose family members. I know that day will forever stick with all of us, but when the opportunity arose to help redesign and rebuild that site, I couldn't say no. That firm was DVS, which was subsequently acquired by Ross & Baruzzini.”

While he is not convinced it is ready for prime time just yet, Coulombe is “excited to see what the future holds for artificial intelligence, and in particular the application of deep learning. Deep learning systems will theoretically be able to analyze data from video surveillance feeds and provide real, actionable intelligence to security officers and first responders.”

In terms of recruiting young security professionals, Coulombe said it begins with awareness. “At Ross & Baruzzini, we've tried hard to attract talent right out of undergraduate programs,” he noted. “The security industry is not generally on the radar screen of many young people, but once they learn what we do and the social value that we provide, it's easy to convince people with the right background to give it a shot.”