‘Feels like home’: Don Young becomes Everon CEO with vision for AI, service excellence

BOCA RATON, Fla.—Don Young says he felt like a “bit of a bridesmaid” throughout his security career before taking the helm at Everon. Following a nine-year tenure at ADT, where he served as executive vice president and COO, Young became CEO of Everon, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based integrator, on June 9. 

Young says it “certainly helped” that Everon needed a CEO at the same time that he had made a commitment to himself to leave ADT, and that the interim CEO and Everon Chairman of the Board, Tim Whall, has been his “adult-life mentor.” Sprinkle in his familiarity with GTCR, the private equity firm that acquired Everon for $1.6 billion in October 2023, and it was a no-brainer for him to take over.  

“When you surround that kind of an opportunity with someone like Tim Whall and GTCR, a PE firm I’ve done four deals with already in my career, I don't know what could have happened to make it any more appealing,” Young explained. “It just feels like I'm back home, and I enjoy that feeling.”  

'Huge upside’ of AI 

Upon making the move to Everon, Young is most excited about applying what’s he’s learned about AI.  

“That's what I’m really anxious to bring to the table here at Everon - all things that AI is meant to do that Everon hasn’t really had a chance to explore, not from the ground floor yet,” he said. “There’s a huge upside to how AI can make a difference inside our business, both to our customers and to our employees.”  

Doubling down on monitoring 

As he begins his tenure, Young foresees that Everon will lead the way in several areas, particularly in monitoring.   

“We're going to make sure that we lead from the front on all things regarding monitoring,” he said. “Five years from now we will be the No. 1 commercial company, if we're not already, on all things regarding monitoring of intrusion and monitoring of life safety.” 

Importance of after-install service 

Where Everon already sets itself apart from the competition, Young says, is its ability to ensure the comfort level of its customers through ongoing, reliable service. 

“We will differentiate in the level of service that we provide our customers,” he said. “We're already doing that today; we're just going to go in and increase the pace at which we do it tomorrow, and that will come from all three legs of the tripod - people, process and technology - not just one or two of the three. It will be a cultural difference here versus other companies, in the way we look at how we monitor and the way we look at providing service.”