Fire technologies are a central piece of what we do at Tech Electronics, and have been for decades. We pride ourselves on having the whole package as a fire and life safety solutions provider: great technologies, people, partners, and an enormous collective knowledge base.
One key element of that package is technology leadership that spurs us to keep pace with the cutting edge in fire and life safety. With that in mind, we are thrilled to introduce Casey Bennett as our new Director of Fire Technologies! Casey, who has been with Tech since the acquisition of Fire Detection Systems in 2017, is in the process of transitioning from his previous role as Operations Manager.
To give our customers a chance to get to know him a little better, we’ve invited him for a quick chat on his professional journey, thoughts on the fire industry, and more.
Tell us a little about your career path through the years. How did you end up here?
Casey: It has definitely been a journey! I got started in the industry as an inspector s in 2011. I got promoted to lead inspector, and gradually worked my way through a series of roles on the service side of the business. In 2017 I moved into a project manager role for a few years and eventually moved up to operations manager, allowing me to get more of an overarching view of the ops side of the industry.
How would you say that set of experiences informs your approach in this new role?
Casey: It’s funny, recently I was getting to know Chris (Skinner, Director of Security Technologies) a bit better, and we got onto this exact topic because our career timelines and trajectories are really similar.
I think having worn a lot of hats along the way has provided me with a fair bit of perspective. Obviously, having installed and programmed more systems than I can count over the years, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to become intimately familiar with the technology, but I’ve also gotten an up-close view of the experiences of everyone who touches the technology, from the manufacturer, to the technician, to the end user and everyone in-between.
I think understanding all of those things has put me in a good position to partner well with our manufacturers, customers, AHJ’s, and employees and guide our technologies in a way that not only keeps people safe, but makes sense for everyone involved.
What’s a development in the fire technology space that has you particularly excited at the moment?
Casey: It would have to be Honeywell’s CLSS (Connected Life Safety Services) platform. It’s the sort of thing that you geek out about as an industry guy: to be able to provide that level of system visibility. For years, in order to know what was going on with your system you had to either be right there at the physical panel, or receiving a monitoring alert.
Now, customers can operate with full knowledge of their system’s health and functionality no matter where they are and that’s huge, both for safety and operational efficiency. I think at this point we’re only scratching the surface of what this level of connectivity will be able to accomplish in fire alarm, and I can’t wait to see where things go in the coming years.
What are some things that interest and inspire you outside the office?
Casey: First and foremost, as a father I love spending time with my two little girls, who are 4 and 2 at the moment. Apart from that, I love spending time outdoors, watching my Colorado Avalanche, and when time allows for it, going to shows at Red Rocks.
As far as inspiration goes, I really enjoy (former Navy SEAL and leadership consultant) Jocko Willink’s books like Extreme Ownership, the Dichotomy of Leadership and more, and I listen to his podcast regularly as well. I enjoy anything that challenges me to think critically about leadership and self-improvement.
Thanks for your time, Casey, and we’ll be looking forward to hearing more from you on the latest developments in the fire technology space in the future!
