The confirmation came four weeks after CANASA indicated Mitchell had taken a three-week leave of absence, effective July 1.

Pietrobono said CANASA will launch the search for Mitchell’s replacement immediately.

Mitchell spent 15 months with the organization and was originally hired to fill the position previously held by Tracy Cannata. Pietrobono confirmed that CANASA has settled a lawsuit between CANASA and Cannata, but indicated he was not at liberty to discuss the details.

“I’m happy to say the lawsuit we were involved in has been resolved,” he said

Earlier this year, Mitchell announced he was launching an aggressive initiative to lead the electronic security industry towards self-regulation.

“Everything will continue on — it’s status quo,” said Pietrobono. “The people involved in self-regulation at the Toronto chapter, Ed Fitchett, is continuing on with that so everything Ken was doing will go on. And Ken has also told us he’s available to us on a contract basis, if needed. If we need him for projects then we will definitely consider that.”

When asked if the executive was happy with Mitchell’s work in his time with CANASA, Pietrobono would only reiterate that Mitchell had “left for other ventures.”

“The next candidate we will consider will have some of the core competencies that facilitate the organization over the next five years and I think bringing someone in who will stay for a good five years will help stabilize CANASA and bring forward all the initiatives that we started,” he said.

The position requires someone who can communicate with all levels of government, membership and regulation, and someone who can also manage the business aspects of CANASA.

CANASA is in the process of conducting an audit of roles and responsibilities in the Markham, Ont., office.

“We’re trying to find out if we have our resources in the right place based on what our strategic goals are. We had a strategic planning meeting in June in Vancouver to evaluate our current staff plan to see if we are going in the right direction,” said Pietrobono. “Based on that meeting, we learned that we need to look at what we have and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

CANASA’s director of education and membership services also left the organization earlier this year. That position is currently under review.

“We want to figure out what it is we’re doing well, what we could be doing better and what we should be doing in terms of content and partnerships,” said Pietrobono.