“We received an impressive number of nominations for a group of extremely qualified and experienced individuals from across the country,” says Jennifer Brown, Editor of Canadian Security Magazine. “After considerable consideration by the editorial advisory board, it was determined that Tyson, a proponent of IT and physical security departments working together, had a combination of vision and technical expertise and that he has created a unique model in corporate security.”

Tyson was nominated by Ian Thompson, project manager, security services for the City of Vancouver.

"The last two years at the City of Vancouver have provided me with an opportunity to observe Dave Tyson launch a series of truly innovative security programs," says Thompson. "From convergence to integrated training to a global RFP —  and to watch the progress of these initiatives from conception to implementation. In a complex, multi-stakeholder environment such as the City, 'delivering the goods' is often far from straight-forward. Dave's success is a tribute to his vision, persistence and management skills."

In his nomination submission, Thompson noted that:

"In 2005, following a review of security provisions across the City of Vancouver, Tyson began to radically rethink the City's fragmented approach to contract security. He advocated the centralization of all contracted security functions from uniformed guarding to CCTV and access control to systems integration into one unified contract. In addition to seeking operational efficiencies and reducing expenditure, he was also driven by the need for service continuity in the run-up to the 2010 winter Olympics and Paralympics to be held in Vancouver."

Once he gained buy-in from stakeholders across the city's corporate departments, Thompson said Tyson initiated a "ground-breaking RFP process which led to the signing of a five-year contract, valued in excess of $25 million, with a leading local provider and is now rolling it out across the city.

Tyson also has oversight responsiblity for the City's electronic records management project and recently implemented a city-wide Charter for IT Security — areas not typically influenced by the corporate security department.

The Security Director of the Year competition, which is sponsored by Anixter Canada, was launched in early January and the deadline was May 31. Judging of the nominations was done by Canadian Security's editorial advisory board.

"This guy's a real innovator," said Canadian Security editorial advisory board member, lawyer and CCTV &  The Law columnist Elliott Goldstein in his assessment of Tyson. "He's written a new book (Security Convergence, Managing Enterprise Security Risk) that I've heard a lot about and this guy has done something that is really unique, which is integrating physical and IT security."

Judges considered various factors including vision, how active the nominees are in the security community and how they approach the subject of security convergence.

"I was looking for someone who bridges all the different aspects of being a security director," said advisory board member Michael Galin manager, corporate security with Aviva Canada. "There were some candidates that were very strong but in just one or two areas — I was looking for someone who looks at security holistically and that's physical security, IT security and business continuity management. Having applied that criteria my top pick was Dave Tyson."

First runner up was Minaz Jivraj, school safety and security officer from the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board in Mississauga, On.

"He has a lot of things going on there and is linked in very well with the Peel Police and emergency response. If you look at the number of schools and square miles he is covering and the number of students, it's a lot of activity he has responsibility for," said editorial advisory board member and past winner of Security Director of the Year, Gene McLean, vice-president and CSO of Telus Commuications.

The judges praised Jivraj's work in the field of security in education, saying he has created a department that does not typically exist in other school boards.

"His use of technology is second to none in the education sector and his policy and adoption of school safety programs such as emergency lock down is second to none," said advisory board member Nick Migliore of Reilly Security in Toronto.

Andrew Simpson of Belleville, Ont.-based Comprotec nominated Jivraj for the award, citing the many projects he has accomplished across the school board:

"Since joining the board, Mr. Jivraj has introduced and managed the networked card access systems with 181 panels in 141 schools and facilities, photo identification badges for over 9,000 staff and contractors, 1,500+ digital networked CCTV cameras and 100+ digital DVR systems," said Simpson. "The (school) board being part of an IT environment, required a partnership and and an understanding that enabled Jivraj to insall all of the above networked security devices."

"He uses  his school principals in an innovative way and he's quite a forward thinker," said Goldstein. "He's dealing with 1,000s of students and 100s of teachers and principals and yet his system seems to be running more smoothly than in other places."

Second runner up was Glen Kitteringham, Director, Security and Life safety with Brookfield Properties Corp. based in Calgary, Alta..

Kitteringham is responsible for eight large corporate office buildings  — six in Calgary and two in Edmonton. In January 2002 he established a plan to prepare those properties for the G8 Summit to be held the following June in Kananaskis. The judges referenced his work on that project as well as an on-going laptop theft study and his recent book, Security Guidance for the Commercial High-Rise Industry as accomplishments of note.

Vladimir Batinic, client service manager from G4S Security Services in Calgary nominated Kitteringham.

"Glen is very professional, always working on protecting his employer, promoting the security industry and upholding high ethical and professional values," said Batinic.

Nominations for the Security Director of the Year competition came from the public and private sector including post-secondary education, transportation, retail, property management and tourism.

The award recipients will be honoured at the CANASA conference in October.