APSA hires executive director

Ross McLeod, president of the Association of Professional Security Agencies (APSA) says Marco D’Angelo will initially work on a six-month, part-time contract for APSA.

D’Angelo is also executive director of the Ontario Traffic Council where he works to provide a strong voice for enhancing the engineering, education and enforcement sectors of the traffic management industry in Ontario.

“This is something we’ve wanted to do for some time now,” says McLeod. “Now is the perfect time because we have so many issues going on right now — we have a perfect storm with the downward pressure on bill rates due to the recession, the upward pressure due to increase in minimum wage and the new regulations and testing from the provinces.”

McLeod says he is looking forward to working with someone who can help “stabilize and move issues forward.”

D’Angelo is bilingual and has an MBA from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commericales in Montreal. Before joining the OTC, he was the director of public affairs for the Canadian Urban Transit Association.

McLeod says the first task the association wants D’Angelo to tackle is the length of time it is taking to get a security guard licensed and in the field in Ontario.

“Lisa Kool (Ontario Registrar/Director of PSISB) will say it’s taking six to 11 days, and that may represent part of the process, but there are too many hands the process has to pass through and it’s taking longer than that,” says McLeod. “That will definitely take him into the woods.”