Honorary Members
Les Gold
Partner
Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP
Lessing “Les” Gold is chair of the Corporate & Business Transactions Practice at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, where he represents foreign and domestic companies in a broad range of corporate, financial and securities transactions. He is very active in the areas of mergers and acquisitions; government contracts and financings; the development of new technologies; licensing; regulatory issues; and other emerging security and protective initiatives within the security, manufacturing, energy, trade and defense arenas.
MS&K has represented security alarm companies in the United States and abroad (purchasers and sellers), in nearly every major M&A transaction in the past decade. In addition, Mr. Gold authored alarm licensing law in California, and has worked with many municipalities and states to develop security alarm licensing and standards. His regular “Security & the Law” column in the national trade publication SDM is well read throughout the security industry.
Mr. Gold also chairs MS&K’s busy China Practice and co-chairs the firm’s Homeland Security & Regulatory Practice, along with leaders of the firm’s Immigration and International Trade Practice Groups. Mr. Gold received his Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University and law degree from the University of Southern California.
Sandy Jones
Managing Director
Sandra Jones and Company
Sandra is a 30 plus year security industry veteran, insider, deal maker, author, and visionary. 15 years after founding one of the industry's first wholesale distribution companies Sandra started the consulting firm of SJandCO where she and her industry affiliates provide a complete range of customized financial and profit development services for investors, manufacturers, service providers and system integrators. The firm’s support services have helped countless public and private companies accelerate profits and growth in the security industry. Services range from value development, investment analysis, industry research and growth strategies to customized searches for acquisitions, corporate divestitures, exit strategies and other profit development.
In addition to her consulting work, Ms. Jones is active in the industry. She was the creator of SIA’s New Product Showcase, a founder and producer of the Securing New Ground conference, Security 500 Conference and serves on various advisory boards. She served as two-term president of SIA, where after 30 years she continues to serve on the Board of Directors as Chair of the Nominating Committee. She has co-authored brand preference, fire market, benchmarking research and has been honored with many industry accolades including PSA’s Marcus Award, SIA's President's and Lippert Awards, SS&I's 2005 Hall of Fame and in 2007 was named by Security Magazine as one of the security industry’s 25 Most Influential Security Executives.
Dave Mc Gowan
Vice President of Global Protection
Tiffany & Company
David F. McGowan is the Vice President of Global Protection at Tiffany & Co. In this capacity, he is charged with ensuring a workplace and shopping environment that provides for the safety of all employees and customers and for protecting the company’s physical, inventory and intellectual assets. As a result, Mr. McGowan is responsible globally for the company’s physical security programs; business intelligence and criminal investigations programs; retail and supply chain asset protection programs; the company’s incident management, travel security and event security programs; for the company’s occupational safety and environmental compliance programs; and for the enforcement actions to protect the Tiffany brand and intellectual property. Recently, Mr. McGowan was appointed Chairman of the Tiffany Prepared Committee, a cross-functional officer-level working group responsible for directing and overseeing the company’s enterprise emergency response, incident management, and business continuity efforts.
Mr. McGowan began his career at Tiffany & Co. in 1996 as Director of Security. Prior to joining Tiffany, Mr. McGowan was the Director of Loss Prevention and Security for the Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation and held several other positions in the loss prevention field. He was elected the first Vice President and, subsequently, President of the Retail Loss Prevention Association of New York, is a member of the Fifth Avenue Jewelry Security Directors' Association and the Jeweler’s Security Alliance’s Technology Committee and was an original member of the editorial board of directors of LossPrevention Magazine. Mr. McGowan currently is an active member of the International Security Management Association. Mr. McGowan has spoken publicly throughout the world on topics such as "Security as Agents of Change,” “Security in the Post 9/11 Era,” “Air Cargo Security: A Customer’s Perspective,” and most recently a tour in Russia speaking on “A Leader’s Role in Setting Workplace Climate.” In 2006, Mr. McGowan received the distinction as “Security Director of the Year” from Access Control and Security Systems Magazine, a leading security industry publication.
Mr. McGowan received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is an avid baseball fan, maintains a collection of historic baseball memorabilia and is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Frank “Beauty” McGowan Baseball Foundation.
Mr. McGowan is based at Tiffany’s world headquarters in New York, NY, and he makes his home between New Jersey and Connecticut.
Scott Schafer
Scott Schafer is the immediate past chairman of the Security Industry Association Board of Directors. Formerly, he was the executive vice president of sales and marketing at Arecont Vision. There, Mr. Schafer was responsible for the company’s global operation that markets IP-based high-resolution megapixel video surveillance solutions throughout its domestic and international regions. Mr. Schafer held the posts of senior vice president of global marketing and Americas sales during his five years at Pelco/Schneider Electric.
His experience also includes senior vice president of sales, marketing and service at the Reynolds and Reynolds Company, the leader in enterprise software for the automotive industry. He served in many management roles at NCR Corporation during his 19 years, including vice president and general manager of global networking and high availability services, vice president of product marketing for the computer systems division and vice president of major accounts for NCR’s U.S. reseller division.
Mr. Schafer has a bachelor’s degree in finance from the Ohio State University and a Master of Business Administration from Capital University.
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