Our Professional of the month for this edition is Pilar Gómez, regional vice president of Anixter and current president of ALAS.
by Duván Chaverra Agudelo
Pilar Gómez has carved out an interesting path in the security industry. This guild excites her and moves her to act, not only on behalf of Anixter, but also as the current president of WINGS, encouraging training and professional relationships among the people of the guild.
Pilar is a Colombian woman who has been living in Miami for 22 years. She is an electronic engineer from the Javeriana University of Bogotá and has a master's degree in Financial Management. Her career began in Colombia working in the industrial area with Honeywell solutions as a field engineer and making her way as a woman and young woman in a field dominated by men, something she considers a very valuable experience.
It was in the area of building automation that Pilar began her career in the world of electronic security carrying out important projects. All that experience and contacts allowed him to come to Miami to work with the distributor ISTC Corp, where, from the sales area, he served different countries in the region. His good results and experience allowed him to climb to the position of CEO of this company, a position he led for more than 3 years.
Later, in 2016 she arrived at Anixter, where she started as director of security solutions for the CALA region, and currently serves as Regional Vice President of the northern area of Latin America. A brilliant career with leadership positions that he continues to exercise with the firm intention of continuing to grow.
Along with this, Pilar has also dedicated more than 10 years to actively participate with WINGS. Currently as president she has lived a very interesting experience and recognizes the positive changes that the association has had in recent years.
"The challenge is to make the association continue to grow and be relevant in each of the countries where it is, even more so with the national chapters that exist, which has made WINGS have much more reach to countries where before we could not reach so easily," said our Professional of the month.
VDS: What are your professional and personal challenges?
Pilar Gomez: If we start with the professional part, I think that for all the last two years have been of change and the pandemic accelerated many processes and transformation of the industry. Thanks to the work I do in Wesco-Anixter I have a much broader vision of the security segment, we see that the industry is transforming very fast and that opens up business possibilities for everyone, not only for those who have specialized products in that segment, but for traditional security companies, since this allows us to see this industry from another point of view: The use of our technology to do business intelligence.
The challenge, both for me and for many professionals who have been in the industry for a long time is to understand the technological changes and changes that exist in the market; know where the future of the use of security devices is going and how we can expand our business horizons far beyond traditional security protection, through business intelligence and trends such as 5G.
As for my personal challenges, I want to be better and lead by example, that is our motto, and to lead by example you always have to surpass yourself so that your team can follow you and guide you in the right direction in order to grow professionally and achieve the goals we have set as a company.
VDS: How important is teamwork and how do you handle the leadership role?
Pillar: I believe that being a leader is a challenge and a combination of demand, but it is also about understanding the other people on your team, having a human side so that there is a combination of demanding, guiding and helping in some way and thus have a balance and get the team to commit and believe in the common goal. It is important that they feel part of the triumphs and that success depends on each one, that they see it as their goal; You also have to give them the necessary tools so that they can achieve it, that implies training them from all points: technological and personal.
VDS: What do you think are the reasons for your recognition in this industry?
Pillar: I think they see me as a reliable professional person, meaning that if they're going to do a business or a project with me, they know what they can expect from me. I am a person of my word, transparent and professional. When you work, especially, in distribution, you have contact with many manufacturers and with many customers in different regions, and there are many projects and situations where you have to interact with several manufacturers and customers, and the fact that you have a position of clarity and transparency makes you give them more peace of mind. When customers or manufacturers approach me they will get a sincere, clear and as professional response as possible.
VDS: How do you see the future of the security business?
Pillar: I see that some segments of the security industry are becoming like a kind of commodity; for example, the camera is becoming another element of IoT, a source of information and will be a data provider that is used for different uses. You will see increasingly integrated systems at a higher level not only with the technological focus, but many of the devices will begin to give information so that you can better manage properties such as buildings or areas of common areas. Technology is changing so fast that all these devices are already sources of information and are used to help make spaces more comfortable, safer and more efficient depending on what is required in the business area.
If you are talking about a retail you will use the information to see how you can sell more knowing which are the areas of more or less traffic, at what times there are more lines of people, etc. If you need to make a building more efficient in the area of energy consumption, then you already use all this information to optimize consumption, a trend towards where we are going.
Security was transformed as an intelligent business solution, as a source of data to manage cameras, access control or facial recognition; serve VIP clients and generate protocols different from those used when a normal person enters. Now security is also a data provider.
VDS: How has this phenomenon been adopted in Latin America?
Pillar: I would say that it goes very fast, even some manufacturers are selling cameras with algorithms at the edge with a higher percentage than they are selling in the United States; the proportion of cameras with Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning technology in Latin America is higher, and as in Latin America there are fewer regulations we can be more innovative and that makes us adopt certain technologies even faster than in other territories.
VDS: What message do you send as president of WINGS?
Pillar: That they get more out of that medium and that facilitator that is WINGS, because it is a community and when you integrate into a community you have access to information, trends, to talk to other professionals in the industry and to understand where the opportunities are.
One of the things that has made the company where I am very successful is that it is always one step ahead in identifying future trends in technology, and belonging to these types of associations helps integrators, and even manufacturers themselves, to make sure that they are always one step ahead to have a more assertive vision about where to take their business.
This technological world is changing very fast, let's make sure we are at the forefront, taking advantage of what WINGS offers and thus make sure that we are seeing the business correctly.
Enjoy family and tennis
Pilar is a woman married for 25 years and as a result of this marriage they have two children: a woman who has just graduated as an industrial engineer and a 15-year-old boy. "Family is always the priority and we love to travel. There is a time that is very special for us as a family that is the holidays, because the four of us share a lot and we disconnect," he said.
Our guest recognizes that the pandemic helped her a lot to recognize the importance of the balance of personal and professional life, since before she traveled on average two weeks a month, which led her to have to postpone many family plans and sports activities and hobbies. "The fact that the pandemic forced us to stay made tennis my great hobby. I learned to play tennis now when I grew up and I got into it in a way where I started competing, playing national tournaments and sharing with teams from all over the country. I've only been playing for about four years, but I've always been very passionate about doing some physical activity; At some stage of my life I did crossfit, jogging and now tennis, I want to be better and better in this sport, "he said.
Finally, Pilar mentioned that "what I like most about myself is that when I commit to something I give everything 200%. Maybe what I like least is that I'm too perfectionist and that makes me see the little black dot on the white sheet."
