Our Professional of the Month is Juan Carlos George, Latin America Sales Director at Milestone Systems, who shares his passion for the industry and cycling.
by Duván Chaverra Agudelo
Many of us know Juan Carlos George, a great professional who at first impression seems to be a shy and reserved man, but after meeting him you are surprised with the quality of person, with how good a conversationalist he is and with his enormous knowledge he has about the security industry, all thanks to an extensive career of more than 20 years.
But Juan Carlos is not only passionate about electronic security. He is also a lover of cycling, a discipline that he has been practicing for a long time and with which he enjoys the experiences left by the shootings together with his wife and his group of friends.
For all that and more, in this edition of the Professional of the Month we recognize the trajectory of Juan Carlos George, Sales Director for Latin America of Milestone Systems, and we will know some aspects of his daily life that complement his daily life.
Juan Carlos was born on January 6 in Tamaulipas, Mexico. He is a Business Administrator from the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Mexico City campus). Along with his studies, he began working in a family business, Sistemas de Automatizaciones, initially in the air conditioning sector and later focused on security with the integration of video and the strength that smart buildings began to take.
Juan Carlos says that in 2001 the company falls into a major recession, so he began to see alternatives from several tenders in which he met several brands of video surveillance solutions and video management software; among them, Milestone Systems. The company goes from being, more than an integrator, a distributor. In late 2002 he joined Milestone, where he currently works.
Security Sales: What are your personal challenges, your fears, and your next goals to meet personally and professionally?
Juan Carlos: In 2019 I got the idea of doing a triathlon, and well, I started training. There are a number of different triathlons, and I signed up for the youngest one to cross a lake, here near Mexico City. The joke is that I could barely do it; the swim of that Super Traspinta, of 400 meters, was death. My wife had documented possible triathlon accidents over long distances, and somehow worried; he calmed down when he saw that I went out, took the bike and finished. He was dead, but it was a great experience; so much so that I immediately thought about joining Iron Man 2020, but this one was canceled due to pandemic. This year it was done in Monterrey, but I could not participate because of a hernia operation. Now I am in the process of recovery, so it will simply be waiting until the 2022 version to do it.
These weeks of recovery I have felt that lack of exercise, which I did almost daily. I need it. After a day's work, everyone needs to disconnect. However, here I have a team where I ride and train, because that really is the escape after a day of work and continue in some way healthy. After the pandemic, my wife adapted her own cycling workshop, and that's what she does, and it fascinates her. It's pretty: if you're at what you like, if you work at what you like, you don't consider it as work.
It is what remains in this whole work path, in which I have been lucky enough to travel for work. Sure, it's been strenuous travel; sometimes, traveling at dawn, having appointments, continuing in the afternoon at the hotel, calls, and sometimes you sleep little for everything you have to do. However, what I have done in those revelations is because I believe in what I do. I'm really fascinated by the company. I think there is still an important field in Latin America. There is still a lot to do at Milestone, and that I think is one of my challenges: my work is not really finished.
VDS: What analysis do you make as a professional about the importance of the relationship with employees and collaborators the objectives that must be met in the market?
Juan Carlos: I make a relationship with triathlon; because, even if you are alone, to get to that point you have to have a team; it's not a person, it's a team. It's not that you're the best technician; you have a team that is helping you. And you are fortunate to be that person; but I'm nothing without that team. A team motivated to give results, in which, like relationships, we get angry, but we continue to collaborate because we know each other and have a common goal.
The company seeks that balance as people so as not to take work home. And I look for that even when I'm working at home, with my wife. It comes from above, from my boss, from Milestone, a company focused on people. The company is the people, and to the extent that we have that balance we can have more results. And it's something we should all look for.
VDS: What do you think are the reasons for your recognition in this market?
Juan Carlos: Many people know me by Milestone because at the end of the day I opened a path to Mexico at a time when the IP was starting; the analogous thing was the trend. Obviously at the moment of moving forward a little, and outside of Mexico City, I start to travel more, to know Central America, the Caribbean, to travel more to South America. And that's when they start to relate to me with Milestone; for better or for worse, because at that moment, in that beginning, I was alone.
So it was really everywhere. He was in charge of everything; there was even a time when there was no technical support in Spanish, and I gave part of that support. He knew the product and helped integrators solve problems, and in turn continue to sell. That experience helped to have a presence, and I think I've met great people all this time.
VDS What has been the evolution that the industry has had in your country in the years you have been working in it?
Juan Carlos: There has been a constant need for security in the region, starting with Mexico, with the news of day-to-day life and organized crime, which leads you to think of solutions from two aspects: 1. The processing of that information. How are you going to process it? There comes a great opportunity in the management of evidence through analytics; we are not only talking about cameras, but about IoT devices with a variety of sensors that can detect incidents or changes in the environment and interpret them through video analytics and send the data to the VMS.
At the end of the day it's information. Understanding and using real-time data to make decisions plays a critical role in the security of critical infrastructures, cities and transport hubs, not to mention people. The second point then is: where are you going to house that information? During this time, a wide range of how to communicate all that information has been opened, starting with the cloud, the cloud, virtualization, and the use of information technologies.
VDS: How do you see the future of this industry in Latin America?
Juan Carlos: There is still a long way to go and we can do a lot more in the region, understanding that it is a challenging region, but it has enormous potential. Latin America was the most impacted worldwide by the pandemic. During this time, one of the positive things is that there was a little more innovation in the security part; companies came together to provide solutions focused on this. Virtuality has also allowed us to continue human interaction and be with the user and the integrator.
We are always seeing that in other regions they developed solutions for such an industry, for such a user for needs, but here unfortunately in Latin America we are focused on saying that the solution does, and I stay, and I do not develop things for. And obviously there are many countries, a lot of knowledge, that obviously have people who can develop things, and that can also help to open up the panorama of what can be done: not only as factories, but also through more particular relationships for our needs.
This question that involves saying: you can do other things, you can incorporate other types of technologies, and that obviously opens up to what we are trying to do. So, I think that's what we got to: there are many possibilities, rather it is that we are in the right place, at the right time, trying to make us as they say on the driver's side, going where we want to go.
Cycling, the family passion
In addition to his professional career in the security industry, Juan Carlos is also a lover of cycling, practices it with professionalism and has personal competition projects that he shares with his wife.
"I met my wife five years ago, in 2016, through a bicycle ride to which I was invited by a mutual acquaintance. I hadn't run until then. My current wife comments that then she met a very nice bicycle driven by someone who did not know how to pedal (it had the chain crossed, etc.). For weeks he was telling me how to make the changes, we started dating and getting to know each other until we got married."
Juan Carlos and his wife then share this passion. "She is much more passionate: she loves to ride a bike, she knows all the rules, the different modalities of cycling, and well, for a couple of years we have a few bikes at home."
They live in La Condesa, mexico city. An area where they have the opportunity to walk, go to restaurants, ride a bike. "We also like to go for a weekend and do whatever we want: have dinner together, try to get to know small towns on the weekends, although not so much because of the pandemic."
They also take time to enjoy the cycling grand tours (Tour, Giro, La Vuelta): "The one that fascinates us the most is the Giro d'Italia. We are both passionate about it, more than the Tour. And in recent years we have followed our triathlon athletes; it's admirable to see that you're not alone, even if only you show up, you have a coach behind, your partner, mechanics, you have more people supporting you to be there."
