Keith Ladd, Founder of Top Philadelphia Security Company, Dies of Cancer

Exton, Pa. – February, 2009 – Veteran security industry leader Keith M. Ladd, founder and chief executive officer of The Protection Bureau, died Sunday February 22, after a battle with cancer. He was 74.

Ladd founded The Protection Bureau, in 1975. The company has since grown to become one of the top 10 security integrators in the Mid-Atlantic region with headquarters and a central monitoring station in Exton, Pa. and an office in South Plainfield, N.J.

Ladd was instrumental in the founding and a past president of the Eastern Pennsylvania Burglar and Fire Alarm Association and was an active member of ASIS, NSCA and NBFAA, among many other security industry organizations.

He was born in Newport, Vt., graduated from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and has lived for the past 40 years in Chester County, Pa. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Mary, three children, five grandchildren, a great-grandchild and a brother.

J. Matthew Ladd, president of The Protection Bureau, said his father will be remembered for his kind and generous spirit and a willingness to serve his community and profession.

“We are grateful for the way he enriched our lives,” he said.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be sent in Keith Ladd’s name to Handi-Crafters, 215 Barley Sheaf Road, Thorndale, PA 19372 or the Cancer Center of Chester County, 440 E. Marshall Street, Suite 201, West Chester, PA 19380.

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Saluting Great Leaders

The security industry is fortunate to have many capable practitioners — and the foresight to develop young professionals into tomorrow’s leaders.

Great leadership never becomes unnecessary or obsolete. When I visit security businesses around the country, those with great leadership seem to have two main characteristics in common. First, there is energy of purpose that runs through the ranks. Among staff there is a motivated drive to materialize that leader’s mission, vision and values.

Second, there is clarity of purpose. A good leader may produce happy customers and substantial revenue and profits, but a great leader causes much more than that to happen. A great leader makes an imprint on a larger universe — such as an entire industry – by his or her principled actions. A great leader not only visualizes the future, but enacts the change needed to realize that vision.

Leadership comes to mind for many reasons this month.

First, I was intrigued by the announcement of a meeting held this past January at the 2009 National Burglar & Fire Alarm Association’s Leadership Summit. As SDM’s associate editor Heather Klotz reports in this issue, “At the summit, the first NBFAA Young Security Professionals meeting was held to discuss how to energize and involve more peers in the association. Committee chair Trevor McEnaney of Knight Security Systems, spoke to committee members on the charges of the committee, its goals and direction.” I anticipate hearing about many dynamic and forwardthinking ideas from this group in the future.

Second, many in the industry were saddened to hear about the passing in late February of veteran security industry leader, Keith M. Ladd, founder and CEO of The Protection Bureau, near Philadelphia.

SDM met with, interviewed and photographed Ladd many times over the past 30-plus years. Hearing of his death brought me back to the first time I met Keith at The Protection Bureau in the mid-1980s. I was a newcomer to the security industry, and I couldn’t have been introduced to a better representative of it. I was captivated by the way Keith viewed his responsibility as a leader. In his mind, service to the customer was completely intertwined with service to the industry.

Twenty-three years ago — to the month — SDM featured Ladd in a regularly appearing column titled “Industry Leader.” In that column, he said: “My business is only going to grow as much as the industry. I want to be part of the industry to help in its growth toward professionalism and technical expertise. So I see involvement in business and professional organizations as a way to increase public awareness that alarm security systems are valuable and necessary in today’s world.”

Keith’s participation in industry growth was a quiet passion. He served as president of the Pennsylvania Burglar and Fire Alarm Association, and was very involved as a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. He took the industry’s fire protection business very seriously, saying in 1986, “There’s no excuse to ever cheat the consumer, especially with fire alarms, because they don’t know they are being cheated, and life and safety are being threatened. Fire alarms are a science and burglar alarms are an art.”

The alarm industry should be recognized as a public safety service provider, Keith believed. “So if we serve, really serve, police will recognize it. We have to recognize their problems too, and be professional in dispatching and responding to alarms ourselves.”

Keith Ladd’s passing will leave a void in the industry. But it is inspiring to know that his work has left a large imprint. And it is heartening to know that young leaders are waiting in the wings to carry the security industry forward into the next decade.

The above editorial is from Laura Stepanek's "Editor’s Angle" in the March, 2009 issue of SDM Magazine. To view the editorial in its original formatting (Adobe Acrobat file), click here.