Houston, TX, November 22, 2022 – i-PRO Americas Inc., sends heartiest congratulations out to our very own Hannah Brauer and Kyle Maresh! Both have been named recipients of the 2023 Security Industry Association RISE Scholarship.
A competitive scholarship program, the SIA RISE Scholarship helps financially support the education and career development goals of young, up-and-coming security professionals. i-PRO is proud to announce that two of those up-and-comers are not only i-PRO team members, but also exceptional people.
Hannah has been with i-PRO for three years and holds the position of Strategic Planner. She earned a B.S. in Organizational Communication from Murray State University and an M.S. in Human Resource Management from Purdue University. As i-PRO’s Strategic Planner, Hannah is responsible for aligning the company’s strategic vision among the senior leadership team. Whether it is setting global business agendas or placing the right people in the right room at the right time, Hannah adds structure to i-PRO’s vision and strategy.
She is honored to be an SIA RISE Scholarship recipient and also the winner of the first-ever Pierre Trapanese Scholarship award, a distinguished honor named after past SIA Board President Pierre Trapanese and chosen by the SIA leadership as someone whose application stood out.
“As a woman in a male-dominated industry, it is humbling to know that I’m valued and am viewed as an asset to the security industry. The scholarship means I’m believed in, advocated for and my work is seen as meaningful. I love what I do, and it’s very motivating to know that what I do matters.”
Her professional goals within the security field are vast, but overall, Hannah wants to connect people within the industry and help them learn and grow from each other. She feels this starts with connecting team members within i-PRO. As a committee member for i-PRO Connect, Hannah is doing just that, bringing together i-PRO’s early-career professionals to help them build a community and create career paths for themselves.
She would also like to become more involved with SIA and work to drive i-PRO’s engagement with the association. Although the company has a legacy as Panasonic, i-PRO is viewed as a newer brand in the industry. Hannah feels that by getting LOUD and spreading awareness, i-PRO will attract new partners and customers.
She is proud to be an i-PRO team member and feels the company emanates a start-up culture but with 60-plus years of history attached. The entrepreneurial spirit of her coworkers and watching them create and thrive within their talents is a gratifying experience for her. Hannah also feels the company makes “fun” a priority which she feels is important in order to succeed.
“It is my personal belief that engagement drives productivity, and I personally experience that in my own role. My work doesn’t always feel like work because I love i-PRO, and I love what I do.”
Kyle is the Inside Sales Manager for i-PRO and has been with the company for over four years. A Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business, Kyle holds a B.B.A. in Marketing and Supply Chain Management. Kyle’s position as Inside Sales Manager requires him to wear a multitude of hats. He is responsible for managing and training i-PRO’s team of account managers who support the company’s channel partners and sales team members in the field. Kyle also conducts sales trainings for new products and collaborates with the marketing and product teams to determine global product sales messaging. In addition to all of this, Kyle also leads i-PRO’s public webinar series.
Being an SIA RISE Scholarship recipient is not only a great accolade for Kyle, but also an opportunity to help i-PRO flourish in the security industry.
“It is an honor to have been selected for an SIA RISE Scholarship and to be recognized not only as someone who is doing something impactful, but as someone worth investing in. This scholarship is an opportunity for me to continue my education and further my career while helping i-PRO grow at the same time. I am excited to learn new skills and strategies to bring back to our organization, to increase our competitive advantage in the industry and to carry us into a bright future.”
In order to help advance i-PRO into that bright future, Kyle aims to merge tradition with modernization. He believes that the security industry in general is a traditional space with a lot of history, yet it is behind other industries in the adoption of several best business practices. But on the flip side, Kyle feels there are other organizations that start from scratch with disruptive business models that lack the sustainability of those traditional companies. One of Kyle’s professional goals is to find a healthy balance between the two, where companies can keep their stability while taking advantage of opportunities to modernize. He feels this can be done, and hopes to achieve this at i-PRO, by learning and implementing best practices wherever they fit in to grow and set i-PRO apart from other security companies.
For Kyle, working at i-PRO has given him opportunities that he believes he would not have had at other companies. He is passionate about personal and professional growth and feels i-PRO has allowed him to try new things and gain a tremendous amount of experience.
“The challenges we work through together as a team and the trust the leadership team has in its people have led to the foundation of an incredible culture where new ideas are welcomed and considered, regardless of where they come from. For me, it really comes down to the investment and growth opportunities we provide to our people.”
The entire i-PRO family is proud of these two amazing individuals and is excited to see where their futures in the security industry go and what great new heights of success they achieve.