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New Director of Security hired

March 26, 2019 by David Thompson Leave a Comment

Frank Iannone was hired as the newest director of security on Feb. 28, but will not begin working until April 1.

Iannone was the director of college safety and security at Ocean Community College in Toms River, New Jersey.

The former director of security, Kevin Graham, retired on March 1 of this year.

Due to Iannone accepting the offer the day before Graham officially retired, Iannone gave his current employer a 30-day notice before coming to Florida Tech.

During the month of March, Security Lieutenant Barry Cobb has taken over most of the director responsibilities.

Cobb said he has accepted the responsibility of running the security department until the new chief comes in.

He said the biggest difference between his new responsibilities and those of his normal position is “the day-to-day decision making.”

“Before, I was kind of the behind-the-scenes guy,” Cobb said. “I would help Kevin [Graham] make decisions on what we should or shouldn’t do, where now it falls solely on me.”

Cobb said he had no input in who would be hired as the next director but said he wouldn’t have wanted any and is excited for the new director.

“New blood’s always good,” Cobb said. “Come in with some new ideas and hopefully they’ll all be positive for everybody in the university.”

After Graham announced his retirement earlier this year, Chad Shoultz, vice president for facilities operations, headed the search for finding his replacement.

After Human Resources filtered through all of the applicants, a list of about 60 prospective replacements was given to Shoultz.

This initial process by HR was intended to eliminate all applicants that didn’t reach their minimum requirements, according to Shoultz.

From there, Shoultz created a panel that included himself, the dean of students and associate vice president for student affairs, Robert Bowers, and assistant vice president of business and retail operations, Greg Graham, to help narrow down the candidates.

Shoultz said the reason he chose Bowers and Graham was because they have both had a lot of experience with the security department and it was important for both of them to be represented on the panel.

Bowers said in hiring processes like this “they usually select a panel based on people’s involvement directly with that particular position.”

The panel was able to narrow the list down to 10 candidates that stood out based on their resumes and how they fit the open position job description.

According to Shoultz, the panel was able to narrow the candidates down to five that separated themselves through their work history and experience.

After interviews with the five candidates, the panel decided on three finalists that would each have a full-day interview at Florida Tech that Shoultz called more thorough and in-depth.

After the in-person interviews, on Feb. 28, Iannone was hired as the newest director of security.

According to Schoultz, the thing that separated Iannone from the other finalists, who Shoultz said all “could have done the job and done the job well,” was his excitement for the position.

Shoultz said the job opening was posted on Dec. 1, 2018, but it took longer than expected for the hiring process to be finalized.

“My timeline was a bit of an aggressive timeline,” Schoultz said. “When you’re factoring in the holidays and coordinating the panels.”

Iannone is set to begin at Florida Tech at the beginning of next month.

Graham had been the director of security for the past 15 years.

Filed Under: Crime, News, Politics Tagged With: cobb, director of security, florida tech, hired, iannone, security

Director of Security set to retire

February 19, 2019 by David Thompson Leave a Comment

After 15 years as the Director of Security for Florida Tech, Kevin Graham is retiring at the beginning of March.

Kevin Graham has served as the Director of Security at Florida Tech for the past 15 years. Photo by David Thompson.

Graham said his reason for retiring is because he thinks it is time for “new blood.”

“If you want to grow, it’s time to have someone else come in with new ideas, new experiences, to make sure that it continues to make this a safer university,” Graham said.

Graham said when he first got hired at Florida Tech, security had antiquated equipment and non-trained officers.

He said that he takes pride in how far the security staff has come since he took over.

“The officers do a tremendous job,” Graham said. “Everybody knows security, we’re involved in most things that happen here now. The security officers have been accepted as professionals.”

Florida Tech’s Dean of Students, Rodney Bowers, said he has worked with security regularly since he began working at Florida Tech in 1990.

“[Graham is] a great person, very passionate, concerned about the students, concerned about the safety of the campus and a very good person to work with,” Bowers said.

Bowers said when someone has reached that milestone in their life when it is time to retire, it is “well deserved.”

“I’m very proud of him,” Bowers said. “I’m proud of what he has done and what he’s accomplished.”

Florida Tech Alumnus and current Clemente Center employee, Thomas Rochester, said he’s noticed that security has become more personable and friendly since he started at Florida Tech in 2010.

Rochester interacts and works with security regularly as a Clemente Center employee.

“The officers are all laid back in demeanor while still maintaining professionalism when a situation arises,” Rochester said. Rochester also called Graham “one of the funniest guys on campus.”

“He is dry witted and prefers cracking a few jokes to ease the tension that comes from his imposing demeanor,” Rochester said.

Graham also attributes a lot of security’s improvements around campus to the beginning of carrying firearms on campus.

“Since the day we were armed, the issues we’ve had with people have diminished greatly,” Graham said.

In order to carry firearms on campus, Florida Tech’s security needed to become both D and G certified, according to Graham.

D certification is working as a security employee unarmed and G is certification to be armed as a security member.

After 43 years of being in law enforcement, Graham said his next venture is “to be determined.”

He did say that he is open to suggestions and has been teaching part-time for 30 years now.

“Being here at the university is a big responsibility,” Graham said. “I am truly proud to say I worked at Florida Tech.”

Filed Under: Crime, News Tagged With: director of security, florida tech, retire, security

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