Ginsburg was named CEO of Protection One in 2001 and subsequently became the Company's President as well. During his tenure at Protection One, he has led one of the largest operating restructurings in the alarm industry. In addition, Ginsburg refocused the company's marketing and sales strategy and participated in the process when affiliates of Quadrangle Group acquired majority ownership of the Company from Westar Energy in 2004.
Previously, at the age of 24, Ginsburg founded Guardian International, a full-service electronic security company in Miami. As President and CEO, he built the company from startup to an annualized revenue rate of more than $20 million, creating the 16th largest security company in the United States. Under his leadership, Guardian acquired and consolidated more than 35 security portfolios along the East Coast. He also successfully completed a reverse merger into a public company in 1996. Guardian was sold in 2006 to a private equity backed alarm company for more than $65 million.
Ginsburg is a member of the board of directors of Protection One and has also held director positions with Paradigm Direct and Guardian International.
He has a Bachelor of Science in communications from the University of Miami.
Darius G. Nevin
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Prior to joining Protection One, Nevin served as Chief Financial Officer of Guardian International. There, he assisted in building the company to more than $20 million in annual billings from $5 million. He also participated in raising more than $40 million from debt and equity financings to fund the company's acquisition program.
From 1987 to 1997, Nevin served as President and Chief Financial Officer of Guard Technologies. At Guard Technologies, Nevin led the innovative provider of specialized electronic security services as it grew to protect more than 20 million square feet of Class A office space in Florida and metropolitan New York. Nevin also previously worked at First Chicago Venture Capital (FCVC) in Chicago where he led financing for CASI, now one the largest providers of access control systems. He served on the boards of several early stage technology companies while in the Boston office of FCVC and also was elected partner of Madison Dearborn Partners, a fund affiliated with FCVC at that time.
Mr. Nevin has an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Administration and an A.B. from Harvard College.
Peter Pefanis
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Pefanis has enjoyed a successful 20-year career in the security industry with Wells Fargo, National Guardian, Honeywell Security Monitoring, and Cambridge Protection / SecurityLink.
During this career, he served as a key member of National Guardian's management team, which acquired and integrated more than 300 alarm companies during a 10-year period, accomplishing one of the most successful growth programs in the history of the alarm industry.
Pefanis gained Fortune 100 experience in his position as East Coast director of Honeywell, one of the top five players in the electronic security industry. He also assisted in the turnaround of SecurityLink after it was acquired by industry veterans and a financial partner.
Pefanis holds a bachelor's of science degree in economics from Elon College in Elon, North Carolina.
Kim Lessner
Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
Lessner was named chief marketing officer of Protection One in 2007. A 25-year veteran in market strategy and business development, Lessner joined Protection One following a career at Verizon Communications, a Fortune 100 company. At Verizon, she most recently served as vice president, Enterprise Target Marketing. In that capacity, she was responsible for leading growth initiatives aligned towards specific vertical and geographic markets, and partnering with the sales team to develop specialized market analytics plans, and relevant customer offers. As a result of her team's efforts, the direct sales force closed more than 2,000 deals, with greater than $1 billion in incremental contract value. She also was a key player in building the marketing function with particular emphasis on customer segmentation and channel requirements within Verizon's Enterprise Solution Group. Verizon ESG contributed more than $7 billion in annual revenues, and was a key data product growth area, within Verizon's overall wireline portfolio. Prior to Bell Atlantic merging with GTE to create Verizon, Lessner held executive positions in the areas of market strategy, consumer strategy and market research for GTE. Previous career highlights also include responsibility for strategic marketing at US West, Nissan Motor Corporation and Sears, Roebuck & Company. She earned her bachelor's in economics from the University of Missouri.