Pierre Trapanese

Advancing the profession and helping people unlock their potential are hallmarks of Pierre’s leadership. He took over as CEO in late 2005 with a team of just 10 people. With the adoption of the core values, Northland became the go-to integrator and advisor for the toughest challenges in the industry. What was once a small team of Northlanders is now more than 250 of the industry’s best, spread out across the world.

Taking on challenges is a signature of Northland, and Pierre is the author. He is the visionary behind the Northland Challenge in which employees get out of their comfort zone to navigate their way through a foreign country without the use of technology. They overcome their fears of the unknown, stereotypes and expand their view of themselves. More recently, the challenges have scaled a new height by including a project where Northlanders work side-by-side with locals on solar installation projects that improve the quality of life in the local community. This unique part of Northland’s cultural tradition can be traced to Pierre’s childhood moving from country to country and learning how to navigate the world with a spirit of adventure and an open mind to what could go right—and the divine comedy and insights that come from the things that go horribly wrong.

Pierre has more than 30 years of experience in complex security solutions whether applied to the real world of construction or to the virtual world of the cloud. He embarked on his career as a project engineer for JCI, progressed to a project manager at JWP, went back to school, and was a struggling entrepreneur for 12 years prior to Northland. He holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BS in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. Furthermore, he serves as chairman of the board of directors of the Security Industry Association (SIA).