When you need protection and peace of mind, Ken Young's company has the advanced solutions.
Imagine that someone with bad intentions is casing your property. A shadowy figure hovers around your fence line deciding whether to try to get in. That’s when a voice comes over a loudspeaker advising the individual to retreat. Someone is watching every move the prospective intruder makes and has your property protectively surrounded.
Meet Edgeworth Security.
Combine innovative technology similar to what you might expect to see in a spy movie with the watchful eyes of a live human being, and you’ve got the recipe for a well-protected property and family. That’s the premise behind the Pittsburgh-based security company. Edgeworth offers nationwide bespoke security solutions, optimized to reduce cost to clients ranging from commercial properties, multifamily dwellings, and construction sites to high-dollar estates and ranches, as well as celebrities and executives and their families.
At the helm of Edgeworth Security are Ken Young, chief executive officer, and Holly Shenk, chief operating officer.
Prior to their current roles, Young spent over 21 years as a U.S. Marine in elite units, even protecting the executive branch of the United States, working Marine One Security Detail and as an emergency action planner under President George W. Bush. In 2015 he began his career in private security.
This path would lead him to co-founding Edgeworth.
Shenk spent her career implementing smart technology and artificial intelligence for highly secure government clients in the intelligence sector before being presented with the opportunity she feels her career had been preparing her for at Edgeworth.
The backgrounds of Young and Shenk not coincidentally mirror the foundation of Edgeworth as a whole. The company’s multifaceted security solutions range from advanced state-of-the-art technology — think artificial intelligence and smart cameras — to real-time physical and virtual human-led protection. The goal? To stop threats that range from trespassing and theft to attacks on someone’s physical safety or online information.
When Young began his career in security protection after serving in the military, one of his first clients was Thomas Tull, a prominent businessman. Young was tasked with evaluating ways to improve Tull’s security while reducing the overall yearly spending he was devoting to live guards at properties he and his family weren’t even inhabiting. Young began to scour technology trade shows looking for solutions.
“My main task was to figure out how to protect assets in an equally good way but at a lower operational cost,” Young says. “What we ultimately ended up doing was putting cameras with enhanced analytics around the perimeters of the property where there was no threat to life or limb and feeding it back to the place where the agents were, where the family currently was, and using analytically triggered alarms to monitor and protect.”
Edgeworth Security emerged from this arrangement. In fact, Tull believed in it so much, he provided the funding to help bolster the company.
“I strongly believe that utilizing enhanced analytics is the key to effectively offsetting security costs,” Tull says. “The ability to leverage data-driven insights not only strengthens security measures but also optimizes resource allocation. This conviction is what has me investing heavily in the company. I am confident in its potential to revolutionize the industry through its cutting-edge analytics technology.”
Edgeworth quickly began to grow, amassing clients and staff for its efforts. Today their leadership branch has over 100-plus years of combined military experience. There’s an entire remote-monitoring center with staff who provide perimeter guarding via smart cameras and speakers to a wide range of clients. When a threat is detected, the staff are notified.
They evaluate the situation and “voice down” to the threat to deter trouble. If needed, they can also notify law enforcement.
What sets Edgeworth apart from traditional security systems is that typical sensor-based alarms only detect a threat once it’s inside your property.
Edgeworth monitors your perimeter. Additionally, because its video surveillance can verify a threat, law enforcement can respond effectively. Given police staffing and funding issues, Young says, a traditional sensor-based system can complicate or delay getting a quick response.
The benefits of implementing Edgeworth extend beyond optimized security. It can also be a smart financial and business decision. Commercial clients, for instance, can leverage their security as a benefit to tenants. Private clients, such as those with valuable items like one-of-a-kind art collections, might need a more sophisticated security system to be able to insure their property with insurance companies.
In addition to its perimeter video monitoring, Edgeworth is expanding and offering solutions to meet individual clients’ needs. The company recently acquired an executive protection company to be able to offer a hybrid solution of in-person guarding when and where it is needed.
The company has also grown its open-source intelligence division, which monitors clients’ online security by sifting through thousands of pieces of digital information to identify threats and cybersecurity weaknesses, especially on the dark web.
It’s this proactive approach that resonates with Shenk after her years of experience working in government, where red tape sometimes complicated security solutions. “The commercial ability to actually leverage security tools without hurdles has been very refreshing,” Shenk says. “You can provide people the things they’re looking for. You can amplify the security investments that they’ve made by adding on technology, adding on physical guards. Edgeworth really can create the most efficient picture for the customer, which is just the dream.”
Knowing they’re doing a real service to their clients makes the work rewarding for both Shenk and Young. It’s also baked into the employees, who take that service mentality to heart.
Whether it is the attention to detail required of technicians installing the security equipment on high-dollar structures, the monitoring center employees with a dedication and curiosity to investigate anything that seems out of place, or protectors in the field with a real passion to stand guard over their clients without distraction, the team at Edgeworth embraces the mission of the company.
That dedication has earned many pleased customers, including a very familiar name, Josh Brolin. The star of Outer Range, No Country for Old Men, and W, Brolin utilizes Edgeworth at his ranch in Malibu, California. He had initially been reluctant to implement a security system, but he no doubt became a customer for life when one of Edgeworth’s employees alerted him to a coyote in his backyard moments before he let his children go out to play.
“When they called me that fast, I was very moved by it,” Brolin says. “It was like, ‘Wow you guys are actually taking this personally. You guys are very good at your jobs,’ and I loved that, because especially in this day and age, I see people less and less have that work ethic. That old-school grit doesn’t seem to exist anymore. When I saw how much integrity they had around their business and how personal they made it, it makes it more comfortable for me.”
Young reinforces the sentiment. “We don’t advertise that we protect your property from coyotes,” he says with a laugh. “That is not in our service contract, but our service doesn’t just stop at our contract, because our employees care so much about our clients that they go above and beyond.”
And that’s more than protection — that’s peace of mind.
For more information, visit edgeworthsecurity.com.