YARMOUTH, Maine—Jim Henry, a 2014 SSI Industry Hall of Fame inductee and 50-year veteran of the security industry, died Sunday, April 13, after a lengthy illness at the age of 70.
Henry spent more than 32 years at Henry Bros. Electronics, Inc., starting as key account applications engineer in June 1978 before being elevated to president in October 1989 and chief executive officer from November 2001 through December 2010.
He left the family business to become executive vice president of Kratos Public Safety & Security Solutions Inc. from December 2010 through June 2018 and executive VP of corporate development at Securitas from June 2018 through December 2019, before becoming an independent consultant through February 2022 and senior consultant at butchko.esi from December 2021 until his death.
More About SSI Industry Hall of Famer Jim Henry
In 1989, three years after HBE was sold, Henry spearheaded reacquiring the company’s name and served as CEO in a business that grew organically and through acquisition to go public in 2001, according to his 2014 Hall of Fame announcement.
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“I attribute my success to the principles my parents instilled in me and the opportunity they provided me to get the formal education that they were unable to get growing up at the end of the Great Depression and early years of World War II,” he told SSI in a story related to his Hall of Fame induction.
“They demonstrated that, in spite of those challenges, you could still accomplish great things with dedication and hard work. That foundation gave me the stamina to get through traumatic challenges to the business we faced during the 25 years I was HBE’s president and CEO,” he said.
“I was wise enough to surround myself with good people,” Henry told SSI at the time. “Without a stable, loyal, committed team, you cannot achieve and sustain success in an industry where it is essential to earn and maintain the trust of the customer base.”
Henry always understood his company’s place in the security integration world.
“As profound and numerous as the changes that technology has brought to our industry as we have evolved from analog to digital systems and now convergence with IT, cyber and data security, is that this is still a ‘people business’ and people do business with people,” he told SSI in 2014.
“Those who get too fixated on technological innovation and market changes as being threats and not opportunities will indeed make evolution a very formidable enemy. In contrast, those who can anticipate changes from technological and social evolution to see them as opening up new opportunities and effectively communicate their vision and thought leadership to their customers will flourish,” he said.
Henry is survived by his wife, Cindy, four children – Alexander, Arianna, Christian and Jonathan – and grandchildren Evelyn, Ryan, and Connell.
