To attain the financial independence for financing a summer trip to France, Dervilla Lannon learnt the importance of working for inspirational leaders when she spent six years working at her father’s meat processing plant in Ireland. Her father set the standard that exemplified what an inspirational leader should be with his work ethic and an unparalleled focus on his team and customers worldwide.
When Dervilla met Filip Kaliszan, the CEO of Verkada, she noticed that he exhibited similar traits as her father – an incredible work ethic and relentless passion for high-quality products, customers, and his team; she decided to join the company.
Dervilla Lannon became the Vice President of People at Verkada in November 2020. She feels very fortunate to marry her two main passions- people and philanthropy – in her role. As VP of People, Dervilla is excited to play a part in ensuring that employee satisfaction, engagement, and overall employee experiences are elevated. Dervilla says that Verkada’s employees are incredible and working alongside them is an honor.
The Professional Widespread
Dervilla studied law as an undergraduate at Trinity College in Dublin and qualified as a lawyer specializing in asset management/corporate securities law. This role allowed her to interact with clients across the globe, which she greatly enjoyed. The hours, primarily servicing global clients across different time zones, were demanding to say the least.
In 2009, Dervilla was asked to move to London to acquire two asset management companies. The situation of the global financial crisis taught her to be resilient and maintain a positive attitude in what seemed like adversity. Over the next ten years, Dervilla worked in London, Dublin, and San Francisco, and for that, she is truly grateful. The amazing experience of living and working in different countries helped Dervilla understand different markets, customer needs, and cultures, which is helpful in her current role as Verkada expands both within the US and internationally. In her current role at Verkada, it is awesome for her to see Verkada’s employees enjoy similar experiences by leveraging its internal mobility policy to relocate to its offices in London, Sydney, Tampa, Salt Lake City, Austin, and Scottsdale.
During Dervilla’s time at BlackRock, the company grew significantly, both organically and inorganically, which she feels prepared her well for her current role at Verkada, which is in a hyper-growth phase. She learned that change is the only constant, and to be truly successful, and you have to embrace it. Dervilla was fortunate to be selected to participate in the Women’s Leadership Forum and had BlackRock’s CFO as her sponsor. BlackRock’s CFO was instrumental in her transition from the legal department to the financial technology business.
Initially, Dervilla questioned her ability to work in technology when her background was in law, and to this day, she struggles to keep up with the basic employee tech stack. After almost five years surrounded by incredible technologists and security professionals, Dervilla realizes that you don’t need a traditional technology background to impact a technology company positively.
Soon after, she joined Verkada, and COVID-19 forced people to work remotely. Onboarding remotely into a new sector during an unprecedented time was not easy. However, Dervilla was overwhelmed by the support from leadership and acts of kindness shown to her. She knew she had made the right decision when she received gifts with thoughtful notes from Filip and constant check-ins from her then-boss (the CFO of Verkada).
Realizing Pain Points of Customers
Dervilla states that when Verkada entered the physical security space, it quickly realized that a major pain point for customers was that they had different devices that didn’t communicate with each other. So as their organizations implemented more security products, it became more difficult to manage them.
Verkada set out to ease this pain by creating a software solution that provides access from anywhere, on any device, to all of its customers’ security cameras, access control, environmental sensors, Alarms, and Guest Check-in systems. Verkada calls this solution “Command,” and it ensures its users cannot only monitor with ease but also leverage different products to gain more insights and minimize blind spots.
Protecting People and Assets with Security Products
Verkada is a leading physical security platform that protects people and assets. Designed with simplicity in mind, Verkada’s five product lines – video security cameras, access control, environmental sensors, alarms, and visitor management – provide seamless visibility through an integrated secure cloud-based software platform.
On a personal level, Dervilla knew Verkada was the right place for her when several solutions engineers and members of the product and executive team installed Verkada’s security products at her house, making her feel safer. Further, Verkada also equipped her parents’ home in Ireland. She was onsite for the installation, and it gave Dervilla and her parents a great sense of comfort that Verkada’s security products are protecting them.
Innovating and Developing Awesome Product
Dervilla is focused on building a strong People function. With the mission of making Verkada an amazing place to work to continue to attract, retain and motivate world-class talent, which will, in turn, continue to innovate and develop awesome products, which are critical to the physical security ecosystem.
Ensuring Safer and Smarter Enterprise Buildings
Verkada brings the ease of use that consumer security solutions providers to the levels of scale and protection that businesses and organizations require. By building high-end hardware on an intuitive, cloud-based software platform, modern enterprises can run safer, smarter buildings across all their locations.
Setting Higher Ambitions
Dervilla envisions herself being at Verkada for a long time. Life has taught her to set her ambitions high, so her goal is to help Verkada scale beyond its one thousand employees to tens of thousands of employees around the globe, which is a magnet for the most talented people in their respective fields. After Verkada, she envisions herself focusing her time on enhancing the experience for cancer patients and sick children in hospitals in Ireland, two causes close to her heart.
